Jolly Billboards

An unjolly look at a company that broadcasts right-wing, anti-vax, and transphobic advertisements in major NZ cities

Jolly Billboards is an NZ media company that was incorporated on October 20, 2020 by Jonathan (or Jon or Jonny) Drumm, with the equally colourful Sally Cogle as co-shareholder until 2022. Drumm's LinkedIn profile is a long list of companies for which he serves or served as a Director (i.e. Beauty Book, FashioNZ, Teddy Lane, HAZMAT, Total Building Solutions, GoMedia), many of which are or were customers of the Jolly Billboard brand or cross-pollinate between themselves (e.g. press-on nail company Teddy Lane getting a two-page advertorial in Beauty Book). Drumm has kept it local as he attended High School in the Hutt and after working abroad for a bit, got involved in start-ups and business development. As of 7 months ago, he was also a member of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce and he seems to be partial to a spot of Badminton. He is also the brother of Simon Drumm, who is involved in Destiny Church and its MAN Up programme in a big way alongside members of his immediate family.

Source| Jonny Drumm (L) via Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce LinkedIn

While not quite in lock-step with Drumm, Cogle did work at Go Media at the same time as Drumm is currently employed at Beauty Book as a Business Development Manager and at Jolly Billboards as a National Sales Manager. She is also listed as the director of Ogle Media Limited (formerly called Jolly Media Limited) and Vegucate Limited. Both of these companies were registered in 2020 but the Registrar of Companies has initiated action to remove Vegucate from the companies register and having not received any objection so far, is proceeding with the removal process. Cogle came to New Zealand from the UK 17 years ago with her Kiwi husband to provide a better life for their children

If you live in Christchurch, Cogle aka Sally Brookes-Cogle, will be a very familiar name since she was identified as one of several Christchurch City Council candidates in the 2022 local elections who receive aid from Voices for Freedom (VFF).

Source | Sally Cogle

Despite advice from VFF for candidates to deny involvement with the group, it was reported by Stuff Linwood candidate Cogle (who ran as an Independent) confirmed that she and four others were receiving help from VFF, although she would go on to deny those claims. In the same article, it is reported that Cogle had called Covid-19 a scam and questioned whether Hitler had been killed. However, Cogle has significantly locked down on her social media since then so evidence of the Hitler comment is not widely available but her views on the vaccine are clear on comments she likes on LinkedIn. Interestingly, Cogle did not declare any donations and spent $7338 on her failed campaign; she received 1,129 votes compared to Labour's Yani Johanson's 4,246.

Cogle did not stay home and lick her wounds for long as she came back into the media cycle in March 2023. Her name was attached to Room 102, a group of losers behind a campaign to stop the Drag Queen Storytime at the Christchurch library Tūranga. The group consisted of other VFF election bombs like Rob Gray and far-right supremacist Kyle Chapman. Cogle's involvement had her visiting the library and sharing images of the books they wanted off the shelves and where followers of their Telegram could find them. Stuff further reported that Cogle had spread misinformation that the event had been cancelled, which was then disseminated through Counterspin.

In an interview with YouTube channel Kiwi Voice in 2022, Cogle states that she left her advertising career for local politics but whether she has returned after her local elections defeat is unclear, although she is no longer a Jolly Billboards shareholder.

How Jolly Billboards sells advertising space versus what they actually put in front of eyeballs

It looks like one of the perks of owning several companies is having first dibs on advertising space when starting a new advertising business.

Source | HAZMAT billboard at 120 Hutt Park Road, Seaview, Lower Hutt

Source| Sneaker advert on 509 High Street, Lower Hutt

Source | advert for Teddy Lane at 9 Melling Road, Lower Hutt

Voices for Freedom Billboard campaign

Even before Cogle face-planted politically, Jolly Billboards association with VFF had been well documented. While they weren't the only advertising company to advertise for Deeks and company, Jolly have remained the most stalwart while palming off criticism with claims that VFF isn't their biggest client and that Jolly upheld ASA rules and regulations with the billboards while refusing to comment on specifics of VFF. While some VFF billboards were pulled due to rulings from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), not all complaints to the ASA were upheld and several of VFF's billboards from the vaccine mandate era can still be found.

Personal Photo | 120 Hutt Park Road, Seaview, Lower Hutt 16/4/23

Personal | 120 Hutt Park Road, Seaview, Lower Hutt 16/4/23

Jolly Billboards was among the earliest promoters of Reality Check Radio

Source | Roadside billboard, 9/2/23

Personal Photo | 509 High Street, Lower Hutt 16/4/23

Hobson's Pledge

Lobby group Hobson's Pledge is led by former National Party and ACT leader Don Brash and was formed in 2016 to protest and lobby against what it sees as preferential treatment of Māori with one of their main arguments being that the Treaty of Waitangi is not meaningful to New Zealand's constitution. The group caught a lot of flack between 2017-2019 for their pamphlets and various spats with the Māori Council and both Auckland and Massey Universities. Adverts, as in the picture below, were prevalent on Jolly Billboards in 2021 to 2022.

Mark Honeychurch | 9 Melling Road, Lower Hutt. Taken 26/10/21

Adult Human Female

In between March 23-24, 2023, at Jolly's digital billboard on High Street, Lower Hutt and in Christchurch, a simple image of white text on a black background was featured. These ads were paid for by Speak up for Women NZ and coincided with Parker Posie, aka Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull's controversial and disastrous New Zealand speaking tour.

Source | Jolly Billboard, High Street Lower Hutt, 23/3/23

Source | Jolly Billboard at 103 Wright Road, Addington, Riccarton Christchurch

The strangely lower-case text reads, “woman, wʊmən, noun, adult human female”. This ad was designed by advertising company Primesight for Keen-Minshull in 2018. She was concerned that the word woman was being appropriated to mean anything and in opposition to the support the mayor of Liverpool gave the trans community.

In 2021, this image also appeared in the Otago Daily Times and on Go Media billboards in the Wellington CBD, paid for by the group Speak Up for Women (SUFW), asking New Zealanders to vote no to sex self-identification clauses within the Births, Death, and Marriages, and Relationships Bill. Originally, persons wanting to change the sex shown on their birth certificate were required to go through Family Court in a process that included appearing before a judge and disclosing private medical information. The Bill simplified the process to a mere administrative process and similar to laws in 15 other countries. Representatives of SUFW were worried about the bill eroding rights of women and girls; arguments and counterarguments from the group and others who opposed the bill are listed and explored here. Parliament passed the bill in 2021 and SUFW claimed success with the inclusion of clause 79(2) which supported the continued provision of single-sex spaces, sports, and services based on biological sex.

Despite complaints, the ASA felt that the complaints did not meet the threshold to cause harm of widespread offence. SUFW rejected the characterisation that they are anti-trans, arguing that they are still positive about trans inclusion and improving rights fo transgender people but they still want to protect women's rights. However, others argue that this stance is disingenuous given their campaigns such as keeping gender ideology out of schools and keeping children safe from transitioning.

Both Cogle and Drumm's involvement with Go Media ended years before the 2021 controversies but given Cogle's alleged behaviour with the Christchurch drag queen storytime, some pointed questions need to be asked about the currency of Cogle's LinkedIn page. As for SUFW, given that their 2021 ads were scuppered within 24 hours, it is possible that they took that into account this time around with their short (but not so sweet) promotional strategy.

So, what next?

The alliance between VFF and Jolly Billboards is not going anywhere soon. The addition of right-wing and conservative ideologies to Jolly's customer roster is troubling as it means an extra dose of hate and bigotry during the work commute or weekend errands. Even if the ASA has so far proven disappointing in its judgements, people should continue sending in complaints. Feel free to send any concerning billboard photos to us with the date and location where you saw it.