Where the bloody hell are we?

I’m an expat Aussie and the ad surprisingly tugged on my heart strings. The jingle has a nostalgic feel to it, like classic ‘Singo’-style ads of 20-30 years ago.

I’d like to think that they did some market research before they did the advert for whatever might work. I don’t like the jingle (hell, I can’t even understand some of what is being said let alone those who haven’t grown up here!!) but if it sells, it sells!! The images are great, just shows how lucky we are with such an array of scenery/experiences.

“Tried”, for goodness sake!

frontrow said :

In Aussie culture we have jokes, many of which do not begin with “Knock, knock” or “Did you hear the one about…”.

In Pommy Land we have jokes too, we prefer them funny though, still he treid.

Do you think Pork Hunt chose his names because he enjoys shooting pigs on the weekend?

No I think he chose it as Benny Hill is dead, and so isn’t around to give him a better “double entendre”.

kambahkrawler said :

I do think Canberra should have got a shot as there isn’t anywhere else in the world like it. Oh wait, I forgot about Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes sure is a weird name for a town, reminds me of Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes, probably the two greatest economists of the 20th century.

Doesn’t seem like such a bad advert to me. Australians should stop trying to be yuppies and being overly concerned about what America thinks of us.

In Aussie culture we have jokes, many of which do not begin with “Knock, knock” or “Did you hear the one about…”.

Do you think Pork Hunt chose his names because he enjoys shooting pigs on the weekend?

Pork Hunt said :

In Aussie culture it is traditional to ask ones father for advice if confronted by a dilemma such as Pb’s…

That would be useful advice, if I had a father. Which part of;

Pommy bastard said :

“Natural Bastard,” would be good as I’m a bastard by birth and by nature, I could live with that. 🙂

confuses you? 😉

The “Incredible India” ads make Australia look like a Less Developed Country (Third World for those untainted by political-correctness) in comparison of quality and effectiveness.

That ad looks like it was thought by someone stuck in the 80’s but with access to a few asian kids for racial balance.

kambahkrawler said :

I do think Canberra should have got a shot as there isn’t anywhere else in the world like it. Oh wait, I forgot about Milton Keynes.

Don’t forget Griffith

p1 said :

Ps. Pommy Bastard is about to become….errmmmm… Aussie bastard, should I change my nick name?

Nah, why bother, you know you’ll be picked on for being a Pom for the rest of your days. Congratulations, by the way.

Reminds me of when I went up to Noosa in the early 1980s. I commented to someone in the gym about all this “southern” crap I was hearing and he told me he moved to Qld more than 20 years prior and he was still called a Southerner.

In Aussie culture it is traditional to ask ones father for advice if confronted by a dilemma such as Pb’s…

Its a blatant rip off from the discovery channel ad really.
They use the same music and the words “I like” alot….

I’m less impressed now, we’ve paid for a company to rip off an idea from another ad.

davesact said :

The aim of the ad I believe is to help reinforce the old stereotypes that have been so successful to advertising in the past decades. The truth is Australia is the beautiful place portrayed but are the Australians depicted an accurate description of the population?

I’m not sure the face of Australia that most of us see – people in suits sitting in cafe’s supping latte and talking incessantly about the property market, is very different to the populations of countries that Mr K Australia is trying to attract.

I do think Canberra should have got a shot as there isn’t anywhere else in the world like it. Oh wait, I forgot about Milton Keynes.

So long as it’s not “Naturalist Bastard”…

“Natural Bastard,” would be good as I’m a bastard by birth and by nature, I could live with that. 🙂

Naturalized Bastard!

ryza said :

“That’s not a bear…” now that was funny stuff. 1 moment of glory in 90 seconds of was worth it for me.

That’s so subtle I missed it. Was too busy thinking “sheesh – it’s not a bloody bear!”.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

“Convict Bastard”

Nope, never been convicted, and I have no convictions.

“Convict Bastard”

p1 said :

Did this bit make anyone else think of a scene from Jurassic Park?

Not at first, but now that you’ve put that out there, I can’t help but do so!

ryza said :

“That’s not a bear…” now that was funny stuff. 1 moment of glory in 90 seconds of was worth it for me.

That was my favourite bit, too. I wonder how many people outside Australia are thinking, “But… it is a bear…” 🙂

ryza said :

“That’s not a bear…” now that was funny stuff. 1 moment of glory in 90 seconds of was worth it for me.

+1

Did this bit make anyone else think of a scene from Jurassic Park?

Rawhide Kid No 2 said :

p1 said :

Ps. Pommy Bastard is about to become….errmmmm… Aussie bastard, should I change my nick name?

Nah, why bother, you know you’ll be picked on for being a Pom for the rest of your days. Congratulations, by the way.

How about “Aussie Pommy Barstard” That way your keeping up a tradition of sorts.

How about ‘Pussie Bastard’? Oh, hang on…

“That’s not a bear…” now that was funny stuff. 1 moment of glory in 90 seconds of was worth it for me.

The aim of the ad I believe is to help reinforce the old stereotypes that have been so successful to advertising in the past decades. The truth is Australia is the beautiful place portrayed but are the Australians depicted an accurate description of the population?

Perhaps we should air the AAMI ads to the world first so they know that we Australians always burst into ‘boganesque’ tunes when describing situations and places in our lives. The ad is really just another type of the the old ads with a jingle. Nothing really new.

A brief shot of the town hall (parliament) or Telstryrama wouldn’t go amiss, even if the only purpose was to make the emmets wonder; “What, and where, is that then?”

p1 said :

Ps. Pommy Bastard is about to become….errmmmm… Aussie bastard, should I change my nick name?

Nah, why bother, you know you’ll be picked on for being a Pom for the rest of your days. Congratulations, by the way.

Many thanks, I’ll be proud to swear my allegiance to this great nation.

p1 said :

Ps. Pommy Bastard is about to become….errmmmm… Aussie bastard, should I change my nick name?

Nah, why bother, you know you’ll be picked on for being a Pom for the rest of your days. Congratulations, by the way.

How about “Aussie Pommy Barstard” That way your keeping up a tradition of sorts.

Horrible. Just horrible. Makes me not want to go to Australia … guess I’ll stay in Cbr :-/

And it’s a paper-thin rip-off of the Discovery Channel boom-di-ada ad (which is OK, but it’s been done now):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxymuiAxQ

How many squillion $$ did the taxpayer shell for this rubbish?

And strikingly similar to this Discovery Channel ad from a year or so back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxymuiAxQ

It’s all so extremely digitally enhanced that it qualifies as false advertising.

The only part of the current ad that freaks me out is the pilot turning back to look at and sing to the Camera, while putting the plane into what looks like a bit of a steep curve. My stomach lurches…

She da copilot, da pilot is a sittin’ in da pilot’s seat, on da left. If it were a chopper, then yes she would be da pilot. And the bank angle might be as much as 15 degrees but a lot less I seem to recall… hardly steep even by airliner standards.

The mob that made the ad were responsible for the most-viewed ad on Youtube, an Evian babies clip that was a very impressive effort. It was inventive, ground-breaking, and tapped into a cutesie-pie empathy we all harbour. By contrast this ad looks for all the world like a second rate Qantas ad without the superb “Still Call Straya Home’ song.

I can’t see anything in the ad apart from perhaps the chillun next to the waterhole that has anything that is likely to stir the emotions of the world like Paul Hogan did and more or less make them WANT to come here. All this ad does is put Straya into a queue of destinations available to inernational travellers. I give it 4 out of 10.

I have a lot of sympathy for any poor bastard who’s job it is to create a message that sells Australia – inevitable that they’re going to cop some flak from one section or another of society for misrepresenting them.

Misses the point a bit though – they’re not trying to make a documentary, and through it give a factual representative cross section of Australia, but tap into OTHER non-Australian people’s perceptions of Australia and what they want to see when they’re here (and there’s your explanation of why Canberra doesn’t feature).

It’s not necessarily about showing WHAT to see, it’s about triggering the impulse to GO.

Wow… that’s all a bit abstract for this early in the morning… at least with this one its a bit clearer than the dream-sequence weirdo stuff that came out around the time of Baz Luhrmann’s last film.

The only part of the current ad that freaks me out is the pilot turning back to look at and sing to the Camera, while putting the plane into what looks like a bit of a steep curve. My stomach lurches…

So I may be fighting against the crowd here, but I like it – in the sense that I think it works.

Don’t get caught up in ‘we are cultured, really we are truly’. Think – why do people come here? Its not for the culture, believe me. That’s why the tourist trail is Sydney to Qld to NT, harbour to beaches to rainforest and desert.

And that’s how it is for every country. Why do you go to Fiji? Sun and reefs.. Why do you go to Italy – to look at its ruins, art and sip a coffee. Do you care about its cutting edge cinema or literary scene? Same for Egypt. Hands up if you have been to Angkhor Wat and the killing fields and also know the current political situation in Cambodia (I have and I don’t)? What do the ads by India Tourism promote? (hint: 2 words, initials T and M). Haven’t noticed India extolling the virtues of their rapid technological development.

People go to countries to experience things they cannot get where they live. There is nothing in Australia that is unique, apart from our landscape and wildlife and, perhaps arguably, our friendliness (personally its not much different to other countries, but we have that reputation).

So that’s what you sell. For us it seems like a cliché, another koala and people surfing blah blah. But for the rest of the world, guess what – this is not a cliché. This is interesting, new, its something they cannot get in their own country. Want to do it somewhere relaxed and fun? Australia. Which does kinda leave Canberra off the map.

Do you think NZers get upset at their country being promoted as mountains and clean lakes and kiwis? Are they cliches – yes. Do their ads work. Apparently, they win awards.

Ps. Pommy Bastard is about to become….errmmmm… Aussie bastard, should I change my nick name?

Nah, why bother, you know you’ll be picked on for being a Pom for the rest of your days. Congratulations, by the way.

Bogantastic it may be, but people forget that international tourism ads aren’t supposed to impress us. If playing up to existing perceptions/cliches about Australia brings the tourists in than so be it.

Well, melbourne got Flinders St Station in (I think), and the Yarra valley vineyards, and rowing on the Yarra.

Other than an Australia Day Live show I can’t think of a Canberra scene that would fit in here (but I welcome your suggestions)

It *is* rather catchy though, can’t get the damn thing out of my head.

Are we to believe from this ad that Melbourne had floated off to Antarctica?