In conjunction with Baz Luhrmann’s new movie Australia, Tourism Australia has commissioned some (very expensive) ads to convince Yanks to come out here and spend (what’s left of) their money. Both ads depict how a trip to Australia helps stressed-out couples living in cities get their lives back on track by going “walkabout.”
The official campaign site is here, but I’ve included videos of two on this post to see what other people think of them, compared to last year’s “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign or even Paul Hogan’s classic “Shrimp on the barbie” campaign of the 80’s.
Some Australians are skeptical – Andrew Bolt asks, “Just how many people out there are actually depressed New Age urban professionals looking for a Luhrmann-style spiritual awakening – and expect to find it in Australia’s dust?” and the Sydney Morning Herald reports a marketing expert calling it “high risk” because “The target market is very narrow: stressed-out urban couples without children. Can we expect singles, families, seniors and other segments to relate and respond positively to these ads? And what of people who do not live in cities?”
So which would convince you to hop on a plane? “Walkabout,” Lara Bingle, or Paul Hogan? (Or the Scared Weird Little Creatures?)
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Of course, I still don’t understand why they never went with this one. 
UPDATE: Tim Blair reader Lee M. of Washington (a real live American living in America, i.e. a potential tourist) has this take on the new ad campaign:
This morning I saw the strangest promotional spot I’ve ever seen or heard (or produced). A woman picks up the phone and a male voice advises, “You are not the woman I married.” And then …
The woman starts to cry …
A creepy little kid with an Australian accent appears from a dark void and tells the woman “Sometimes we have to get lost to find ourselves. Sometimes we gotta go walkabout” …
Jump cut to crying woman and the child drowning in a dark pool. No, they appear to be swimming. Or drowning …
Small graphics appear on-screen. I can’t read it. Damn, where are my glasses? Wait … I don’t wear glasses. Why is the font so small? Is this a trailer for a Stephen King novel?
And then the word “Australia” burns in … fade to black.
It was definitely a memorable promo, so much so that I looked for it on the internet. It appears to be one in a series of Tourism Australia promos under the title “Walkabout” — though I would have slugged it “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
James Morrow recalls a tourism promo that wasn’t quite so … emo.
October 13, 2008, 8:05 pm at 8:05 pm
The ads aren’t too bad but as SMH points out, the target audience is too narrow. Then again, what family could afford a holiday to Oz at the moment anyway?
Bet there’ll be a few wanting to take that swim in the Kimberleys.
They could have plugged our cities more but maybe it’s the outback that needs the dosh more these days.
Overall, I don’t think they’ll hurt. And they are a nice departure from some colloquial, stereotypical bloke or shiela rooting for the country. The change in focus towards the tourist could well pay off although it’ll be almost impossible to tell as tourism is likely to be down for a while thanks to BO and his pals.
October 13, 2008, 10:27 pm at 10:27 pm
It may very well be that I’m not even remotely close to the target audience, but I rekon those ads suck balls.
Even more than the ‘where the bloody hell are you’ ad.
What about an ad with the new wave of boat people? Something like: “Australia, one millions refugees cant be wrong”…
October 13, 2008, 11:38 pm at 11:38 pm
I love that classic Paul Hogan ad. I actually remembered the script almost word for word, and it’s been how many years since that was aired?
OTOH, the faux-spiritual post-modern ads were just horrible. “Your life is a fucking Alfred Hitchcock-scale horror show, mate, so come to Australia, and we’ll get you indoctrinated into an Aboriginal cult!”
The prospect of accidentally getting killed makes me want to visit Australia more than those ads.
October 13, 2008, 11:54 pm at 11:54 pm
It does suck balls, aiming for the depressed investment banker market??
October 14, 2008, 9:15 am at 9:15 am
The new BL ads prove, as if proof was really needed, that there is a vast difference between film making and destination marketing.
And to add to this dilemma, the ads are aimed at a narrow market of white collar DINKS with lots of spare dosh. Do you remember that market? It just ain’t there right now.
In the NY version of the ad, the lead character may have departed as a stressed out VP Sales (or whatever) and returned as bundle-of-fun-and-energy Kate, but that new look Kate would more than likely be out of a job when she got back, with only an expensive tan to show for it all.
I am also cynical enough to believe that if a stressed out Ms Suit woke up in her NY condo to find a coloured kid (no disrespect) whispering in her ear, she would have reached under her pillow for a loaded gun rather than call her Amex travel agent.
And why was the NY ad launched in London? Makes no sense at all. The Shanghai version may be accepted in other Asian markets, though it’s doubtful.
Of course, there will be those in the industry who applaud the new approach, but they are those who would also admire the Emperor’s New Clothes.
If/when the campaign fails to put more bums into warm Aussie beds somebody from the government/Tourism Australia (or both) will say: “It’s the economy, stupid.” That’s right — and that is why the campaign should have been shelved at the last minute, unless, God forbid, it was just a ploy to push a film called Australia.
We have had Bloody Hell Bingley. an ageing cricket commentator and an Aboriginal Lady reciting James Joyce in her own language promoting the country over the past few years — and now this. Come back, Hogey, these prawns in Sydney need you, mate
October 14, 2008, 11:41 am at 11:41 am
“Come back, Hogey, these prawns in Sydney need you, mate”
I second that! Actually your whole comment was great, AJ. (The other ones, too).
For what it’s worth, I remember that Paul Hogan ad from my college days – I had already been out here on holiday during the America’s Cup excitement in ‘83, then there were those Paul Hogan ads, and after Uni I started scoping out jobs in Oz with the idea of living and working here for a year or two before I settled down.
Nearly two decades later and…
October 14, 2008, 7:54 pm at 7:54 pm
Sheesh. Jus’ tryin’ to find a few positives innit.
November 11, 2008, 12:27 pm at 12:27 pm
I am an unpubished author with longstanding wishes to publishe a book about the supernatural abilities of the Aborigines and dolphins to communicate along long distances without verbage…I have written a book, and want to use it as a medium to seek the “golden mean” perfect balance between man and animal and life itself. I have a cinematographer lined up; and a productioncompanay but am interested in the director of Australiaa and the young Aborigine boy he used in the film. this film would suit young people to adults with its purpose of righting the wrongs that have been done to both Aborigine and dolphins who in old times had a mutually benevolent relationship. Please help me? I have had experiences with dolphins and am so intrested (thought at a distance) in the aborigines too.
Sharon Harrison
Sharon Bernard Harrison
November 11, 2008, 2:05 pm at 2:05 pm
Ah, another “isn’t it pretty to think so” movie.
Sorry to sound like I’m pouring cold water on your fantasies, Sharon, but the myth of Aborigines of days gone by as peaceful, gentle, noble savages is pretty much just that, a myth.
“supernatural abilities of the Aborigines and dolphins to communicate along long distances without verbage” ?
“Aborigine and dolphins who in old times had a mutually benevolent relationship” ?
Still, that’s never stopped movie-makers before, I guess. So good luck getting Baz on board and all that. Cheers.
November 11, 2008, 3:59 pm at 3:59 pm
So what did they chat about?
November 11, 2008, 4:16 pm at 4:16 pm
Oh, all kinds of things. The weather, how AGW was improving the food supply for dolphins, the ongoing fights between the owls and the possums, how annoying Indian mynas are, stuff like that.
You know, the usual.
November 11, 2008, 4:54 pm at 4:54 pm
Well obviously the dolphins were being meanies. Take the last 5000 years. You’d think at least one dolphin during all that time might have mentioned something along the lines of, “Hey, you should check out what they’re doing over in Egypt and China.”
November 11, 2008, 5:21 pm at 5:21 pm
Even the dolphins are guilty of oppressing the Aborigines!!1!!eleven!!!!
March 12, 2009, 7:52 am at 7:52 am
How depressing and weird those first ones are. They do not make me want to come to Australia, they make me think about grim things. Like killing myself.
I would come visit for a shrimp on the barbie though – and the beaches and pretty girls!