Tourism Australia follows up Dundee with $38m ‘Philausophy’ campaign
Tourism Australia has followed up last year’s blockbuster campaign, ‘DUNDEE: The Son Of A Legend Returns Home’, with a new, $38m campaign that invites the world to live the Australian ‘Philausophy’.
It’s a strong directional shift from the Dundee campaign, which first made headlines for its trailer-style teaser – fronted by actors Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride – and was later revealed during the Super Bowl to be an ad for Australia.
It’s also the first campaign under new Tourism Australia CMO, Susan Coghill, who stepped into the role after Lisa Ronson’s departure for Coles in January, and managing director Phillipa Harrison, who took over in September after former MD John O’Sullivan departed in May.
‘Come Live our Philausophy’ is based on the insight that Australians have a unique and informal approach to living, which makes an impact on visitors. Harrison stated Tourism Australia’s research shows that “70% of international travellers believe that Australians have a different perspective on life; 79% believe that the Australian people are an important part of the Australian lifestyle; and 82% would like to travel to Australia to experience our lifestyle.”
Coghill added: “We know from our consumer research that the Australian personality and lifestyle are unique drawcards and strengths that differentiate us positively from the rest of the world. Our Philausophy campaign is very much about tapping into this unique source of competitive advantage.”
The advertisements capture the laid back nature of Australians, whilst also highlighting the variety of landscapes and tourism opportunities. The campaign has seen 5,000 images captured across every Australian state and territory.
Harrison also explained that the campaign was the next step in evolving how the world perceives the Australian personality.
“The Australian character and way of life has long been woven into our marketing,” she said.
“The journey perhaps began with Paul Hogan and Come Say G’Day. In more recent times Chris Hemsworth, our global ambassador, has been integral in embodying the Australian character for our audiences. Dundee too was all about leaning into our personality.
“And promoting our people is at the core of our Friends of Australia advocacy program. Our new campaign will continue to build on this narrative by inviting the world to come and live our ‘philausophy’.”
The ads draw together the Australian lifestyle with the unique landscape
As for who will bring the campaign to life? The tourism industry itself, according to Harrison.
“Philausophy will be brought to life by our industry, because who better to talk about the Australian way of life than the tourism operators who live it themselves every day,” she explained.
“Not only will they be front and centre in the campaign, but they will be pivotal in ensuring its success by continuing to be the face of our country’s tourism offering to international travellers.”
The campaign will be executed across 15 global markets, with the initial stage focusing on the tourism industry and a broader consumer scope to follow.
5,000 new images were captured around the country for the campaign
‘Philausophy’ was devised by M&C Saatchi, which won Tourism Australia’s creative account in December last year after an extensive pitch process. Digitas is fulfilling the digital execution, UM the media strategy and OPR the public relations – following its appointment in September.
Cam Blackley, M&C Saatchi’s chief creative officer, said that, despite it being an opportune play on the word ‘philosophy’, the campaign captures the Australian way of life.
“Although a cute way to spell it, Philausophy celebrates the very real and unique systems of belief that Aussies have developed for not just hundreds, but thousands of years,” he said.
“Paired with our extraordinary landscape it’s a refreshing point of difference and incredibly fertile creative space that can and will live way beyond traditional advertising channels.”
Russell Hopson, group managing director at the agency, added: “As we all know, Australia has so much to offer the world and the Aussie way of thinking about life is a massive part of that. Philausophy might just be exactly what the world needs right now. The launch of the campaign is the tip of the iceberg – we’re beyond excited to bring it out into the light. Just like Australia and Australians – there’s always more exciting stuff to come.”
‘Philausophy’ captures the Australian philosophy on life
Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, meanwhile, expressed that ‘Philausophy’ will cut through the competitive global tourism market.
“In such a competitive global market, the sell is tougher than ever. We need to stand out from the crowd and find a unique selling point that sets us apart from our competitors,” the Minister said.
“Philausophy aims to do this by not only encouraging people to book a flight to Australia and visit our incredible destinations but go a step further and actually immerse themselves in the best of the Australian way of life.
“At its core, Philausophy is about giving travellers from around the world a taste of what makes Australia such an enjoyable destination by shining a spotlight on the people, lifestyle and personality that make Australian experiences so memorable.”
For fans of the Dundee campaign, Hemsworth will be making a return in his role as global ambassador for Tourism Australia.
“To say that Australians are laid back, outgoing, and have a great sense of humour would be both buying into widely-known clichés and admitting an absolute truth,” the actor said.
“An incredible sense of adventure and an insistence on having a great time is truly born into our DNA.”
Credits
CREATIVE
Agency – M&C Saatchi Sydney
Chief Creative Officer – Cam Blackley
Executive Creative Directors – Mandie van der Merwe & Avish Gordhan
Head of Art – Chris Cheeseman
Art Director – Matt Corcoran
Copywriter – Rubini Gun
Group Managing Partner – Russell Hopson
Group Head – Emma McJury
Senior Account Director – Nikki Chapman
Account Director – Charlotte O’Brien
Account Manager – Sarah Dillon
Design Director – Simone Cherry
Designer – Alice Schofield
Senior TV Producer – Sarah Cowen
Lead Print Producer – Greg Hyslop
Senior Integrated Producer – Henry Welch
Lead Project Manager – James Steer
Chief Strategy Officer – Justin Graham
Head of Strategy – Rachael Fraser
Senior Strategy Director – Nick Jacobs
Senior Traffic Manager – Jenny Doyle
Retoucher – Nicko Mueller
Retoucher – Richard Hughes
Finished Artist – Ian Hartigan
Finished Artist – Holly Jones
Production Company, Photography – The Artist Group
Contemporary Aboriginal Artist – Rachael Sarra
Post Production – ARC Edit
Colourist – Fergus Rotherham
VFX Artists – Eugene Richards & Chris Betteridge
Post Producer – Jess Calvert
Sound Studio – Song Zu, Sydney
Composition – Song Zu, Sydney
Creative Director – Ramesh Sathiah
Supervising Sound Editor – Abigail Sie
Sound Studio Producer – Meg Drummond
Industry Videos – Jack Nimble
Director – Adam Wise
Director – Angus Mullane
Director of Photography & Editor – Tim Eddy
Sound Recordist – Nathan Bell
Camera Assistant – Hugo Odgers
Producer – Hayley Olsson
Assistant Editor – Kelly Searancke
Colourist – Matt Campbell
Music – Jonny Higgins
MEDIA
UM (Global Team)
Senior Strategy Director – Jack Graham
Senior Client Director – Ashleigh Markou
Senior Digital Partnerships Manager – Anthony Thomas
Digital Director – Sarina Ballauff
General Manager Sydney – Sophie Bingham
DIGITAL
Digitas
Head of Production – Lizzie Strobel
Client Partner – Oli Cassidy
Tech Director – Rich Thompson
Creative Director – Simon Brock
Account Director – Max Cahill
Design Lead – Oliver Ree
Senior Copywriter – Hannah Melanson
Design Director – Emma Gough
Lead AEM Developer – Elise Boinnot
Senior Project Manager – Jade Skinner
Account Manager – Rachel Malone
Senior AEM Developer – Stephen Smithstone
Senior FE Developer – Sahil Jackar
Senior AEM Developer – Kanwal Singh
QA Lead – Ranjani Raveendra
PUBLIC RELATIONS
opr Agency
Chief Strategy Officer – Kaz Scott
Chief Creative Officer – Bridget Jung
Associate Director – Luke McClelland
Account Director – Ellee Donald
Strategy & Planning Manager – Laura Stoll
Chief Digital Officer – Daniel Young
Senior Digital Strategist – John Harding-Easson
Publicist – Madeleine Hanley
Senior Account Manager – Zoe O’Sullivan
Content Manager – Shanna Hall
Senior Account Executive – Madison Scott
topics
Cam Blackley
Digitas
Dundee
Dundee: Son of a legend
M&C Saatchi
opr
Philausophy
Phillipa Harrison
Russell Hopson
Simon Birmingham
susan coghill
Tourism Australia
UM
Images look wonderful and I’m sure there’s a great variety of assets being produced, but I hope that tagline gets dropped when it goes into foreign markets. No one will have a clue what the wordplay means.
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Love it. Authentic and a true brand differentiator from the standard tourism montage.
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How the mighty have fallen. This is awful. And the deliberate misspelling just makes it look like Australians can’t spell.
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I’d be interested to know who was focus grouped for this research and how the questions were phrased. My partner and other friends who are in the tourism industry report that many nationalities, particularly Western Europeans, are actually turning away from Australia as they feel it is “uncool”. This is mainly as a response to our attitude to coal, climate change and the damage being done to our native wildlife and The Great Barrier Reef but also our treatment of Indigenous people and refugees all of which make international headlines. Many also report feeling “ripped off”. They pay up front for, say, a trip from Sydney to the Blue Mountains and discover they could’ve organised it themselves for a quarter of the price. Food and drink is also cripplingly expensive for many.
In addition, word of mouth being the best ad of all, I’d be interested to know what the feedback is from tourists who do the typical exhausting tour of Australia They land in Sydney in the early morning, often after a gruelling long haul flight, can’t get into their hotels until mid afternoon and, unshowered and weary, get bundled onto a coach and given a tour of the city. It only gets slightly better after that. Their schedules leave little time for relaxation with a miserable percentage taken up sitting on coaches, in airports or on planes. Most of the places they visit are those where operators are offered the most generous incentives – Blue Mountains, Featherdale, Sydney Harbour Cruise, Gold Coast, Uluru, Cairns. I’ve taken groups of elderly Asians on walking tours of Vivid after they’ve spent all day touring Canberra and have only just got off the coach back to Sydney with 30 minutes to shovel down dinner. It is hard to get a smile out of them.
Travelling around QLD on a camping trip this winter, we met lots of foreign travellers who – like us – were taken aback by the number of billboards announcing Mr Adani parties to thank him for his coal mine and the importance of opposing abortion and the difficulty in locating lunch/dinner venues that were actually open past 2 pm/8pm.
Australia is a beautiful, fascinating, friendly and fantastic country. Tourism provides a crucial boost to our economy and no-one knows that better than our current “Where The Bloody Hell Are You” PM. It’s a shame more isn’t done to ensure the offering matches this lovely ad.
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Decent strategy, gorgeous pictures woeful slogan.
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The play on words isn’t clear, the ‘aus’ should at least be in bold or in a different colour from the palette. If Australians working in marketing (a whole team of us) don’t get it straight away, I doubt tourists in other markets will.
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Couldn’t agree more – this is of the same standard as the “Where the bloody hell are you” ad.
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Wow this screams white power. Diversity feels completely overlooked in the film, overall an inaccurate representation of modern Australian tourism.
Also, the misspelling of the headline is not wordplay, it is just confusing. Doubtful other Aussies let alone foreigners will understand it.
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Toby Ralph?
Hello stranger!
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Philausophy is a shocker.
One minute the campaign tells us how easy going, relaxed Aussies are, the next minute we’re supposed to decipher the meaning of a word we’ve never seen before, and never want to see again.
Why make it so hard?
Everything about this is complicated from Philausophy to the 80’s art direction.
Poster after poster with meaningless headlines like –
‘Life Get Bigger The More You Share It’.
Who cares? And what has it got to do with anything?
is it too hard to expect one simple headline that encapsulates the campaign, communicates it simply, so everyone will get ‘it’ in a second?
If ever a campaign has been over-thought and over-complicated, this is it.
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Who the hell is Phil?
Are we supposed to say it like a New Yoker says “cawfee”?
This is terrible
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Is ScoMoTose back moonlighting at TA? Maybe he should start checking Seek.
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Come to Australia – watch us BURN!
Meet Climate Deniers in almost any pub because the media is dominated by Murdoch et fils
Visit the Barrier Reef which is no longer so great because of coral bleaching. Yes we still allow Sugar Cane farmers to send fertilizer waste straight into rivers and then the sea.
Come and visit our major cities which are bursting at the seams because we have no population targets at all.
Come and drink our clean water because we may not have any by the end of 2020 in places like Sydney because we still allow people to wash their cars using hoses
Come and try our amazing food, a lot of which is now imported. Garlic from China, artichokes from Peru, OJ from Brazil etc
Pat a Koala ! before they’re functionally extinct! Yes that’s right we’re killing them off with record amounts of land clearing to the point that we won’t have many within a few decades
Visit Parliament House in Canberra where adults who have had exposure to some of the best education in the world and are able to call on experts from say the CSIRO, simply deny science because it doesn’t fit with their bogus extreme capitalism/free-market/religious views.
Best way to visit is by cruise ship because unlike most civilised nations we still allow them to burn toxic bunker fuel even next to Sydney’s Opera House! This cheap sludge will help keep your booking costs down!
Yay!
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Who is Phil?
Are we supposed to say it like a New Yorker says “cawfee”?
This is terrible
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A complex four-syllable word doesn’t cut it.
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Might’ve been a slight improvement.
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Good lord, if you don’t understand this ad then change jobs. I think international travellers will be fine with this. Do you think Australia is the only country in the world who have a grasp of the English language. These comments are completely ignorant.
Perhaps get out of your box and travel some more.
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“Philozophy” would have been better (and probably the original idea).
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Is a much better slogan and relevant idea.
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“Philozophy” would have been better (and probably the original idea).
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No, you need to change jobs as you obviously don’t get it. With the majority of our visitors having English as a second language, VERY FEW people will get the play on words. It is a self-indulgent wankfest. More like Foolosophy to me.
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The whole campaign can be summed up in one word: Foolosophy.
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Old King Coal is a doomsday old soul, and a negative cold soul is he…
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ooff that slogan is AUSbysmal
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How do you “live” a philosophy, don’t you follow one?
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The original idea was based on Austin Powers – AUStin Powers … and it revolves around the benefits of tin mining and how it sets the cultural tone of Australia.
Chris Hemsworth was going to play AUStin Powers.
Made it all the way to the production but then scomo banned it as he felt it was too sexualised.
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Also we’re not the only country with AUS at the start, and even for us AUS is never used as a term in itself, except in the score at the bottom of the screen during cricket broadcasts. OZ might’ve made more sense, but even then asks too much of the audience to connect the concepts. Terrible.
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I hate to say it – Great idea/Campaign – thoughts in terms of destination/time to travel/Dollar etc on point
However – the average American wouldnt be able to tell you what a ‘philosophy’ is – let alone a PhilAUSophy….. Im not being rude about americans – but the middle belt of america who consider embarking on ‘once in a life-time’ trips truly wouldnt even know what the original word means, let alone the wordplay.
Lets remember – as it stands – some 36% of Americans actually own passports. Im hoping the spend against this is skewed toward Europe – but even then – they are not english speaking countries primarily… Interesting – would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the boardroom for this one…
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Certainly looks like it’s got Scotty’s seal of approval.
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On that point – They had to change the HP book in America from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
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I wonder what that ‘research’ looked like indeed!… ha ha ha
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3 strategist listed for a bad pun. Brilliant.
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Gotta love insights: “79% believe that the Australian people are an important part of the Australian lifestyle”.
How do you have a lifestyle without people?? What do the other 21% believe??
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This comment alone is worth the $50M wasted taxpayer dollars.
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Lame
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Erm… do we?
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Predictable. And muddled. Non English speakers will struggle with the message. A major fail.
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The strategists were put just before the traffic people but after the lead project manager. Shows how much they value strategy.
What a mean backward agency to rank everyone so clearly in the agency hierarchy and be so obvious about it. .
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I was wondering who Phil was too.
They have overthought it. Every tourism chief and creative agency wants to do something different than stunning scenery for a tourism campaign, but when you think about going overseas, or even interstate, it’s usually the stunning or unique landmarks you want to see.
If anyone comes for Australian kulcha or philausophy they are going to be sorely disappointed.
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More worrying is the idea that a simple statistic is what passes for an insight in the marketing industry…
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“Unique Spelling Point” – a bit underwhelming. Good luck with spellcheck every time you need to look it up…
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“Unique Spelling Point” – a bit underwhelming. Good luck with spellcheck every time you need to look it up!
Image wise seems to fit the brief.
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This is poorly branded. Generic. And.wont work.
Sorry Cam, Mandie and Avish.
Clearly no tourism experience.
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Brand campaigns come and go at Tourism Australia. But whatever the tagline, social channel or celeb, kangaroos on the beach always get a starring role. Sadly for our visitors, roos almost always choose to hang out elsewhere, preferably where there’s shade and grass. I think the ACCC needs to look into this deceptive marketing.
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Why not Philozophy? Easier to read, say, closer to what non-Aussies call Oz, etc.
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Mmmm It’s a stretch of a campaign idea.
Wonder if it’s all due to Ozzie Osbourne’s lack of availability?
Creative concept #167
Cue scene where we see Director on set –
a beach BBQ scene with Ozzie Osborne dressed in usual heavy black garb.
“When I said I wanted an Aussie I didn’t mean an Ozzie I meant an Aussie; *holds up picture of a Hemsworth*
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Don’t want to be overly mean but this is woeful. Is it too late to cancel this campaign? At least reinvest the media budget in older/better ads?
The video I saw was long and boring, slogan awful and the best quality (the images) looks like they’ve been made for print first…
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how [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] . how many [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] worked on this concept and who bloodyokayed it
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[Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] ideas.who the hell okayed it
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Maybe this is all a joke to get us all talking?
I can’t believe this legit…It has to be a PR stunt.
If so, it has worked.
I predict in the next instalment Paul Hogan is going to appear at Kangaroo Daycare, throw a shrimp on the barbie and get the party started with Kylie singing.
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Geez the new CMO has landed a shocker!! Bring back Dundee and fast. This campaign is no better than a long long infomercial…looks like the target audience was ourselves…is it April fools come early?
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There was an opportunity to show the world – and the Australian advertising industry – what makes us great.
If an idea needs explanation beyond the ~1sec people spend looking at an ad, it is not a strong idea.
This is sloppy, lazy and an insult to the creativity and wonder of Australia and the creativity and talent in this industry.
M&C Saatchi should be ashamed. All they have done is demonstrated that Tourism Australia should continue to go to New York for decent work. It hurts the Australian advertising industry, and harms the broader range of creative industries in Australia because it suggest we don’t have what it takes.
Any agency worth its salt could have delivered a better, more compelling, easier to understand campaign. Tourism Australia should have given one of them a chance.
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The mistake is using a stiff-shirt, abstract word like philosophy, in any form, to describe a relaxed culture. If the brief is the attitude of the people—plus the scenery etc, it needs to be taken to a higher, broader level. My suggestion:
‘Australia. What the World needs now.’
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Dear Pete,
‘What the world needs now’ is 100x better.
Firstly, it perfectly encapsulates the ‘feeling’ of going on/needing a holiday and secondly it’s so easy to campaign.
…………….(problem – stressed etc/or feature – swim with dolphins) …………………?
You need to….visit/book/holiday in/to ….Australia.
Australia.
What the world needs now.
And, it works easily for all the States and other stakeholders – always a difficult task.
Plus ‘world’ is a big, embracing way of saying ‘you’ – so it sounds big and personal at the same time.
Pete, take a bow.
If I steal it for one of my clients I’ll be sure to hunt you out and hand over some ‘folding’.
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Yep- you totally get. Get in quick before Tourism NZ gabs it.
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I also thought a character called “Phil” must be at the centre of this campaign. I wonder if any market testing was conducted or if it’s just a few of us who see it that way…
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Whoops…looking at the amount of negative comments above, it looks like TA have definitely targeted the uneducated in their latest campaign… complete with bad spelling in their slogan.
Why can’t we make Australia Great…. without making us look like a bunch of drongos.
TA…. 1970’s style campaigns should be left in the past.
We’re smarter, isolated from the rest of the globes problems… we’re a paradise island in a snow dome…. Shake us with your smarts and see how we respond…
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Nice images, awful copy. ‘Live, laugh, love’ on a pillow is better.
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Sydney Aussies aren’t laid back they are aloof and apathetic. BIG difference.
You don’t need to sell a lifestyle to get visitors, you sell the best part of Australia-the landscape! It’s a gorgeous country. This is coming from a two time tourist who went on to get PR. I did not relocate because of the mateship stance. All of my friends are immigrants not Aussie.
Terrible campaign-somebody call Paul.
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I am foreign and did not get this. Its odd and pretty shit.
The creatives should get new jobs.
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