Ed Kicker: Bloody hell, I like the new Australian Tourism TVC

Tue, 01 June 2010 3 Comments

You gotta love Australia and the new Australia Tourism TVC from Tribal DDB. And I’m not saying that with my tongue in my – or anybody else’s – cheek.

It was 1988 when I first fell in love with Australia and consequently my first wife thanks in no small part to a few too many pints of ice cold and sickly sweet Fosters. 

Yes, I was in London and Men at Work were still a warm memory. Crocodile Dundee rocked and Paul Hogan had yet to have a face-lift or botox.

We all wanted to escape Margaret Thatcher and stick another giant prawn (or shrimp) on the Barbie.

She grew bananas in her back yard, which is pretty exotic if you live in the grey doom of South London. Naturally, my allusions were shattered when I arrived here and pretty soon I found out that everybody grew bananas in their back yard. And those giant prawns were all too often rubbery and nobody drank Fosters.

The point is this new ad has everything, a Platypus, koala. All the clichéd, sorry iconic, tourist locations and Aussie imagery that I fell in love with two decades ago. 

It even has a catchy tune that harks back to the jingles of 1970s and 1980s.

The only thing it lacks is Mo and Jo. Or Singo. And in advertising terms that’s a huge compliment.