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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:30 am
Online opinion is divided over a new Australian tourism promotion to be broadcast throughout the US, Asia, and Europe. Do take a lookand rate the ad in comments.
(The babe, by the way, is Lara Bingle, from Cronulla.)
UPDATE. Andrew Bolt and ninme have their say.
- Ad seems pretty good, the tag line is pretty tame can’t see what the fuss is.Posted by rob w on 2006 02 24 at 08:58 AM • permalink
- If somebody asks me “where the bloody hell are you?”, my response is real simple:
Anywhere you are not, you obnoxous fuck.
Posted by David Crawford on 2006 02 24 at 09:02 AM • permalink
- The ad looks OK to me. Can’t see what the fuss is about…is it a slow news day or something?Posted by Mr Snuffalupagus on 2006 02 24 at 09:05 AM • permalink
- Bloody brilliant!
Australian, but not cringe-inducing like “throw another shrimp on the barbie”.
Like Mr Beck said, “If they’re offended by the phrase they’ll be offended by Australians: best they stay home.”
The world knows what Australians are like (or they should), so let’s make the most of it!
Cheers…
- The concept of attractive youngsters speaking directly to the viewer is a good one, but it’s targeting a very young demographic. Traveling to Australia from the U.S. (or Europe) is expensive and takes a very long time, so they’ll probably not get college kids on spring break.
There are millions of retired people in the U.S. with the disposal income and the time to visit down under, but I don’t know that this ad would appeal to them. I’m one of them and it doesn’t appeal to me.
- Can you say “context”?
I think the tagline works nicely in the context of the ad.
The ad is friendly all the way through, and it is paced such that it’s clearly building up to something. When the payoff comes we’re not surprised that it’s cheeky because that’s in keeping with the tone of the ad. It’s the same kind of humor that has been used in every segment of the piece (turning on the lights = major fireworks, to go for a swim you have to clear out the sharks, etc.) It’s called exaggerating to make the point.
If the last line were something tame like “so come on over and give us a try” it would feel like a letdown. The whole point is to keep up the momentum, keep you watching, and then give you a little laugh at the end.
For me it all works together very well to reinforce our image that Australia is different, a little more fun, a little more casual, a little smarter, a little less touchy.
Since I visit timblair.net daily to experience these same virtues, naturally I find the ad very appealing.
Posted by sarah rolph on 2006 02 24 at 09:28 AM • permalink
- I think Australia’s expensive enough, yet still relatively cheap, to go for the middle-aged professional to retiree demographic. It’s a broad one to aim at, but I think it would be more successful than the youth market.
I think we should compete with France in tourism. It’s a lofty aim, afaik France receives more tourism than any other country, but I think it’s achievable.
For example, Australian wine is some of the best and most popular in the world (according to recent studies, the most popular by price in the UK). Australian cuisine is world class, with a strong emphasis on freshness, seafood, and both Asian and European influences. There’s the beautiful coastline, and Mediterranean lifestyle. It’s like France (and much Europe) but cheaper and with nicer people (who speak English).
- I like it, although for some reason that guy who says “we’ve bought you a beer” gives me the shits. Sorry, Tim Dunlop, I meant to say “annoys me unspeakably”.Posted by James Waterton on 2006 02 24 at 09:56 AM • permalink
- And the camel chick sorta sounds like a Kiwi.Posted by James Waterton on 2006 02 24 at 09:56 AM • permalink
- The last line is fine but she does not deliver it with the right sense of mischief. She is flat in her delivery…Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge on 2006 02 24 at 09:59 AM • permalink
- A good ad. But then, I’ve always wanted to visit Australia.
Still, it’s not stupid in any way that I could see. Australia is offering a place to go and have fun. So where the bloody hell are you?
Dunlop spent too much time in Washington DC.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 02 24 at 10:23 AM • permalink
- We know you only want our money. Do we really have to show up as well?Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 02 24 at 10:58 AM • permalink
- I’ve wanted to go to Australia for years and the ad just made me want it more. I agree with #12, though, that the little girl’s delivery of “Where the bloody hell are you?” lacked punch. Offensive? Doesn’t compute.
As for the demographic, well, I’m certainly not young myself, but what are you going to do? Parade a bunch of old farts across the screen to attract tourists? I like young people. I like to watch them do the silly stuff I can’t do anymore.
- I’ll agree with both #8 and #12.
re #8: Exactly, context is key. It’s great in this format but wouldn’t work in a print ad, unless the commercial were already familiar. There might be some resistance to airing the ad in some US markets, but the networks and stations have experts on exactly when and how you can say “hell”, so they can make that call.
re #12: Agreed, it fell kind of flat. I propose replacing her with Dr. Amanda Beatson from the ‘more smarter writing’ incident.
- I frankly was shocked by the ad. I always thought of Australians as meek, sweet, gentle, soft-spoken people. You know, kind of like Michael Jackson with corks on his hat.
Or maybe that’s just Dunlop.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 24 at 11:19 AM • permalink
- By the way, I disagree with RWDB about “No, what bothers me is that the slogan makes us sound like absolute cunting losers.” It only heightens the attraction of Australia if even the idiot leftists are colorfully exotic. It’d be a nice change from “Chimpler Hallibushowitz” and “speak truth to power”.
- Less camels more skin!Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2006 02 24 at 11:30 AM • permalink
- Seemed fine to me. Hit a lot of the Aussie hotspots, identified them as slightly different, maybe even exotic, but friendly.
I suspect Dunlop’s major problem is that he thinks the people of the US are just more people who are way dumber than he is. I.e. a lot like the Ozzies he doesn’t like. Why would he want to attract more of us to come annoy him?
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 02 24 at 11:38 AM • permalink
- ’Where the bloody hell are you?” Like calling your mate a bastard. Affection that is supicious of sentimentality – very Australian.
Good to see Oz refusing to ‘translate’ itself in corny ways for foreigners. And foreigners are intrigued.
Everything very iconic and lustrous. After all it’s an ad and, hey, after a couple of Wolf Blasses, Oz feels every bit like that.
- Otter: RWDB was quoting some lefty blogger.Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 02 24 at 12:05 PM • permalink
- By the way, I’m really tired of Dunlop’s constant “Americans are stoopid” theme. I’m so sorry, Mr. Dunlop, that you are forced to live in my country and associate with us drooling morons. If only you could somehow get a job in some place with really brilliant people, like France.
Yeah, France. He deserves to live in France.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 02 24 at 12:07 PM • permalink
- The Vividas Player has not finished loading.
For 10 minutes now. Serves me right for trying to watch video at the office.
Methinks the tourism council will have success getting Americans to come if they would attach a few thousand outboard motors to the west coast and push your continent closer. Right now, it’s a “bloody” 23 hours’ flying each way.
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2006 02 24 at 12:45 PM • permalink
- #5 rk260395:
No need to cross an ocean for that. We have plenty of model-quality women stateside who would gladly burn through your savings and credit-card limits, then step on you. DAMHIK. 8-(
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2006 02 24 at 01:01 PM • permalink
- I think it’s delightful and will surely attract Americans, who like wide open spaces, sport, cute guys/girls, and a bit of the local plonk. Europeans? Only the good ones.
It’s so freaking obvious that the tag line is in good humor–like when your pals call you from the bar and say, where the hell are you?
- When my granny first came to Australia in the 40s after the war as an Eastern European refugee, she thought ‘bloody’ was just a word you meaninglessly threw into sentences, and was saying things to bus conductors like ‘How much for a bloody ticket to bloody Bondi Junction’ etc. No doubt the bus conductor saw the funny side of it. She had grown out of it by the time I was born – sad really, she would have provided my mates with some entertainment.
However, she did regularly get confused between ‘bullrushes’ and ‘bullshit’ which created mirth on the rare occasions she needed to use ‘bullrushes’ in a sentence.
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 2006 02 24 at 01:20 PM • permalink
I suspect Dunlop’s major problem is that he thinks the people of the US are just more people who are way dumber than he is.
Well, he is (was?) in Washington, D.C., so he likely got a poor sampling of American intelligence.
Oh, and Dunlop is not the genius he thinks is. Might have some bearing on his misguided opinions.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 02 24 at 01:39 PM • permalink
- It’s a good ad—much better than “throw another shrimp on the barbie.” If I have a complaint, and it’s a minor one, it’s that it resembles the ads run by state tourism departments. Except for the kangaroos, it could almost be Florida.Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2006 02 24 at 02:21 PM • permalink
- I watched, and listed to, the ad again, focusing on the “Where the bloody hell are you?” at the end. Lab results are in; following are my conclusions:
1) The girl says the line so quickly, and with what strikes my ear as such a “thick” Aussie accent, that I’m not sure I would have known exactly what she was saying unless I had already read the comments.
2) Her voice is so lovely – as Wodehouse would say, “like the tinkling of ice cubes in a pitcher of beer” – she could call me a “bloody son of a bitch” all day long and I would just revel in the sound.
3) Who cares what she said? A fine looking, corn-fed specimen of feminine pulchritude like that wouldn’t have to say anything at all to serve as “Exhibit A” for visitng Australia.
Note to self: investigate whether wife knows I am posting under pseudonym, “Paco”; have excuses ready.
- (The babe, by the way, is Lara Bingle, from Cronulla.)
Speaking of Cronulla, isn’t the pool where the kid says they took out the sharks the one at Cronulla Beach? Kinda looks like it.
The lady bartender is a cutie pie also. 🙂
Posted by Bashir Gemayel on 2006 02 24 at 03:15 PM • permalink
- I lived in suburban DC/southern Maryland. “Stoopid Americans” there are the SMART ones. Dunlop really needs to spend some time somewhere else – like Kansas or Wyoming, where common sense is more common!
I liked the ad. Even though I’m a middle-aged long-married woman, it made me want to go adventuring again…<sigh>
- Blair put Dunlop up to that, right? And Dunlop bit? The commercial hit all the strong points—open space, great beaches, gorgeous babes—and throws in a little cheek. Dunlop needs to grow up really fast or he’ll take Magrok’s place around here.Posted by Gary from Jersey on 2006 02 24 at 04:08 PM • permalink
- Wooohooo! Hubba hubba! That’s one real live babe alright… Gimme summadat! Are those tits real? I hope not. Thanks Timbo, you got me all nice and wet. Talk abt divided, i’m split right up the middle. Who sed this blog was a complete and utter waste of time and only worthy of the odd poke every now then? Like Lara no doubt…Posted by Miranda Divide on 2006 02 24 at 04:25 PM • permalink
- This ad is CRAP!
THe graphics are good but the rest is unbelievably condescending.
It presents Australia as a kind of Butlin’s Holiday camp where everything is done for you . A Nanny state utopia, where individuality is VERBOTEN. A paradise for civil servants.
It completely negates what Australia is all about – Adventure, Nature and Pioneerism and Mateship. And turns it into a sugar coated Amusement park.
- Jic
I own a 200 acre block of rainforest near the town of 1770 filled with wildlife,(Roos,possums,dingos, brush turkeys,green frogs and yes taipans, and red bellied blacks too), the most amazing bird life , four suberb billabongs and pioneer log Cabins . Not a yuppy in sight, not a golf course in sight and no cafe lattes for 25kms.
If you want unsanitized unique Australia that’s where you’l find it
- Shotgun!Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 24 at 05:07 PM • permalink
- The babe, by the way, is Lara Bingle, from Cronulla.
You’ll have to be more specific than that, Tim. I see four or five women in that ad that I would classify as babes. I’m guessing you meant the bikini babe, but I would happily settle for any one of them.
In other words, this American liked the ad. But I already wanted to visit Australia.
- Sign me up. Chill the VB’s and I’ll take dogs eye with dead horse.Posted by swassociates on 2006 02 24 at 05:34 PM • permalink
- C’mon Davo – FNQ rainforest retreat? Been there, done that (along with millions of other tourists)! So who wants to visit the set of ‘Survivor’?
Y’all can visit my shack in the alpine ranges of Tassie. Sure, the clime is more, er, temperate & there are no beach babes but we do have strapping Bodaceas to help you along the way.
(if you must throw something Davo, chuck ‘us a Bundy, won’t you?)
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 02 24 at 06:22 PM • permalink
- I only have eyes for the AdministratorPosted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 24 at 06:50 PM • permalink
- But I already wanted to visit Australia.
You won’t regret it. I didn’t.
And certainly not after having returned several times afterward… 🙂
Posted by Bashir Gemayel on 2006 02 24 at 06:53 PM • permalink
- I’ve watched the ad several times, and the only firm conclusion I’ve reached is that I like girls in bikinis.Posted by Mike Jericho on 2006 02 24 at 07:04 PM • permalink
- Miranda has always crapped out comments like “Blogmire!”, “Blogsheep!”, “Sheeple!”, and so on. That’s how she got to be the Blog Parrot™ here. Sheer repetition, like “Polly wants a cracker!” in the despised pet at some relative’s house.
Now, it appears that her handler has taught some new phrases. But one can tell it’s all learned by rote; you can hear the lack of intelligence in that post.
So the Blog Parrot™ remains the Blog Parrot™, and thus shall she ever remain.
The sad thing is, Miranda will never understand that she reached the peak of her performance at an early age—I’m thinking 5 years old. Since then, it has been at least a plateau, and probably downhill, for her.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 02 24 at 07:35 PM • permalink
- Sunshine, we speak Aussie English, mostly quiet on the beaches now. What else. “Where the bloody hell are you?”Posted by stackja1945 on 2006 02 24 at 07:52 PM • permalink
- Let me guess Miranda, the ad should have featured you and the ad script should have read:
Come and visit racist, imperialist Australia. You can hang out with me, Miranda, the one with a face like a dropped meat pie who sucks lemons all day. I’ll take you on a tour which will spell out all the evils of this country; be it real or imagined, it doesn’t matter. I can guarantee by the time you return to Bush-Reich Joo-World, you’ll want to top yourself.
- that waiter guy was cute, but where was the semi-naked hunk to go with cronulla girl? young backpackers are a huge market, so appealing to them is not a bad thing. here at the kitty litter free hotel for bludging foreign acquaintances, we find that most of our guests are children of o/s friends these days. they fly into melbourne, hang for a week or two making plans, visit sydney & cairns, do uluru & kakadu & maybe perth or adelaide, trudge around camping at places like the koorong or wilson’s prom, then come back here to chill before flying out again. the ad will appeal to their mates
- So is Davo saying I have to mate with a pioneer?Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 24 at 09:07 PM • permalink
- you guys are welcome to the town of 1770 birthplace of Queensland , Where captain Cook landed in may 1770 and ate their first roast turkey since leaving Blighty.
I don’t watch “unreality TV’ so no comment on survivor.
There’s a creek that runs through the block fed by water from the mountain at the back. When it rains heavily the waterfall fills up the rock pools and you can bathe in pure rain water. I’ve never climbed the mountain and guess few ever have ,except perhaps the Abos that used to live here.
You can share/hire a boat and sail out to the coral lagoon at Fitzroy. its about the size of a hundred football fields and swim in the clearest waters you’l ever see surrounded by magic coral wildlife and statuesque bommies. The lagoon is surrouded by coral walls and the water is like a swimming pool even though you are 50kms out at sea. Eat your fish catch on the back of the boat, watch the shooting stars, and sail back the next morning for less than the price of one night in a swanky Sydney hotel.
Now that’s what holiday Australia should be about.
- Funny cartoon comment in the Sydney Daily Telegraph today – showing Peter Costello in a swaggie hat complete with corks, saying:
“If you don’t like the place – why the bloody hell dont you go home?”
The caption reads: PETER COSTELLO EMBARKS ON A TOURIST CAMPAIGN OF HIS OWN …
Personally, I dont want the whole world to think of Aussies as unsophisticated people who say the Great Adjective in every sentence, but this is aimed at tourists. They are not really interested in sophisticated people, they want to meet ‘ordinary’ Aussies.
Its much like the US being represented by a cowboy – everyone knows that all Americans are not cowboys, its just one aspect of the country.
- davo, it’s just that when you said
It presents Australia as a kind of Butlin’s Holiday camp where everything is done for you . A Nanny state utopia, where individuality is VERBOTEN. A paradise for civil servants.
you seemed to be reading an awful lot into a slightly cheesy tourism ad (is there any other kind?).
Your place does sound nice though.
- ” Yes I quite agree I mean what’s the point of being treated like sheep. What’s the point of going abroad if you’re just another tourist carted around in buses surrounded by sweaty mindless oafs from Kettering and Coventry in their cloth caps and their cardigans and their transistor radios and their Sunday Mirrors, complaining about the tea – ‘Oh they don’t make it properly here, do they, not like at home’ – and stopping at Majorcan bodegas selling fish and chips and Watney’s Red Barrel and calamares and two veg and sitting in their cotton frocks squirting Timothy White’s suncream all over their puffy raw swollen purulent flesh ‘cos they ‘overdid it on the first day.’”
~ Mr. Smoke-too-much ~
- I like the ad. It’s about hospitality and welcoming. The last line is just a friendly “So get yer ass over here already” in Aussie-speak.
I may be a stupid American, but I get the message from this ad that if I spend my hard-earned tourist dollars in Australia it’ll be appreciated and I’ll have a good time with people who want me there.
Unlike France, where they’re not just slow and incompetent. They also hate you.
- jic
it’s just that the ad in my mind reduces all the awesome natural wonders of AUSTRALIA to something resembling the constitancy and flavour of TAPIOCA pudding and as Guinspen admirably puts it a paradise for those who worship mediocrity.
There’s also that hint of leftist control- hey the state will control everything for you -no worries. I mean if you really want to experience AUS hire a decent camper and just drive wherever your fancy takes you keeping well away from Utopian travel tour companies and their guides who are there to tell you what to do, how you should be appreciating what you see, what you should buy, and following regulations.
Going on Holiday is about taking control of your own destiny and not repeating events in your own working lives.
- It’s just a bit of fluff advertisement showing friendly young people, lots of sun, surf and sky, and throwing out an invitation to come on over for a visit.
If I was sitting in a place with 3 feet of filthy snow and below minus temperatures, that ad would start my daydream machine working.
Isn’t that what it is supposed to do?Hardly a social commentary on Australia’s tourist spots.
Offensive? you have to be joking.Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 02 25 at 01:41 AM • permalink
- But John Howard last week criticised the growing vulgarity in Australian life. And now his tourist people come out with a vulgar word. Well, it was a vulgar word when Sister Mary Merciless was laying the leather. So don’t you see, it’s all bloody Howard’s fault! What, you ask. Well, hmmm, everything . . . you know, the fascist state we’ve got, the kiddies underboard, him not being sorry, and his racism against the Lebs, like . . . and, um, you know . . . they talk all about it on that watchyacallit . . . the ABC.
- Paco — were you there the time wronwright switched out the Turtle Wax for Johnson’s Baby Oil?
It was supposed to make the SR-71 nearly 1000 kph faster but we could never test it cuz the pilot kept sliding out of the cockpit…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 25 at 12:42 PM • permalink
- My “operating system is not supported”. What’s wrong with MPEG?Posted by Dave in Chicago on 2006 02 25 at 06:56 PM • permalink
- Hey! There are millions of people, maybe billions, who come by to check out Tim’s comments. They don’t know that your stories about me are TOTAL FABRICATIONS created only so you can churtle over your mugs of bitter at my expense. They have no idea that you’re making TOTAL LIES about me and my VERY COMPETENT carrying out of my duties and responsibilities.
I for one have every confidence they know HOW VERY DEPENDABLE I’ve been for Karl and the evil conspiracies Bush and Howard have weaved. I might even say VERY VERY DEPENDABLE.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 02 25 at 07:19 PM • permalink
- I was walking around Circular Quay yesterday, and some university O-week students (Freshmen) were handing out Australian flags.
I thought it was a great idea (remembering my O-week activities were spent somewhat less vertical) and took a handful of them.
Not a match or lighter-fluid in sight.
I gave most of them away to tourists, Japanese and American mainly, who squealed with delight, both at the free flag, and the gesture itself.
I have done my bit.
Sadly, there was someone else who took a bunch and then tried selling them around the corner for a few bucks.
…So I set him on fire.
- 96 DAMMIT!! Somebody’s been at these darts! The T-juice is all siphoned off! Has you-know-who been freebasing the tranx? Would that explain his latest paranoiac outburst?Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 26 at 03:26 PM • permalink
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