Australian tourism ad fails to mention skin cancer, deadly animals, price of beer
An Australian tourism ad that’s heavy on stock footage of remote beaches and cuddly koalas paints an unrealistic picture of the Land Down Under, backpackers around the country have claimed.
The new campaign – entitled “Australia: get it in ya” launched on Monday. In it, a drone pans over vast swathes of Australian bushland, none of which appears to be on fire. It also depicts beautiful young people enjoying a pint of craft beer, but neglects to mention that each beer costs $18.
A leading backpacker advocacy group – the Federation of Australian Regional Tourists (FART) – has spoken out against the ad, which it says perpetuates unrealistic standards of how safe the country is and how affordable it is to get on the piss.
“We FARTers think it’s outrageous that the Australian government keeps peddling this propaganda!” a spokesperson told The Tragic Traveller. “This ad would have pasty British tourists believe they can spend more than 12 minutes without getting third-degree sunburn and, most likely, skin cancer.”
“Also, we’d like to point out that the average Australian is at least 25% less attractive than those blond beachgoers in the ad. They’re also only one-third as likely to be a decent surfer.
The FART spokesperson called for more realistic standards in future campaigns.
“I think the next Australian tourism ad should open with a pervy farmer ordering a 19-year-old Swedish girl to do 12 hours of hard labour in his snake-infested paddock without a hat. We’d really be able to identify with that.”
