Vodafone defends missing schoolgirl brand campaign

The world's second largest mobile company Vodafone today defended its latest campaign in which two schoolgirls are reported as missing, echoing the recent tragedy of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

The campaign, which the media mistakenly believed to be true, featured Lucy Ward and Claire Sissons — two girls who had reportedly disappeared while on the way to a mobile phone shop to get a new cover for their phone.

After two weeks of frantic searching, the two girls — played by 12-year-old actresses Gemma Wire and Joanna — were then "saved" by Vodafone store manager, John Reading, 38. The two featured in a Vodafone ad shown later that night during Eastenders.

A company spokesperson revealed late last night in a hurriedly arranged press conference, that the two girls have been staying in a hotel close to the Vodafone head office in Newbury. The distraught parents were also actors, he explained.

Vodafone's head of marketing explained that the huge number of photos on the television and press of the two "missing" children with tops emblazoned with the Vodafone logo had created around £50 million of free brand name awareness.

The spokesman denied the company would face a charge of wasting police time, arguing that they had used their own team of police officers — again, actors trained by ex-Special Branch members to give the right touch of realism.

Speaking for the newspapers, editor of The Sun, David Yelland said that he was considering suing Vodafone to charge them full advertising rates for the all the column inches they had wasted on the affair.

Despite the increase in newspaper sales, Yelland argued that the cost of deploying hundreds of reporters to the 40-acre site run by the mobile company should be paid in full. The expense accounts clocked up at the fake pub built by Vodafone totalled £30,000 alone, he revealed.

Advertising executives have however praised the campaign as "courageous" and "inspired". It has even sparked a new form of "guerilla marketing".

In the US, SonyEricsson plans to promote its new camera cell phone by paying actors to pretend to be tourists and ask passers by to take their photo, the idea being that the passer-by will ask questions about the cell phone and become interested in it.

This type of brand building can backfire however, with pop drink manufacturer Vimto recently getting into hot water after it paid for a naked male streaker to interrupt an Australian rugby match with its logo painted on his arse. When the event unfortunately caused the New Zealand team to loose the match, the rugby fans soon made their displeasure known by drinking gallons of beer and singing out of tune.

A spokesperson for Downing Street said that PM Tony Blair was extremely concerned about the tactics used and plans to set up a new Advertising Czar position in response. The Czar will investigate all similar issues and propose new legislation which will be swiftly ignored.