Following what was arguably Scott Morrison’s worst ever week as prime minister, it was charitable of Nine to dedicate roughly one third of The Sun-Herald’s front page to first lady Jenny Morrison’s fashion choices.
Filled with praise for “natural and authentic” decisions such as wearing the same outfit twice, the story — from journalist Annie Brown — claims Jenny’s fondness of labels Ginger & Smart and Carla Zampatti at diplomatic events has helped ship dresses. G&S co-founder Genevieve Smart and Zampatti both had glowing words for Morrison.
But is there something more to the story? As #watergate community journalist Ronni Salt discovered, the two featured brands share something more than just appearing at G7 summits and meetings with the Queen: they’re both repped by fashion PR agent Adam Worling, the director of Sydney-based agency AWPR. Worling, as Salt notes, also helped out Brown for a quote a few years back.
It’s unclear whether the Nine story involved Worling — neither the agent nor Brown had returned Crikey’s calls by press time, and other outlets like The Australian have done similar puff pieces in the past. Neither would there be anything untoward about him helping with the piece.
But Nine’s choice to splash the story across the front page of a major metro paper amid devastating fires and just days after the PM’s Angus Taylor/Ensuring Integrity Bill fiascos similarly lacks justification, and raises more than a few questions.
UPDATE: responding to questions from Crikey, Brown said “the story was not pitched to me by Adam Worling or his PR company”, but they provided contact details for the brands when she asked.
“A comment in passing about the clothes Jenny Morrison was wearing selling out came about during a regular catch up with Adam, one of my fashion contacts. I thought that would make a good story and followed up,” Brown said.
“He did not mention Carla Zampatti — I knew Mrs Morrison had worn Carla Zampatti on her recent overseas trip and decided to contact her myself … In terms of timing, the story happened to come up this weekend because that is when I could do it. I had hoped to file it last weekend but couldn’t because I was sick.”
22 thoughts on “Why did Nine dedicate a front page to Jenny Morrison’s fashion sense?”
Noel Whittaker
December 2, 2019 at 12:23 pmHad the pleasure of watching Hilary and Chelsea Clinton on Graham Norton last night – they were talking about the attacks on Chelsea by the trolls when she was just 11. As Hillary said it says more about the person making the attack on the victim. It is the same on today’s social media. The vicious rubbish by the trolls attacking a woman for admitting she wore the same dress twice is just horrendous. Nobody comments on what the men wear!
Indivoter
December 2, 2019 at 12:30 pmToo right.
Vasco
December 2, 2019 at 12:54 pmMorrison using his wife as a distraction. Charming, such class.
Noel Whittaker
December 2, 2019 at 12:57 pmand no other politician does that!
Maisie
December 2, 2019 at 1:21 pmI must admit I was astonished but assumed it was the Channel 9 influence as it probably would not have happened in Fairfax days.
Sad
MJM
December 2, 2019 at 1:49 pmAm I to infer from paras 2 and 3 that the outfit Jenny Morrison wore to meet the Queen was either a G&S (not Gilbert and Sullivan, in this case) or a Zampatti? My guess would have been that it was from Best and Less – it looked terrible.
Noel Whittaker
December 2, 2019 at 1:52 pmI do think there are much bigger issues than what a woman wears. I thought we were passed those horrible Cheryl Kernot comments many years ago. Jenny Morrison seems to be a good role model for most Aussie mums – as are the wives of many politicians from all sides.
Woopwoop
December 3, 2019 at 2:35 pmReally Noel? I see Penny Wong as a better role model for Australian mums.
Franki Elliott
December 2, 2019 at 2:04 pmYes, heaven help us if she is to become a fashion “influencer “!
JMNO
December 2, 2019 at 2:07 pmShe’s certainly no Julie Bishop with her dress sense. Members of the Liberal Party do run Nine.
Daibhin
December 2, 2019 at 3:11 pmHave to agree. How can they possibly call that fashion “sense”?
Lesley Graham
December 2, 2019 at 7:54 pmI agree with you MJM, these outfits make her look 20 years older than she actually is, the grandma look may work if your at that stage in life, but on the whole it doesn’t work for any other female age group, (that green top that features on the front page is just horrendous, it does her no favours whatsoever)…
Keeping in mind that Scotty has aged so much since he’s been in power, (how long is that) he’s 5 years younger & looks 20 years older than I do (without the benefit of all the meds I was on too achieve this) he shouldn’t look as old as he does, but maybe they don’t want to put Jenny in age appropriate outfits, less it creates a mismatch (with hubby) it’s not a good look, it also suggests the hair loss & the increase in girth, he’s not doing as well as you would expect him to, especially after last weeks lunacy…
Annalise Lampe
December 2, 2019 at 2:13 pmI couldn’t stop laughing at Jenny Morrison being depicted as some sort of women’s fashion leader. Her fashion sense is in a word, dreadful. The dress she wore to meet the Queen resembled a pentocostal nightie, and the pants suits she was pictured in don’t suit her short legs. There is no evidence that the clothes she is seen wearing are walking out of stores. For a start Carla Zampatti clothes are all made for tall very slim women. The story looked like a desperate beat up at the end of a bad week in parliament for her husband. She may be a very nice lady with a nice smile, but is no fashion icon. I guess we’ll see the Morrison children’s fashion choices next if Morrison has another bad week.
Anne Lampe
swimming the Hellespont
December 2, 2019 at 2:55 pmFashion raises up Morrison profile?
Milton Armitage
December 2, 2019 at 6:40 pmCarla Zampatti very well known Liberal identity. Was said to have publicly cried the night John Howard lost his seat and Kevin 07 won the election.
Woopwoop
December 2, 2019 at 2:30 pmAnyone with the slightest interest in fashion would find that beat-up of a front page just an embarrassment.
Merrid
December 2, 2019 at 3:10 pmAs far as I’m concerned, she can wear whatever she wants. Just don’t expect anyone else to care, let alone follow suit.
Venise Alstergren
December 2, 2019 at 4:55 pmI do not wish to be rude, not really, but Ms Jenny Morrison invariably looks like an unmade bed. Certainly she could lose some weight, but all in all she tends to look as if her husband had lost his latest prayer.
swimming the Hellespont
December 2, 2019 at 5:26 pmThe whole family could lose a lot of weight; frankly they are obese & set a poor example given how much healthcare costs this country.
Lesley Graham
December 2, 2019 at 9:01 pmWhen you look at the picture on the front page, she’s as tall as she is wide, poor thing..
The reason she’s wearing black pants is to hide the fact she’s been short changed in the height department & that as others have noted, like her hubby may need to look at attending the gym, as surely with the amount of money he’s on they can afford to get a gym membership for the whole family without breaking the bank, he from recent photo seems to be very out of shape, I suppose the family that loses weight together, stays together…..
Just a thought
Having said this many people lose weight & have far lower incomes than they have, but still manage to get down to a reasonable weight & stay there.. I don’t want to be called judgmental, having had to work at losing over 15 kg’s in less than 12 months, since late last year (2018), due to meds that were constantly dogging my every efforts, (and made me put the weight on in the first place) we don’t always get the full story either, especially in regards to Jenny Morrison, and we shouldn’t really either..
Dog's Breakfast
December 2, 2019 at 10:33 pmLeave her alone. She has nothing to do with anything of importance. She’s fine. As if being married to that prat wasn’t enough.