(Transcript from World News Radio)
Watch any kind of professional sporting event these days, and you will likely be bombarded with advertising in many different forms.
But it is paid advertising that a major sporting organisation has refused to accept that is attracting attention at the moment.
Adelaide businessman Daniel Milky proposed advertising boards for AFL games asking people to donate money to World Vision to help children injured in the Gaza conflict.
The AFL has rejected the advertising because it considers it political in nature.
Mr Milky denies that and says he hopes the AFL will change its mind.
Sunil Awasthi reports.
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Daniel Milky owns the Argo restaurant and cafe on the Norwood Parade shopping precinct in eastern Adelaide.
But it is a message, rather than a meal or a drink, that he is trying to sell on a national stage at the moment.
"The awareness came to my attention when my customers started bringing it to me, to my attention. You know, saying, 'Have you seen the images of the kids in Gaza? Do you know what's going on? How can we help? Where do we donate?' I thought, well, this was happening on a daily basis, (and) I thought, well, what better means to get it out to the community than at the AFL games, where there's a good medium for a large audience?"
So Mr Milky put up the money -- around 10-thousand dollars for three 30-second ads on the digital advertising boards around the Adelaide Oval during three Crows home games.
It was to start with last weekend's match against West Coast.
But after negotiations with the Crows about the precise wording of the copy, he says the AFL rejected his money -- and his ads.
"There was nothing coming back from the AFL saying, 'Look, we'd love to help, but we just need to change the wording to XYZ.' It was just a no, and with no ... no objective to help us really, to do what we have to do."
Mr Milky says his ads are purely humanitarian.
He says his business has raised funds for various causes in the past and he actually wants to raise money for children in need on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But although he says his message is not political, that has not stopped one politician from trying to help him.
Independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon spoke up outside AFL headquarters in Melbourne.
"The initial ad, which was accepted by the Adelaide Crows, would have talked about human rights for Palestinians, about all people deserving human rights. He then modified the ad when that was knocked back by the AFL because they deemed it too political to say, 'Help the children of Palestine, donate now,' offering to put up World Vision's e-mail address on that. We've now modified it again by saying, 'Let's help the children of Gaza, donate now,' with World Vision's details. It appears that, too, will be rejected by the AFL because they deem it as too political. This doesn't make sense."
Xenophon says the AFL has accepted what he considers similar campaigns for children in the past in cases of natural disasters and it should do so again here.
"If a child has been injured as a result of any catastrophe, whether it's a tsunami, an earthquake or a bomb attack, surely they all deserve our compassion and help."
For its part, the AFL appears to be standing firm, giving SBS the following statement:
"The AFL, as a sporting organisation, does not accept advertisements around our games from any political arena, be that state politics, federal politics or international politics. It was our view that the request for advertising was not suitable under our guidelines that we provide to our clubs, and they were refused on this basis."
Daniel Milky, though, says organisations like the AFL and his own business have a moral obligation to help those in need.
He says it is the AFL, not him, doing the politicising in this instance.
"This message was never political. It was never intended to be political ... purely objective, to raise funds for children in need. So they've politicised the issue, and they've changed the argument now."
Still, he is hopeful the AFL will change its mind and accept his ads.
"There's always hope. And I think, if we don't have hope, we don't have a lot. So I'll hope for the very last minute that the AFL will come to its senses and realise that this is not ... there is no agenda with this and I did not come to them with any malice or with any alternative agenda, just good intents."
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