Hipsters, First Australians And Lamb: Today Everyone Is Talking About Meat Ads

Meat & Livestock Australia have released their latest lamb ad, which is timed for Australia Day without explicitly mentioning Australia Day.

The premise of the ad is that three Indigenous Australians are having a BBQ on the beach, but keep having to expand the event to accommodate all the various people — European settlers, immigrants and “boat people” — who appear on the shore. Last year the script for the ad was leaked and received harsh criticism for trivialising the First Fleet’s violent treatment of First Australians.

There are several differences between the leaked script and the final ad, but the basic premise is still the same. The ad has been praised for celebrating Australia’s multiculturalism — something we also praised at the launch of their last campaign in September last year —  but there may be concerns that despite the lack of focus on celebrating Australia Day, the ad fails to acknowledge the pain that the British settlers represent for Indigenous Australians. Still, the ad is resonating with many people this morning and you can see why — a few years ago it would be unthinkable for a major commercial company to acknowledge any nuance in the way the public thinks about Australia Day.

In other news, The Alternative Meat Company has launched a campaign starring Dave Hughes, which attempts to counter Sam Kekovich’s infamous Australia Day lamb ads. In it Dave Hughes asserts that “it doesn’t need to ‘moo’, to be true blue” and then makes fun of hipsters for a while.