The civil libertarian Australian Sex Party has launched its election campaign ad, and the message is simple: Australians are getting "fucked" – on issues including marriage equality, drug laws and voluntary euthanasia.
Fiona Patten, Australian Sex Party leader and Victorian Senate candidate, told AdNews the new ad would probably not run on TV due to the swearing, but "possibly less effective", watered-down ads with the same message were already on-air.
The campaign ad, created by filmmakers Jeremy Ervine and David Campbell, formerly of Adelaide agency Fnuky (which sold to rival Them last August), outlines the party's platform. "In the last federal election, the Australian Sex Party nearly got into the Senate," Patten says.
"We've had the last three years to reflect on the important issues facing Australians. What I'm about to say may surprise you: there's too much fucking going on in Australia."
Patten said she hoped to reach one million views by the election in eight days' time – the ad currently has just under 19,000 views. "We are getting it out there, it's being shared by different groups with large social media networks, that's happening as we speak.
"Last [election] we let our ad run free, as it were, and we got around a quarter of a million views. This time we will be pushing it on our social networks and those of our friends and supporters."
The party's best chance is in the Victorian Senate, and Patten said she was "fairly confident" their primary vote would be higher than last time around based on results in a number of by-elections and state elections, where the party was averaging around 7% of the vote.
"That indicates our primary vote should increase, and it depends on how The Greens, Coalition and Labor vote goes. But it looks like it will come down to the Liberals, Family First and us in the Senate."
Ervine said he and Campbell had "taken a brief breather from advertising retirement" to shoot the ad for their former client. The spot was created pro-bono and money to cover costs of the production was raised through crowd-funding platform Pozible.
"It's was almost out of tradition. Last federal election our 'Jerkchoices' ad became the most viewed political ad of all time. We wanted to see if we could top that – it's an interesting exercise to see if you can maintain the quality without an agency behind you, but I think we managed it."
But a return to advertising is probably not on the cards for the pair. "It's a one-gig project, just for fun and for a good cause – we love working with the Sex Party." And what about next time around? "If we're still in the country it would be great to work on an election campaign again."
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.
Have something to say? Send us your comments using the form below or contact the writer at frankchung@yaffa.com.au
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.