Advertising is in a weird place right now, straddling total obliviousness and awkwardly executed self-awareness over how campaigns can easily turn off consumers with how they treat diversity/inclusion/acceptance. Meat & Livestock Australia was recently in trouble for its ad celebrating Australia Day, in which they use the Aboriginal word “boomerang.” Since Australia Day essentially celebrates the beginning of Australia’s colonization, this was an unwelcome juxtaposition.
Their new ad for the unifying powers of lamb could be seen as an attempt to mend fences or a not so subtle fuck you to critics, depending on your degree of cynicism. The ad is largely narrated by Indian Australian Arka Das and features all shapes, sizes, genders, and sexualities that can be visually signified, and includes Australian celebrities like transgender comedian Jordan Raskopoulos and indigenous athletes Cathy Freeman and Greg Inglis, who have have the button line when Das asks who was here first. “That would be us,” they say, holding up their plates for some anti-discrimination lamb.
Both campaigns were produced by Sydney-based ad agency The Monkeys, so they’ve at least learned to say all the right things.
