Onya Irfan, Aussie Aussie Aussie - Oi, Oi , Oi

Why the could not have used the Mary Donaldson factor is a mystery romance yes trailer park trash no.

A "carefully crafted and well-researched campaign".

Well I've done a lot of feasibility studies and business cases in my time, and one thing you always do is risk analysis.

I'd suggest there was absolutely no risk analysis of this advertising campaign. If they had done it, they would have looked at the risk that the ads would not be approved in the UK and some other countries. Easy enough to find out in advance, I would have thought.

Well-researched? You've got be be bloody well joking.

Hi all

Irfan

I read it on your blog & was hopeful that you'd place it in the OLO site for debate

Well stated. Australians are individuals. But we don't need to prove that we're also discoureous & crass.

No doubt that the "marketing machine" will give themselves unwarranted self-praise?!

With Scott MORRISON's dismissive attitude, I wonder whether he ever deduced that I left the Liberal Party for the same reasons?

Maybe if we want to invite more Americans to this country we could borrow some of the confiscated porn that's been sent to us, repackage it & send it back in a tourist-welcoming advertising package specifically aimed for the unseemly parts of New York or LA? Just a suggestion!

Thanks Irfan for objecting to what relegates us to a Third World country - inappropriate language sent to multi-ethnic nations, whose language comprehension is different to ours.
(20/3/06)

Vioetbou (post 10:30:35 AM 20/3/06)

No one but the Danes & Tasmania would know who Mary Donaldson is. Oh, & those who saw her at the Opera House.

However, she does typify "class".
(20/3/06)

AMSADL (post 10:39:10 AM 20/3/06)

Well stated!

Think when the research was undertaken to assess its suitability they interviewed Aussie morons [Greek for intelligence of 7-year old].

Maybe it wasn't so much a "feasibility study" as a 'feeble study'?
(20/3/06)

To all

John HOWARD, shame on you for thinking that that was OK for export.

Maybe we could reinvigorate Paul KEETING's little parliamentary indescretion & send a separate advert to Malaysia calling their PM "a recalcitrant"? That's pretty Aussie too.
(20/3/06)

Cheers all

This reminds me of an incident many years ago, being walked through an advance showing of an advertising campaign prepared for the company I then worked for.

Creative Director (for it was he): So, what do you think of it?

Me (bemused): It doesn't make a great deal of sense to me.

CD (deep sigh): Well of course it doesn't. It isn't targetted at you.

So if this campaign seems stupid - don't worry, that's simply because it's not aimed at you.

Fortunately, no-one will ever be able to tell whether this campaign is a) more, b) less or c) equally successful as those that preceded it.

How much do we hear, for example, about the success (or otherwise) of the "Brand Australia" campaign launched with great fanfare in May 2004?

Does this sound familiar at all?

"Federal tourism minister Joe Hockey today unveiled a new $360 million global tourism marketing campaign featuring the tagline ‘Australia. A different light’.... ATC managing director Ken Boundy said "the ... new Brand Australia - a unique marketing approach - is a major shift away from traditional tourism marketing and will help differentiate Australia from its competitors,"

$360 million, eh? And the value it created was... what?

This is the last we will hear of this campaign, and the last we will see of our money.

(Intriguingly, Joe Hockey was also, at the time, Minister for Small Business. This turned out to be a poor mix of portfolios - the tourist industry gave him far more opportunities to stay in luxury hotels, travel overseas and flit from cocktail party to cocktail party.)

In the end, it doesn't matter a hoot whether the campaign is good, bad or indifferent - when was the last time you chose an overseas destination on the basis of its advertising campaign?

I don't usually come within a bull's roar of agreeing with Irfan, but in this case I agree that the commercial is crass, as was sending an 18 year old girl, then a twittering tourism Minister to the UK to try to overturn the ban on bloody there. Not that 'bloody' is particularly offensive, but was it really necessary?

It seems that we have come no further than the days of Hoges and prawns on the barbie. We do have beautiful beaches and natural attractions, but there is so much more that visitors could be interested in.

I think that the days when foreigners were enraptured by the 'ocker' image are well and truly over.