Tuesday, October 8, 2013

"Be consumed" (and washed down with a nice red?)

With Tim Blair still chucking down vin rouge ordinaires and pitching his beret at a jaunty angle someone has to keep an eye on South Australia. Fortunately the state's tourism authority has put together a strange little ad which makes that rather easy, as it is replete with reminders of the locals' peculiar little ways. Blogger won't allow the video to be embedded, but you can go here and marvel at the things South Australians value and which they hope will persuade potential visitors to share thei odd delights.

There are bugs, lots of them, dead rabbits and a man with a gun in Wolf Creek mode. A chicken is sensously plucked. There are cuts of mystery meat hanging on hooks, which must have been easier to photograph than barrelled bodies in an abandoned bank.

The highlight comes at about the 1.18 mark in the clip, where a young woman in a white dress and holed stockings writhes for not apparent reason in the dirt.



Is she dying? Has she been ravaged? Is she feeling about for Sarah Hanson-Young's brain?


Nobody but the director can answer those questions. But with an election coming up, those South Australian voters capable of living elsewhere, given sufficient rehab and the attentions of caring medical practitioners, should bear this promotional effort in mind when they cast their votes. If they are not hung on a meat hook first, that is.

19 comments:

  1. Since it was made by the same crowd, it's redolent of the 19th century wukkas paradise promotion for Kangaroo Island, though this one was designed to attract rich Green-voting zombies from Sydney and Melbourne, so all they had to do was impress the kindred Greenfilth at the South Australian Tourism Commission with the secret Snowtown formula, hence the meat hooks, as you astutely observed. Don't go there, perfessor. I lived in Snowtown South for 10 years in the '70s and '80s and eventually trebucheted myself out of there when I began climbing the walls.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is a Snowtown South? I am truly amazed as I once had to survey the main drag in Snowtown Central and I am amazed that it is large enough to possess a satellite town. Still I suppose it is reasonable as I am reliably informed there is an "Upper Kumbuknah West" even though the location of Kumbuknah itself is somewhat difficult to find.

      Delete
  2. Eventually all the bad marketing and pop-culture seeds germinate. Apparently this happens in SA quite a bit, all because of a dark and mysterious man who's hand is inexplicably red (as the theme song goes).

    Clearly a positive tourism message to lure unwitting out-of-towners to their untimely death. How could this foreboding and fatalistic approach fail to win over Mums & Dads interstate?

    We are all going to die sometime - why NOT choose SA?
    My choice for a great closing by-line.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! My spouse and I reckon that's a winner: "Horror-themed Holidays".

    The blood, the corpses, axes, guns, barrels in dark cellars!

    It's got the lot.

    Hope it gets shown on international Qantas flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does that include a trip to Unley High in Adelaide where visitors can marvel at how an unassuming public high school could manufacture one of the horrors of the modern age in Julia Gillard?

      Delete
  4. Ah beautiful South Australia - the State of deviates and mass murderers and dare I say it a Premier who wore pink shorts. Mind you the Charlie writhing in the soil is quite pretty - in an earthy sort of way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whilst complete wank, it is visually pretty much how I think of the Barossa. As an ex-SA country boy and with several generations prior to me from the Barossa if they tried to pitch a multi-teated sky monster balloon or socialite garden party it would ring false. Dirty feet, red sand and dead grasses, roasted meats and plonk. Sounds about right.

    I'm not sure this is successfully choosing a profitable target market though.

    Unfortunately it is intended to focus on greenfilth / inner city urbans from central casting, from the music choice to the "ironic" images of the outcomes of butchery, and the playful reference to serial killers. However they would in fact deplore the agricultural activity that led to all that wine and produce, moan about the carbon footprint, regret the oppression of the animals and laugh at the simple yokels (my rellies), although I’m sure they’ll love the trendy imagery.

    In essence the apparent target market will love the ad., find it deliciously ironic and mischievous, but never in a pink fit take a holiday there.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Could that ad be more full of visual double entendres for poor Brown Stocking there? She's seen lovingly fondling pairs of fruit on the ground, lovingly kneading eggs on the table and, er, doing stuff with a decapitated cock in her lap. (Can't see that last bit working on the Green voters really).

    How about the faux emotion and try-hard appeal of this Baz Luhrmann-directed ad for Australian tourism? Complete with a pure-of-heart-spirit-of-the-land-Aboriginal lad.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Its the beer wot does it! How can you make good beer out of that dreadfull water,? S .A. Is a soshalist state like yarra city SA has the water excuse ,is rossie garnaut yarra city s excuse,? Might be magnetic from rossies Steel (not iron) Roof?

    ReplyDelete
  8. South Australians can actually be quite courteous when it comes to tourism. The last time I drove through South Australia, a few years ago now, they had street signs informing you that you were entering each town. The sign I seem to remember most was the following:

    "Caution you are entering Snowtown."

    I thought "thanks for the warning" and floored it till I was safely out the other side.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oi, Prof! I'll have you know that me sister did the costumes for that ad! Heaven knows what they were on at the agency that day.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Word on the grapevine has it that Tim Blair is making a serious attempt at Euro-Disney to win the heart of Minnie Mouse away from Mickey.

    He's apparently banking on the fact that, after years of being three-fingered Mickey's S.O., Minnie is sick of feeling vaguely like a bowling ball.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.October 8, 2013 at 7:12 PM

    This was featured on the ABC Gruen Ad show as a fantastic piece of advertising.

    Guess it all depends on your audience and what you are trying to say to them. And their current musical tastes if they are brainless.

    I may be in the maker's dream AB and trendy demographic, Prof, but it won't tempt me to go there. I don't enjoy nutjobs and crazies having acid trips around me. As for Da Hairy Ape - feckin' hippies, he would say.

    Dey can keep away from his wallet, to be sure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed, I caught the Gruen on iView last night, and when I saw this ad coming up for comment, I predicted, exactly, the opinion of each panel member (I expected Todd Sampson to soil himself - he nearly did).

      They also informed us (the audience) that the campaign cost $6,000,000 - I'd have done it for $3mil.

      Delete
  12. Yeah, it was weird enough, but then they had to add a dose of that ludicrous poseur Nick Cave on the soundtrack, burbling on about a bloke with a "red right hand"- we're back in Snowtown alright!

    God knows who it is supposed to appeal to.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm a South Australian. Don't mind if the govt gives these things a go, maybe one in 20 get some traction. But some B.S. agency has been paid millions up front. why, why, why can't the govt pay on results? no tourist come, no pay munee. tourist come, then yes-pleze munee paid.

    ReplyDelete
  14. DavidOctober 8, 2013 at 1:58 PM (blog software - or my browser - won't let me put this under your comment): Snowtown South is quite a big town. It's also called "Adelaide".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. G'day Tom,
      Thank you for the advice. Having been to both places I should have recognised the resemblance.

      Delete
  15. Adelaide: Sex Murder Capital Of The World 1988-1999

    ReplyDelete