For immediate release
29 November 2001
Oilzine.com goes head to head with The Sun
Student lifestyle website Oilzine.com has taken the brave step of challenging The Sun’s campaign to influence the voting for the winner of ITV’s Pop Idol.
The tabloid heavyweight is urging their readership to vote for Rik Waller, who has endeared himself to fans of the show by being both rotund and able to sing, whereas Oilzine.com are encouraging their loyal users to vote for Darius Danesh.
“We realise that it’s not going to be an easy task, we have 30,000 regular users where as they have a circulation of around 3½ million.” Simon Anderson, editor of Oilzine.com, explained.
“We want people to vote for ‘Dastardly’ Darius, because it would be funny watching his career rise and ultimately plummet. We believe that his massive ego certainly deserves such a fate. Surely it would be a wasted opportunity if he weren’t given the chance to entertain us with his fame-grabbing antics.”
Many people believe that in times like these, the country needs a ‘nasty’ pantomime character to boo. And they certainly would be booing if Darius were to win. Allegedly, whilst recently singing with the pop group Ash, the crowd only stopped jeering him during the second verse.
There is however, a more serious reason that Oilzine.com objects to The Sun’s championing of Rik.
“The Sun wants you to vote for ‘fat’ (sic) Rik precisely because he is overweight. It has nothing to do with his singing voice, as many claim. They seem to think we should patronise him: saying to ourselves ‘Oh, the poor fat kid, his life must be terrible. Let’s give him a bit of joy by letting him win.’ Is he some kind of freak show act, deserving of our pity? I truly hope not.”
“At least we are being honest about our reasons for wanting people to vote for Darius. We want him to win, so that he can ultimately lose.”
Notes for editors
Oilzine.com launched in July 2001 to accommodate the growing need for an online independent magazine for the 18 to 25's. Since its launch, Oilzine.com has been at the forefront of promotions for films such as "The Animal" and "Ghosts of Mars" on behalf of Columbia TriStar Films (UK), and is currently working on a campaign for the television programme ‘Home Movies’ for The Cartoon Network.
Oilzine.com is a part of the Olive Interactive Portfolio.
For further information, contact:
Simon Anderson on +44(0)870-9220881 or editor@oilzine.com