New Aussie tourism TVC waltzes, sings Matilda
There are a few things we simply can’t abide here at StopPress: intolerance for other nations, the Dutch and using the power of song to express your emotions. So, you can imagine our horror when we laid eyes and ears on the new TVC for Australia’s new tourism push, ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’.
It seems like the kind of musical epic Baz Lurhmann might have made (speaking of which, here’s a weird, non-musical TVC he created for Tourism Australia earlier). But it was actually directed by Michael Gracey and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s a big, brash, cringey number that was based on the suggestions offered up by the hoi polloi as part of an online competition.
It’s all meant to be a big bit of epic fun; an attempt to show the good-natured lust for life that characterises the ‘Americans of the South’, but with scenes including white pianos on a beach, opera singers in vineyards and some good old fashioned Aussie tourism brochure cliches, it’s hard to know whether it’s been made with any sense of irony. There’s certainly not quite enough to satisfy your typically sarcastic, cynical New Zealander, anyway (unlike this one). Added to that, it’s completely unrealistic (like most tourism campaigns) as we couldn’t see flies on any of the actors.
The online and print phase of the DDB campaign was launched in March and the TVC, which will run around the world (starting in the UK) as part of an integrated campaign, points viewers in the direction of the Tourism Australia website, which already has 30,000 quintessentially, and mostly crowd-sourced, Aussie experiences listed so far.
And for other ads this ad is like, it’s hard to go past this one for the Discovery Channel.
Su Yin Khoo
May 31, 2010
Hello 90s
Vincent Heeringa
May 31, 2010
Can I be the first, oh let me, to say LOL. Talk about OMFG! Talk about #Fail.
If there was ever a reason to fight moves towards harmonisation with our furry cousins, simply play this and compare and contrast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sEZ-wdFegU&feature=related.
Vincent Heeringa
May 31, 2010
Rats wasn't first, but then I was also looking for more evidence, like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I-Wub1FUCU
Vincent Heeringa
May 31, 2010
And this. Here's Bugger in NZ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Y3AsZ19Hc
And in Australia, with craaaaazy music and just hilarious LOL antics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrDYdh7bMN8
David MacGregor
May 31, 2010
I theenk you're both quite wrong. Jeengles are part of the fine Australian advertising tradition:
I call Australia home http://ow.ly/1RZpH
FijiMe http://bit.ly/aR1hui (yes, I know Barnes Catmur…but an honorary mention…I so want to go to New Caledonia when I see this one)…
The Great Aussie Cossie
http://ow.ly/1RZqE
It's also better to the power of 10 than the stupid, disconnected irrelevant 'Thirst is creepy' ad for FreshUp or any other ass-wipe post modern irony that jerks its way across kiwi screens.
Long live Mo and Jo!
CS
June 1, 2010
They probably needed a better musical director or composer… someone who could've matched the voices better to the keys or pitches in the song… The collage of voices just didn't come together harmonically.. making it sound terrible…
I can see what they were trying to go for though…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0NfzmgNvSA&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts1HxVopG2k
Lou
June 1, 2010
Jingles..do they work? mmm how many beatles songs do you know, how many poems can you recite?
Steve O
June 1, 2010
Mo and Jo would turn in their caskets!