Danny Wallis, the energetic $1.01 bidderman of the The Block 2012, has odd past auction bidding form: Title Tattle
Fans of the The Block are long sufferers of the shameless promo and product placement.
But the rather bizarre auction bidding by entrepreneur Danny Wallis triggered an extraordinary Twitter backlash after the finale went to air.
Wallis, accompanied by his Energy Watch T-shirt-wearing brigade having recently bought the company from the administrators, was presumably ambush marketing.
Although it appeared the cameramen were way to easily coaxed into filming them with the show’s producers then putting extensive footage to air.
Old-timers recalled the ambush marketing euphoria that fuelled the auction crescendo of the first Bondi series in 2003, with over-the-top bidding by mobile phone retailer Crazy John’s among those seeking to piggy-back the successful debut of the television series.
Crazy John's Roscoe Street bidding was done by a 2.1-metre-tall Crazy John’s mascot that lent an air of a circus to pavement proceedings.
On the weekend Wallis entered a series of erratically odd bids at more than the one Dorcas Street auction, finally buying Mike and Andrew's house in the last auction for $1,400,001.01. It was the terrace he'd come for, but his bidding bamboozled the crowd, the auctioneer Andrew Stuart, and even himself at one stage.
He'd had a bit of fun at the earlier auctions, although not at 405 Dorcas as Buxton auctioneer Karl Gillion had given his audience strict indications he wouldn't be accepting non-conforming bids.
It’s actually not a new practice for Wallis to bid in odd auction figures.
Title Tattle recalls in 2001 at Albert Park he secured his investment for $444,300.
And his own Albert Park house cost $626,400 in 1999.
The Wallis consortium of private investors agreed to buy 100% of the former Energy Watch business through a new company named Energy Watch International.
On Twitter last night, comedian Dave Hughes tweeted: "Shouldn't have to look hard to find this week's Tool of the Week? ENERGY WATCH #theblock".
Wallis, who bought the property for his private investment, has indicated to the pedestrian.tv he is planning to set up the house to be available to parents of sick children staying in Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital.