Friday, March 10, 2006
WHAT A BL**DY POOR ADVERT
Funny: BRITISH TV regulators have banned the Tourism Australian ad "SO WHERE THE BL**DY HELL ARE YOU?"

Tourism Australia managing director Scott Morrison was trying desperately to put a positive spin on things, when he told the BBC "We thank the UK authorities for the extra free publicity and invite them to have a 'bl**dy' good holiday in Australia"

Mr Morrison nevertheless said he hoped the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) would reconsider its decision.

Fran Bailey, Tourism Minister, accused the Brits of lacking a sense of humour. "You know, maybe it's living in that very dull and dreary climate, because I really find it just amazing how anyone could take offence at the beautiful girl that we have in the bikini, with the sun streaming and the gorgeous beach."

"The regulator is out of touch with British opinion - based on our research and the initial feedback, the British are loving our cheeky sense of humour.''

Two weeks earlier, her boss, Prime Minister John Howard, wrapped the nation across the knuckles, complaining of a general decline of public standards and bad language festering on TV and radio, all before the watershed.

But the PM seems to have no problem with the new ads, doing just that.

IS THIS because he is a victim of his own prophecy? After hearing so much of it, he has become immune to swearing on daytime TV? Profanity is now the norm – the 'vernacular' – and public decency has fallen another notch.

Or is John Howard again resorting to double standards?

He can bang his socially conservative drum all he likes if it wins him votes, but scratch the surface and he would sell his own grandmother (or uranium to the Indians for that matter), if there was a dollar in it for him.

But the UK ban is only part of the story. Many Australians have cringed at the ads for resorting to the 'Ocker' stereotype and simply finding an excuse to put bikini-clad women on TV; something that they thought – or hoped – had been left behind when Paul Hogan presented the tourism ads in the mid-80s.

But then maybe I have been away from decent advertising for too long and simply don't see it.

Aussie TV is full of gratuitous ads, indulging male fantasy. Viz some utility truck's (can't remember which one) "Pulling Power" ad, Bundaberg Rum's "Take your top off" ad and now there's an SUV ad featuring a bloke lying in bed with his wife, fantasising about some car, the open road and a women who isn’t his wife; allegedly younger and more sexually alluring…

Harmless fun? Well maybe, but it does show a distinct lack of advertising imagination. Resorting to stereotype is what companies operating on a shoestring do, not something the biggest brands on TV should be doing.

SO WHERE THE BL**DY HELL ARE THE GOOD ADS?

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