Elton One

A few months ago I posted some audio files and a story about Emma Clark here. Emma is a British voice over artist who is probably most famous for her voice being used on the London Underground but last year she was sacked from this role following recording her own satirical alternatives and posting them up on her site. Check out the older post here or her web site here to listen to them. I think as I have already said that there was no need need to sack Emma and it’s all been very reactionary as opposed to reasonable, and as if to add to this on Emma’s site she has posted up some contact she had here from a major Australian voice over agency detailing how one of it’s clients Jake Downs has had his contract terminated by Sydney’s City Rail after recording similarly satirical spoof voice overs. With a slight twist, it seems the recordings actually made it into circulation either in stations or on the web, without anyone noticing! Excellent. City Rail had this to say:

“They’ve been there for months.” An embarrassed City Rail official Adam Wickleberry confessed. “The staff here neither noticed the humour nor saw anything untoward about them. We do fail to see the funny side of most things these days. I think you’ll find the ‘War on Terror’ has that effect on bureaucracy.”

You can listen to the recordings here http://www.rmk.com.au/news/news15.html

Emma has since got a contract with sat nav company ALK and they have recorded their own spoofs as a subtle (ha) method to either avoid a repeat of the LG senario or to profit off the attention. I’d say it was a fantastic piece of marketing, but then again fantastic is usually used to refer to something not evil.

Here’s one:

Check them out here http://www.alk.eu.com/voiceofcopilot/default.asp

Also on Emma’s site are two games which are quite fun (the top one is my favourite because you can get it to say this about rubber goats and moist prostitutes).

http://www.emmaclarke.com/fun/identikit-emma

http://www.emmaclarke.com/fun/fridge-magnet-game

Jay was telling me today about a recent story where Emma Clarke, the voice over artist who provides (until recently) the anouncements on the London Underground was sacked because some thing she said was not liked by LG. Never mind she was mis-quoted and has the right to freedom of speech, they still sacked her. And without even telling her - she found out in the paper.

There is speculation that one of the reasons LG have fallen out with her is because she made a series of recordings in the style of the LG recordings but humurous in nature, which she put up on her website. Here is one:

My favourite is:

Why can’t a person be employed by a company and be entitled to free speech without the risk of loosing their job? And why do recordings which are generally humorous in nature but reflective of the tube have to be a bad thing?

You know, I’m betting LGs lawyers heard the recording asking americans to keep their voice down and thought “Shit. Sack her, or the whole of america is going to sue us”.

BBC News Story

Emma Clarke Spoof LG Recordings