Tourism Tasmania says old mate has been ‘coming to Tassie for years’ in response to SA campaign
Tourism Tasmania has responded to South Australian Tourism’s now infamous ‘Old Mate’ campaign with its own version of the controversial ad.
The Tasmanian version shows their own elderly man downing a mountain of fresh oysters, with the voice over stating “Don’t feel sorry for old mate, he’s been coming to Tassie for years”.
The South Australian Tourism Commission campaign launched three weeks ago, with a film of an elderly man crying whilst seeing the sights of Adelaide.
The campaign line behind the original ad was “Don’t feel sorry for old mate. It’s his own damn fault for not visiting Adelaide sooner”. The campaign quickly garnered criticism from the public, claiming the ad was depressing and accusing it of being ageist.
South Australia Shadow Minister for Trade, Tourism & Investment, Zoe Bettison, labelled the ad as ‘bizarre’.
“This advertisement seems rather bizarre and, what’s worse, it follows the Marshall Liberal government’s decision to outsource this work to a Victorian agency,” she said, according to The New Daily.
Our bizarre ad is now being used to promote Tasmanian tourism! https://t.co/BPWCsG6HVh
— Zoe Bettison MP (@ZoeBettisonMP) September 21, 2019
Tourism Tasmania’s in-house social team was behind the new ad.
Chief marketing officer, Emma Terry said in a statement: “Given some of the recent attention the ‘old mate’ campaign has been attracting, we felt there was some room to be a little cheeky on social media – a channel which lends itself to some light hearted fun. For a little while now, our campaigns have been featuring the imagery of our own ‘old mate’ taking part in a uniquely Tasmanian experience and clearly enjoying it. It’s great to see the post generating some positive commentary about Tassie and our wonderful oysters.”
The South Australia Tourism ad was created by TBWA, which won the account last year and opened an Adelaide office to service it.
BMF was appointed as lead creative agency for Tourism Tasmania in March.
TBWA has been contacted for comment.
Just not funny.
User ID not verified.
This is a thousand times worse than the original…
User ID not verified.
3 weeks to make that [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
User ID not verified.
What is it about in-house teams that just can’t produce content well. This feel like a wedding videographer made it. Sorry ?
User ID not verified.
Simple, timely. Kudos
User ID not verified.
both are horrible
User ID not verified.
Because the best thing to do with nature’s abundance is… consume it all
User ID not verified.
Mountain fresh oysters??
User ID not verified.
How to drag down the good work that was produced by the previous agency JimJam and award winning director Justin McMillan.
Why as a marketing person would you want to attach your brand to the terrible work done by Adelaide Tourism in any way whatsoever. Learn to take the high ground Tourism Tasmania.
Original storytelling piece here.
https://vimeo.com/233414743
User ID not verified.
I know which old mate I’ll be!
User ID not verified.
Excellent come back!!!
User ID not verified.
Haha I love this!
simple and effective
User ID not verified.