New Zealand: Production Firm Blamed For Coldplay DVD "Botch Up"

National Party Forced To Recall Promotional DVD

As Coldplaying reported ealier this week on the copyright blunder over the use of music similar to that of Coldplay's 'Clocks', it has now been reported that National Party leader John Key says his staff should never have signed off a DVD that appears to plagiarise a hit by the English rock band.

Key yesterday ordered a recall of 20,000 DVDs featuring him in a video called Ambitious for New Zealand after Coldplay's record company, EMI, warned National it was breaching copyright by using music similar to the smash hit Clocks. The DVD focuses on Key travelling New Zealand by car, visiting schools and factories and talking about his vision for the country.

Produced for National by Production Shed TV, the cost has not been disclosed but The Press understands the party spent $110,000 on it.

The DVD was meant to relaunch Key's image and introduce him to New Zealanders unfamiliar with the National leader, but the botch-up has embarrassed and angered the party.

Last week Key toured South Island centres, handing out thousands of the DVDs, and planned a similar North Island tour. National Party campaign manager Jo de Joux previously insisted the music had been commissioned from an Auckland artist and was original.

She said yesterday that the party was angry with the production company. "We paid these guys to make a DVD for us. We relied on their expertise and they have let us down."

Key said National should not have relied on Production Shed. "My people relied on the production company. In my opinion, they should have kicked it upstairs for me or one of the senior management team to sign off, and they didn't," he said.

Prime Minister Helen Clark called the DVD recall a "botch-up" and said she doubted National would be able to reclaim all those it had handed out. "I haven't seen it but I believe it to be vacuous in every respect," she said of the video. "Without the music, it will be even more vacuous."