In an act that many have indignantly labelled a cheep trick, the most exciting election of 2023 has been marred by a bird of a different feather.
Bird of the Year – which this year was escalated to Bird of the Century – is an annual campaign run by Forest and Bird in which you can vote for your favourite NZ bird in an act of pure, unadulterated democratic love.
It’s an excuse for riveting crusading campaigns in which advocates insist that “my bird is better than your bird” with a degree of fierce loyalty that verges on the unhinged.
But this year it’s been interfered with by an exotic species by the name of John Oliver, a comedian and talk show personality from England.
On November 7, Oliver announced his “alarmingly aggressive” campaign for the pūteketeke to win this year’s crown.
The pūteketeke, or the Australasian crested grebe, is a diving bird that is native to New Zealand but also found in Australia.
Just days after his initial announcement, Oliver appeared on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ dressed as the pūteketeke bird and urging the programme’s 1.4 million watchers to vote.
“No,” I wailed, banging my head against the computer screen. “Take it back and stay out of this, John!”
Reader, he did not stay out of it.
Instead, Oliver continued to say that as part of his international campaign, he was going “all out” to push the pūteketeke as the bird of the century.
“I want it to win in the biggest landslide in the history of this magnificent competition,” Oliver told viewers.
“This is what democracy is all about, America interfering in foreign elections.”
This was the pitch that sealed the fate of the competition, with the pūteketeke as the winner – and all other birds as sad, sad losers.
Watching Oliver’s smug little face poking through his orange feathered costume, I was not the only one who felt outrage brewing.
It ruffled the feathers of multiple New Zealand campaign managers for other species, with matuhituhi campaign manager Michael Burton-Smith telling media that Oliver’s advocacy interfered with the campaign’s integrity.
“We’re just encouraging New Zealanders to put their support behind an Aotearoa-based campaign.”
In the end, Forest and Bird counted a record-breaking 350,000 votes, submitted from 195 countries, the majority of which were for the pūteketeke.
Forest and Bird chief executive Nicola Toki told RNZ that Oliver’s team had been in touch earlier in the year to get the go-ahead and were told to go for it.
Presumably Forest and Bird said “yes” due to the exposure [and hopefully donations] such a campaign would bring to NZ conservation.
Exposure is great, but there’s something off about an English television presenter on a US show having the greatest sway over a NZ competition.
If Oliver loves the pūteketeke as much as he says he does, it seems like a financial contribution to Forest and Bird, rather than fixing the vote, should have been in order.
I wonder how much his billboards advertising the pūteketeke in Tokyo and Paris cost.
When reflecting on the thousands of fraudulent votes submitted as a result of Oliver’s international movement [which nearly overwhelmed the tech system], Toki suggests the following.
“We know birds inspire incredible passion, but we encourage people to channel that passion into productive efforts rather than trying to rig an election.”
