It seemed like a good idea at the time. TIM WATKIN reports on the patriotic impulse that failed to capture the nation's heart.
As Alinghi and Oracle jibed and tacked their way through the Louis Vuitton Cup races this week with a combined total of 18 New Zealanders on board, the leaders of the controversial BlackHeart movement scuttled themselves, just four months after their group sprang to prominence.
A kind of public relations tsunami, BlackHeart had risen from nowhere to be a major talking point. It was a fan club unlike any we'd seen in this country.
Unashamedly critical and more than a little angry, the BlackHearts crashed over the America's Cup and its international media coverage.
They raised $80,000 at their first lunch, signed 3000 members to their e-newsletter and bought billboard space near the Viaduct Harbour.
BlackHeart's "core purpose", they said, "was to create a home ground advantage for Team New Zealand". Yet from the outset they attacked Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth, who left Team New Zealand for Swiss syndicate Alinghi.
Their slogan was "country before money". The billboards carried messages such as: "Coutts and Co - Swiss Bankers since 2000" and "High on a hill lived a lonely boatman - yodelei, yodelei, yodelei-e-hoo".
But as the waters subside, BlackHeart's own organisers, David Walden, Barry Everard, Bill Ralston and Bruce Whillans, and its most vociferous supporters - Murray Deaker and Mike King among them - seem to have suffered the most damage. The campaign captured headlines, but not the hearts of the nation.
On Tuesday, in a simple message on their website, the BlackHearts announced: "We will pull our heads in."
The whirlwind months of public debate and attention have left Walden bewildered.
"We were trying to stir up some issues. We never meant to polarise the nation."
In line with his no-comment stance Walden refused an interview, but did speak briefly to the Weekend Herald and answered questions in writing. He said these would be his final comments.
Walden never expected or wanted the fuss and was unhappy that it became "the Dave Walden show". He had simply answered media inquiries on behalf of a group that was a "free-wheeling" association of mates, not a professional public relations campaign. They never took any PR advice, he says.
"It was just a bunch of blokes having a beer, who decided to form a deep cover group to say the things Team New Zealand couldn't. The media gate-crashed our first lunch and we have had to live in the spotlight ever since, with a modified agenda.
"It has been a little frustrating (and a good example of the apathy we were fighting) to have our efforts judged as if they were a traditional advertising campaign."
Yet judged they have been, and found wanting. Public relations experts say it's not so much a question of where they went wrong as whether they got anything right.
Timing, branding, psyche, tone ... it was all wrong, says Jenny Raynish, CEO of PR firm Raynish and Partners.
"First it had the wrong name. BlackHeart sounds like Blackguard. No one wants to think they have a black heart. Second, there was no chance for anyone to participate. We're used to a call to action; to buy something or sign something or give something."
The only thing New Zealanders could do in support of the BlackHearts was to hate Coutts and Butterworth. Walden says that was never the intent. They just wanted to remind people of Coutts' promise to build an America's Cup dynasty here.
"Be very clear," Walden wrote, "we have no problem with sailors finding work. One red herring is that other syndicates have New Zealanders on board - Rod Davis, Chris Dickson, etc. None of these people took intellectual property from the winning syndicate then defected to another. Our only problem is with ex-Team New Zealand 2000 members who decimated our team after using words like 'dynasty', 'lifer' and 'traitor'."
What he saw as hypocrisy bugged him, and his belief that Team New Zealand was somehow different from the other syndicates spurred him on.
"When it comes to New Zealand I believe we have always seen this as a national team. That's why it's not called Team Lotto or Team Steinlager. That's why it's got Government money. There's a difference. That's why I got indignant."
Alongside that indignation, the group wanted the campaign to be light-hearted, but it was here that things started to go wrong. Mixed messages are the ultimate spin sin, yet the BlackHearts tried to say several, seemingly contradictory, things at once.
You don't look pro-Team New Zealand when all you're saying is anti-Alinghi. You can't encourage light-hearted digs and a serious debate at the same time. Words such as "traitor" and "country before money" just aren't funny.
"They are inflammatory words," says Raynish, "and once you stir up negativity, someone's only going to give it an outlet. The least surprising thing to me was that some people have taken that negative energy and turned it into negative action [death threats against Alinghi sailors and their families]."
Deaker, speaking exclusively to the Weekend Herald, concedes that weakness. "If it had been witty and funny, it may have lasted."
The sports talkback host says he didn't think of the campaign as negative, but accepts that's how it was seen. "People will say it's negative and didn't achieve anything. But it got people talking and that's good."
Deaker disagrees with criticism of the name. He likes the sinister aspect to it, the national colour and the appeal to heart-felt emotion. "It was a brilliant name. I don't think it would have attracted half the attention otherwise."
Having been publicly critical since 2000 of the defectors, what has staggered him most is the criticism of a group who merely held a contrary opinion.
He offers this evaluation: "BlackHeart gave a very clear indication of a number of things.
"First, New Zealanders are extremely politically correct and they don't like to upset anyone. Second, that we are very precious.
"Third, that people aren't allowed to hold different opinions.
"Fourth, I think it showed that a very small organisation can engender tremendous media coverage." But all that media attention means nothing if no one knows what you stand for, counters Raynish. If you call yourself an All Black fan or a ballet supporter, you know what you're saying about yourself. If you call yourself a BlackHeart ...
"In the final essence, BlackHeart just seemed like bad sportsmanship, which is not what New Zealanders are hard-wired for."
Sue Foley, PR spokeswoman for the American Express NZ Cup Village in 2000 and now Bill English's press secretary, agrees that they misread the public mood.
"If you'll excuse the pun, their heart was in the right place, but New Zealanders just have this incredible sense of fair play."
Historian Jock Phillips, author of A Man's Country?, said the campaign raised issues of how we see ourselves and national identity. Fair play and friendliness are central to that.
"New Zealanders like to be liked and there's a sense that New Zealand's reputation of scones and tea for every visitor has been somewhat tarred."
While many might disapprove of Coutts and Butterworth, our way is to deal with it on the field, at the bottom of the ruck.
"If we want to go and throw a tomato at these guys, we'll do it ourselves," says Foley.
Gerard Morris, who led the grass-roots campaign that convinced DB Breweries to keep open their Monteith's brewery in Greymouth, says his campaign always left room for DB to find a victory. Monteith sales have since skyrocketed. BlackHeart was only ever negative.
He also reckons New Zealanders aren't so wound up about our sportspeople seeking fortune overseas in this professional era. Rugby players in Japan, coaches in Britain and league players in Sydney - all were controversial once, but not now.
And while everyone acknowledges our financial attachment to the America's Cup, Morris doesn't see much sentimental attachment, not outside Auckland, anyway.
"Yachting doesn't have the grassroots support. Success in the America's Cup is in direct correlation to how much money you put into it. That's quite different from an emotional attachment."
Which means BlackHeart may have harmed Team New Zealand by reinforcing that they are not a team of national representatives, not the best this country has.
How could it be when 21 of the 64 sailors in the Louis Vuitton semi-finals were New Zealanders sailing for foreign syndicates? The BlackHearts have underlined the fact that in the America's Cup, it's a race between chequebooks, and national pride is misplaced.
Deaker doesn't buy that. He says his listeners are passionate about the cup and beating the turncoat Coutts. "It's the only topic since the dropping of Buck Shelford that fills the lines every time. It is that big."
He's also dismissive of Morris' warning that BlackHeart could face a backlash if Team New Zealand lose. Morris suspects people might blame BlackHeart for making Coutts tougher and more determined.
Referring to suggestions that Coutts will be quickly flown out of the country if he wins, Morris says: "If we've won, it will be quickly forgotten, but if Coutts or Dickson takes away the Cup, Dave Walden and co had better be on that plane as well."
Deaker insists boat-speed alone will decide the winner and adds, "You can't make Russell Coutts any tougher and meaner. He was already at maximum before or without BlackHeart. Russell has always been that way."
So after a big splash, BlackHeart sinks without a trace? Maybe, maybe not. While Butterworth says "it's good to see the back of those guys", calling them "sick and pathetic", Walden is still passionate about the cup.
Asked how he feels now his campaign is over, he says "everyone thinks this is the end, but we never said that. All we've said is that for the moment we're pulling our heads in".
He notes: "We were saving our best shots for later." So if you're driving past the Viaduct Harbour in the next month, it might be worth keeping an eye on that billboard.
Blackened by BlackHeart?
The men behind the Blackheart campaign were advertising man David Walden, journalist and broadcaster Bill Ralston, cinema owner Barry Everard and real estate agent Bruce Whillans. Among its most vociferous supporters were broadcaster and journalist Murray Deaker and comedian Mike King.
Their launch lunch was star-studded with names who had bought places or who were merely there as guests including former All Blacks Stu Wilson, Va'aiga Tuigamala and Waka Nathan, Dame Susan Devoy and political figures such as Michelle Boag and Winston Peters.
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BlackHeart sailed off course
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