Things have changed - Finally explained

Wow, you guys have a lot to whinge about don’t you? Someone forks out some money to try and promote Canberra and all we can do is slam it. Nice work.

To be honest the first time I saw the ad, I thought they’d got together a bunch of petty criminals to put the thing together.

I think it makes Canberra look thug like and can’t believe something like this has made it to TV. The last thing we want in this city are people on skate boards flying around the city and little punks that have no respect for anyone.

I think the ad is a waste of money. I hope the taxpayers (ie me) are not paying for this. We can do much better.

Al, it irritated me as well, so i googled. This is what i found.

http://ourguide.com.au/WebPages/ACT_Canberra.html

Oh and it seems the clip has been pulled from Youtube.

I kind of liked it. Was very low key, which would be why many would have missed it.

Or perhaps lots haven’t yet discovered Go yet, seeing as how the bloody Canberra Times doesn’t believe any of us want to know what is on it or 7-2, but are happy to have programming for One’s endless American sports repeats…and of course pay pay pay TV.

The video has now been removed by the user. Why?

Thing have changed…except Canberra’s design studios. They’re still stuck in the 80’s it seems.Got to feel for those underpaid grads who worked weekends for low pay at Cre8ive/Neon Prod. on this horror of an ad.

They must have shot the nightspot shots an hour before the ‘OMG…My first beer!’ crowd got there and vomited, started fights, p1ssed in alleys or got beaten up by overzealous security/cops.

Also, France has Parkour. Go there. It’s better.

Over the new year break I saw this ad played numerous times across three different states – NSW, VIC and SA. While ads on Go! are no doubt cheaper than the original free-to-air channels, such repetition must be costing someone a bit of cash.

As a music video clip, it’s ok. As an ad, I find it pointless.

I love Canberra, and fall in the target age range. But this ad captures very little that I like about Canberra. Since when have 18-25 year olds all loved parkour and skateboarding and walking around dark streets? It’s such a silly stereotype.

Tourism ads work best when they promote the things that are unique or attractive to a city. Of all the great things Canberra has, all the great institutions and events from the cultural to the bogan, this ad has none of those things.

These ads will not make one person come to Canberra. Unless there’s some idiot kid out there who is actually convinced that Canberra is the parkour capital.

When i first saw the ad i thought it strangely apt that the alpaca and brodburger van are fun quirks of canberra that ‘the man’ is trying to ban/close. Nice to see that we can promote Canberras quirks as well as memorials and museums.

+1 for the alpaca. The song is ‘Things have changed’ by Bob Dylan. I suspect that, other than the title lyric the makers of this vid didn’t really seriously consider the wider implication of the lyrics (aint no reverie about how things have improved rather it’s the exact opposite – things have changed for the worse).

Sample lyrics are:

‘People are crazy and times are strange, I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range, I used to care, but things have changed, This place ain’t doing me any good, I’m in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood’

It’s kinda like a promotional campaign that was dreamt up by Ed Wood. The song actually undermines what I assume is the intent of the clip (to present Canb’y as a ‘cool place’ to be) as it’s effectively a song about being ‘out of touch’ with the world rather than ‘things are changing for the better’. From Wiki:

“Things Have Changed” is a song from the film Wonder Boys, written and performed by Bob Dylan. The song was released as a single on May 1, 2000. “Things Have Changed” won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. The director of Wonder Boys, Curtis Hanson, also created a music video for “Things Have Changed,” filming new footage of Bob Dylan on the film’s various locations and editing it with footage used in Wonder Boys as if Dylan were actually in the film.

Wonder Boys by the way is a great little film (curious to know how/if they got the rights to use the song given Dylan’s work in cinema licensing is not exactly prolific – only ‘the Boss’ I believe is harder to gain approval from).

Swaggie said :

Repetitive shots, no message, no direction, just cheap and nasty with too many gimmicky FX that serve no purpose.

so perfect to market to the 14 – 25 year old group, huh?

Repetitive shots, no message, no direction, just cheap and nasty with too many gimmicky FX that serve no purpose.

That is a cute ALPACA in the clip! What is the song?

‘when anyone is working so hard to say they are cool they must, by definition, not be’ – kind of sums it up, Dylan (whilst I uh, respect the man) is hardly going to appeal to the age group specified (epic epic, epic fail). Most Australians would look at this and not understand why ‘things have changed’ is being used at all, ‘things have changed… from what?’ – simply because they couldn’t care less that Canberra exists at all and those that have heard of it (wake up call methinks!) think it’s full of overpaid Public Servants (that’s not pube bashing, that’s a moulded in concrete fact). The ad, sad to say is also just a ‘wee’ bit dodge (can’t say I’d be ‘racing’ to use the video services of these blokes). Brodburgers may be a local delight but slapping in a shot of a food caravan at night is hardly going to sell ‘Canb’y’ to the rest of Australia (I believe they have those in Melb, Sydney and elsewhere too)… And finally, where are the super mega-hot chicks in bikini’s and dudes with six packs (for the girls)??? oh… that’s right, there are none 🙁

Too long for commercial TV, but I guess that’s why it’s been shown on the digital FTA channels – until they can prove people are watching those, and not the ones they’re used to, the advertising space would be cheap.

Go national you say? I had heard about this ad once on Riot Act, but had never seen it (only got a set top box in one room of our house.

Then didn’t think any more of it until a friend in central Victoria was asking me where to go in Canberra when they pay a visit, and when I listed Brodburger they said “…are they the red caravan in the Visit Canberra ad that’s currently on high rotation?”.

Looks like its gone a little further than just the Canberra WIN network already! 🙂

All I have to say is if I was interstate, that ad would not make me want to come to Canberra. I live here and hate it and the ad does nothing to prove that Canberra is ‘urban’ and ‘grungy’. Far from it if you ask me.

> how many hours did you wait last time you went to the emergency room?

Not long at all actually….ever. If you’re waiting for hours & hours…then it’s probably not really an emergency at all.

“as to the whys and wherefores”

Wherefore doth mean why, in truth, so thou hast stated simply put: ‘as to the whys and whys’.

Forsooth, this may have been thine intention but I harbour some doubts.

Aye, ’tis nitpicking I grant thee, but standards must be maintained or heaven knows to what depths this society will plummet.

Honeycomb is a fracking alpaca.
Llamas and alpacas are different things, but you couldn’t fit an adult male llama in a Mazda 121.
But he gets taken around the place to visit patients at hospices (like Clair Holland House) and other health services.
He is nice.

ABC Interview with the owner, Nils Lantzke
Article from “That’s Life” magazine

Good to see the Llama in the 121 bubble car got put in there…
I thought that the owner got in trouble for transporting it that way?

…so the advert is selling Canberra to 18-25 year olds? From elsewhere? To make them want to move to Canberra? Wow.

Hey everyone! Look! Our CBD looks as stark and alienating as yours does now. Come move here.

the best bit is “your local grass dealer” at 1:38

that is so shallow.

did i miss something, is canberra suffering from a massive population decline? as i recall canberra pop is growing at the highest rate in the nation and has some of the highest housing costs in the nation… why advertise for *more* people to move to canberra?

make it a little more livable for the current residents first. how many hours did you wait last time you went to the emergency room? seriously, in the nations capital this is the best we can do?

stop pissing away money on image and focus on the reality, i reckon.

liked the soundtrack tho.

But what’s the advert for? What’s being sold and who’s buying? Straight question. Not being sarcastic or cynical. Just want to know.

what’s changed? canberra was this funky when i came here in the late eighties – just had to squint a bit to see it…

Interesting idea, but obviously way too long, and the production values aren’t high enough to run nationally. I also think it’s a tiny bit naff, when anyone is working so hard to say they are cool they must, by definition, not be.

Kill the narrative, reshoot about 30 seconds of the most interesting footage and use a different song, it could be good.

unfortunately this is the first time i’ve actually seen the AD Campaign – heard all about it on here but never seen it. Thanks for posting it – it’s a pretty cool ad – i’m impressed.

When was the ad shot I wonder? I think I saw that llama being walked in the rose gardens of Parkes only a few weeks ago!

This needed explanation?

Who was stupid enough to not get it simply by watching it?