Top Australian chefs mount vaccination campaign to save industry

A unique ad with big-name chefs urging Australians to get the jab was filmed in lockdown on a zero budget.

With no budget, no actors, shot in lockdown from contributions from across Australia, one of the more unique television and online advertisements urges Australians to get the Covid jab.

Adman David Nobay is more accustomed to creating multimillion-dollar budget campaigns but this was done raw with zero dollars and involves some of the best-name chefs in Australia.

As previously reported, Nobay teamed up with chefs and film director Susan Stitt to produce a campaign #PutAJabOnTheMenu to encourage people to get vaccinated against Covid.

Advertising guru David Nobay gets creative for vaccinations. Picture: Supplied

While the Federal Government might spend tens of millions of dollars for its Covid vaccine campaign, this was shot for free on a budget “of heart and soul”.

“It was made with just heart and soul, it really was,” Nobay said on Thursday.

He said Stitt was in lockdown in Queensland, he in lockdown in NSW and the chefs in all states so there was no room for committee and reviews.

“There was no extra conversations had that didn’t need to be had because we were all working virtually,” he said.

Frustrated by bland government offerings, one of Australia’s most awarded admen has teamed up with the nation’s top chefs to cook up a campaign to get the community to vaccinate. A still from the film. Picture: Supplied

“I would literally receive bits of film in the middle of the night along with Susan that we had no idea someone was shooting but they would say ‘listen I’m in Hobart, there is an abalone fisherman I know at dawn I’ve just gone and shot this footage’. It was just incredible.

“That is a unique way of producing anything and it was created like that out of necessity because we were under such ridiculous constraints both financial and physical.

Having been on the other end of the line when I’ve shot multimillion-dollar productions for anyone VB, Telstra, New York Times where you have all the luxury of time and of budget and you can move around and shoot as a group, I actually think I would not have changed a thing with the way we worked.”