In this week’s column, a sad farewell to the campaign guru who helped Labor retain power in SA, thin skins in the courts, real estate spinning, and what happens when science meets tabloid sensibilities.

Sad farewell

State Labor figures are in mourning this week with the death of advertising guru Neil Lawrence.

Lawrence, who died on a surfing trip in the Maldives, was a driving force behind Labor’s unlikely 2014 state election win.

He’s more widely known as the creator of the federal Kevin ’07 campaign, and then the mining industry’s powerful fight against Rudd’s proposed mining tax. He was also a regular guest on ABC-TV’s Gruen Transfer.

A devastated state Labor secretary Reggie Martin told Media Week that Labor would have struggled to win the state election without Lawrence, whom he described as a genius.

“He had a massive impact – he really did,” Martin said. “It would have been hard to see us winning without him. Everyone played a role, but he was a very important piece in the puzzle.”

It was the manner of Lawrence’s recruitment to the cause that says a lot about his approach.

Martin offered him a sizeable sum to oversee the campaign advertising and messages – but money wasn’t the key factor in Lawrence’s mind.

“He said to me, ‘I’ll come over and have a meeting: if I like you and I like Jay and I think I can work with you, then I’ll do it’.”

Lawrence was marked – permanently – by the campaign. Over drinks at Hutt Street restaurant Chianti on the afternoon of the election, he impetuously promised Labor numbers man Tony Mitchelmore that he would tattoo the time on his bum if Labor won that night.

And so, when the dust settled, Lawrence went to Broadway Tattoo and had 4:46 emblazoned on his pale cheek.

Vale.

Savage Pardon

There was a strange pseudo-apology printed in a quiet corner of The Advertiser’s page two yesterday.

It read: “Yesterday, The Advertiser reported an item ‘Lawyers savaged for lack of thought’. The Advertiser meant no disrespect to the Court for using the term ‘savaged’ in relation to the remarks to counsel.”

The heart of the story in question – an interesting one by excellent Tiser court reporter Sean Fewster – seemed straightforward enough: District Court Judge Rosemary Davey made some very serious criticisms of prosecutors in an assault case (including calling their behaviour “disgraceful”).

The sort-of apology deals only with the word “savaged” – and the word has been expunged from the online versions of the story.

“Savaged” is a good old newspaper term which everyone – surely – takes to mean “severe criticism”.

To take offence seems odd.

Masters of their Domain

The Advertiser has been ignoring – in public – the threat to its real estate advertising business from Fairfax’s Domain, since the latter started a concerted effort to capture more of the South Australian market last year.

The Tiser has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid clear shots of the Domain logo on the Crows match-day shorts, and refuses to call Perth’s Domain Stadium by its sponsored name.

However, it did publish a “news” story yesterday on page 19, noting that Domain’s local real estate liftout was no longer being printed.

The product, inserted in the Australian Financial Review in Adelaide, was designed to be a “pop-up” marketing tool – not a permanent fixture, according to Domain.

However, the Tiser didn’t tell readers that Domain has been busy signing up agents across Adelaide to its online product. It ignored the fact that many local agents have bought into a Domain marketing company, giving them “skin in the game”, as they say in the classics.

The story also didn’t note that the Real Estate Australia (REA) Group, which is 50 per cent owned by News Corp, the publisher of The Advertiser, has slashed its rates to agents in response to increased competition from Domain in the local market.

New commish at the press club

If you get in fast, you’ll be able to attend an SA Press Club lunch with the new SA Police Commissioner on his first day on the job.

Grant Stevens begins in the post next Tuesday (July 21) and he’ll be speaking at the Press Club in the city from noon.

To secure your ticket go here. Be quick – bookings close today.

Naughty corner

You could devote a weekly column to crimes by the media against science – and the branch of meteorology is a common victim.

What we used to call “a cold winter” has now been dubbed “the Antarctic Vortex” by a News Corp journalist – and it’s caught on.

Yes, it’s been brass monkey weather, but the Antarctic polar vortex is an actual, you know, sciencey thing, which means something completely different.

The vortex is a “cyclone” of icy winds that circulate around the south pole, which has actual weather effects. The Australian’s media editor, Sharri Markson, even criticised other media organisations for ripping off the Antarctic Vortex nickname from News Corp reporter Anthony Sharwood.

“Prepare for the Antarctic Vortex. That’s not a technical term. It’s the nickname we’ve given this weather system, but we’re sticking with it,” Sharwood wrote.

Except it is a technical term – or close enough to obscure a scientific concept that is surely worthy of understanding.

Top of the class

Talk radio doesn’t get enough credit for the news stories it generates. Two of the week’s most significant stories were broken by rival radio programs early in the week.

First, FIVEaa breakfast’s regular catch-up with Education Department boss Tony Harrison paid dividends, with the program getting the scoop on the action taken against Families SA staff criticised by the Coroner over the Chloe Valentine tragedy.

Then, their breakfast rivals on ABC 891 uncovered the astounding story that someone had erased a medical record at Lyell McEwin Hospital. That allegation is now the subject of an SA Health investigation.

Media Week is published on Friday.