Shaun Hollis: Will tourists flock to our wineries, jetties and Oval after seeing a lonely old man wandering by himself?
If all publicity is good publicity then the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the state’s latest tourism ad almost suggests it’s among the SA greats, writes Shaun Hollis. Almost.
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The thinking behind the phrase “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” is nearly as old as 19th-century circus pioneer P.T. Barnum, who is said to have coined the phrase.
Mae West pinned her acting career on it and, of course, Oscar Wilde knew the only thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about at all.
Getting people talking via controversy to drum up business may be becoming a bit hackneyed but it hasn’t stopped people talking about the South Australian Tourism Commission’s latest campaign where “Old Mate” sheds a tear because he didn’t come to Adelaide many years earlier.
Let’s face it, controversy sells.
Cringe-worthy campaigns get people talking.
And, like a 1950s Grange bottle sitting on the shelf of an up-market Sydney beachfront restaurant, it never gets too old to court bad publicity to get people talking.
Never mind the fact — as one pundit pointed out among the hundreds of comments online on advertiser.com.au — that activities such as the Adelaide Oval roof climb weren’t even available to tourists at about the time old mate regrets not visiting.
The new tourism ad has been broadly condemned, with references to a lonely old man feeding into fears of our city being “God’s waiting room” where people just go to die.
The Council on the Ageing has come out swinging, saying it is using a “pathetic old” stereotype.
And the question hangs in the air about whether South Australians are mature enough to handle the inevitable criticism that such a campaign stirs up. Such as one wag who joked that all is missing is the footy fans leaving the stadium early.
The campaign leads us to the difficult question: Do we want to be laughed at or laughed with?
Even the “Old Mate” catchphrase is not exactly a heaps good thing for a South Australian to say. It is arguably a more popular catchphrase in other parts of Australia and the world.
But the campaign becomes more understandable once you know it was dreamt up by Victorian agency TBWA and targets audiences outside of SA.
When the multimillion-dollar SATC contract was awarded about a month after the Liberals came into office last year, Tourism Minister David Ridgway said it was “disappointing” that an SA company was not awarded the tender.
He blamed the SATC for making the final decision.
Since he had only been in the job a short time, we were willing to cut him some slack.
So this week, Mr Ridgway was back singing from the official hymn sheet, saying the campaign already had people talking.
“We hope that buzz will translate into people booking their flights and experiencing all the wonders South Australia has to offer,” he said.
The commercial has certainly attracted the required “cut-through” that SATC marketing executive Brent Hill was after. But the million-dollar question is, will the office kitchen cooler discussions translate to bums on seats?
Will tourists flock to our wineries, jetties and Oval after seeing a lonely old man wandering through and on them by himself?
Of course, the ad is wheeling out those same old clichéd jetties, wineries and Oval scenes everyone already knows about. And there are so many other vibrant and exciting things to do here. What about Old Mate wandering past the small bars of Peel St? Or glamping in a see-through tent in the Flinders Ranges? This is just the first in a series so maybe they are yet to come.
SA has a long history of quirky tourism campaigns — who could ever forget the misfired slogan “going all the way”? And, even though the Barossa ad with the Nick Cave soundtrack was recognised globally within the industry, many found it a bridge too far.
Hopefully, the talk generated by the new ad will translate to more tourism dollars for the industry and more people discovering our great state.
But, at last count, of more than 1600 who voted in an advertiser.com.au poll, 56 per cent found the ad “bizarre”, while just 10 per cent rated it “creative”.
Let’s face it, the latest SA tourism ad is so bad it’s almost good. Almost.