Background:
George Swinburne, the owner of Swinburne Automobiles of Hawthorn, Victoria, called the advertising department of a local chain of radio stations. George proposed the playing of the national anthem weekdays at 8am. George had 'heard' that a radio station in the Brisbane area did the same thing, and George thought playing the anthem would send a positive patriotic message and would also connect his company to that patriotic feeling.
The company's sales representative sent this response via email to his request: Currently, we do have Advance Australia Fair playing one morning per week, Monday at 6.50am. It isn't being sponsored. After that, we don't do anything like this, and the Program Director would prefer to not do anything beyond what we're doing".
George replied to the email with his own: "I find it hard to believe that your station would deny me the right to play our country's national anthem. After all, I would be paying for the airtime."
Questions:
- Is it appropriate for a client to request to sponsor the national anthem?
- Is it appropriate for the radio station to decline? Why do you think they declined?