Vegetarian and chicken ads prove Sam’s lamb is still the one to beat on Australia Day
When Sam Kekovich’s latest pro-lamb Australia Day address was unveiled last week, a fair bit of the debate centred on whether it was time to change the strategy.
I’d say the behaviour of competitors proves that this is an idea with a lot of legs left in it.
This year Kekovich addresses the United Nations in his sixth outing from BMF on behalf of Meat & Livestock Australia.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VHH0Ebke-lU
Last week saw a relatively weak pastiche featuring “Simon Kennovich” in an effort to promote vegetarianism.
And yesterday Lenard’s Chicken uploaded its attempt onto YouTube:
And while none of them are rib-tickling satire, what each one does is underline the message for consumers that lamb on Australia Day is the default position that they are attempting to challenge.
Tim Burrowes
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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topics
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Australia Day
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Sam Kekovich
vegetarianism
Austen Tayshus rehash
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The Kekovich campaign has a great occasion/media idea (Australia Day), a unique executional idea (Crazy Sam) and a ownable advertising idea (It’s un-Australian not to eat lamb).
And by lasting longer than one round it’s become a true campaign, as shown by the imitations above. The point is, even if this isn’t the best in the series, Kekovich builds the Lamb brand year after year.
It’s typical that industry ning-nongs would call for it to be dumped because they didn’t like the jokes so much this year.
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I reckon the pro-vegetarian ads piggybacking off the Kekovich campaign have generated a lot of consumer awareness about the real cost of meat. The ‘default food’ for Australia Day might be lamb – (at least that’s what Kekovich says – has anyone done a sausage survey?) – but with a strong increase in consumers seeking ethical standards for animal welfare, and growing concern over effects of animal intensive farming on the environment, I don’t know that Australians are swallowing Sam’s message as heartily as Meat & Livestock would hope.
The increased presence of TV advertising from animal rights groups suggests to me that these organisations are receiving more support and donations than ever before, from an increasingly ethically-conscious public.
And yes, I’ll be eating lam-ingtons on Australia Day.
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Kudos to the beef industry for not getting involved in this childish tit-for-tat.. Clearly a steak on the BBQ speaks for itself!
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… though if the steak on the bbq COULD speak for itself, it would probably say something like “please don’t hang me upside down and slit my throat”.
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As a vegetarian for the last 20 years I find the “eat lamb” ads offensive.
I have always respected peoples right to eat meat but I cannot abide some of the practices the lifestock still trade engages in such as live animal transport to far flung places. There is no need for this behaviour. It is cruel and abhorrent.
And as someone who grew up on a farm I have always felt that every person who eats meat should respect animals enough to actually know what is is like to slaughter an animal. Only by doing this can you totally appreciate the life of an animal and the food it gives you. Those who recoil at the thought of doing this but have no problem tucking into a lamb roast are hypocrites.
So with that I wonder has Sam Kekovich slaughtered a lamb with his own hands? I think not.
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@A.N
Sam Kekovich isn’t real.
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If Sam K had any balls he’d be promoting the idea that it’s un-Australian to throw away so much of an animal apart from the “select cuts” – my wife’s eaten sheeps balls (a delicacy in the Middle East), and that makes a great conversation starter around the barbie! What sort of Aussie are you if you wouldn’t try sheeps boll*cks marinated in lemon juice??
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Alas the deed would have already been done JB.. that’s why the steak is being thrown on the BBQ in the first place – I don’t think steaks have a throat. So unless you are throwing a live 700kg steer onto the BBQ and by some miraculous turn of nature the big fella can speak, I think it is safe to go ahead and throw that steak on the BBQ on Australia Day.. or your tofu kebab, or your lamb shoulder, or your chicken schnitzel.. or whatever tickles your own little food fancy.
It’s a BBQ people. Put your moral musings in the salad.
And AK, Sam Kekovich is real. Yep, a living, breathing, lamb eating, ex AFL playing, sports commentating person!
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MJ the Beef Industry is also part Meat and Livestock Australia, it would be unwise of them to get into any tit-for-tats against their own products……
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BTW, just to clarify a point made by the pro-vegetarian YouTube video; it’s cow burps that contain large amounts of methane, as opposed to the farts, which do contain methane, but not as much as the front end emissions. Does a Hummer driving vegetarian have a larger carbon footprint than a meat eating cyclist?
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Whenever this ad is shown on TV I switch to another channel, this thing is just an abomination and totally keeps me off lamb.
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