Status Quo Tour On Back Of Controversial Coles Deal

Legendary British rockers Status Quo have today announced a national tour of Australia as the next part of their massive marketing campaign with supermarket giant Coles.

The partnership started with Status Quo re-recording their classic track Down Down for Coles, featuring the lyrics “Down down prices are down/Down down, they're staying down”. The song fronted a television ad campaign for Coles, which started with the full version airing during an episode of MasterChef and continued with shorter grabs throughout programming.

But the track was also flogged to radio around the country and played as a paid advertisement, as Media Watch pointed out recently. Blurring the line of a Broadcasting Standard which states that all ads, “must be presented in such a manner that the reasonable listener is able to distinguish them,” Stations part of the Australian Radio Network introduced the track using language like, “Coles and Status Quo have teamed up…”

Except on Cruise 1323 in Adelaide, where there was no back announcement identifying it as an advertisement, rather that another song.

The band's upcoming Australian tour is being presented by Coles and Chugg Entertainment. It will coincide with the release of their new album Quid Pro Quo, which is being released through Coles exclusively – Walmart style. 14 new tracks plus the Coles version of Down Down, will be released with a second disc Official Bootleg – Greatest Hits Live.

It's a fair bet that they'll play the new version of their hit song live as well.

Wednesday 27 March - Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Thursday 28 March - Brisbane Convention Centre
Tuesday 2 April - Thebarton Theate, Adelaide
Wednesday 3 April - Palais Theatre, Melbourne

Tickets for the shows go on sale Friday 31 August at 12 noon.