SMIB graduate's 'phubbing' campaign goes viral
A SMIB graduate’s campaign against bad mobile phone etiquette, developed during an internship with an advertising agency, has gone global.
SMIB marketing and international business graduate Alex Haigh
A SMIB graduate’s campaign against bad mobile phone etiquette, developed during an internship with an advertising agency, has gone global.
Alex Haigh, 23, has grabbed headlines as far as Britain, Shanghai and Austria after launching a social marketing campaign in Melbourne called 'Stop Phubbing' -- which stands for 'phone snubbing' -- and describes "the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention".
The concept was cooked up with some university mates, and Alex convinced the McCann advertising agency to help him develop campaign material "against digitally derived rudeness".
The Stop Phubbing website calls for victims to shame offenders by uploading photos onto to social media sites, write them letters, lay out anti-phubbing place cards at weddings and, for truly troublesome smartphone addicts, stage interventions.
Posters have been created for use in cafes, bars and restaurants, with slogans including "respect the food, the music and the company you are in’’, and "leave your phone in your pocket and have a chat in the real world’’.
Alex was also interviewed about his "campaign to stop people looking away from face-to-face conversations to check their phones" on National Radio's Morning Report.
Sources: The Independant; Herald Sun