Crocodile Dundee ad airs in Super Bowl

Tourism Australia kicks off a $40m ad starring Crocodile Dundee and Chris Hemsworth | WATCH

A new, star-studded Crocodile Dundee-inspired TV commercial has aired for a potential 110 million Super Bowl viewers in the US as part of a $38 million Tourism Australia campaign targeting American travellers.

It is the federal government’s most ambitious and expensive tourism campaign for a single overseas market since the “Shrimp on the Barbie” campaign in 1984-1990.

Most advertisers paid US TV network NBC about $6.3m for a single 30-second slot in the clash between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Chris Hemsworth in the new ad which was aired for the first time during halftime of the Super Bowl 2018.

But Tourism Australia negotiated a two-year $15m deal with NBC for the Super Bowl spot and other opportunities using NBC’s vast platform.

The Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home ads, starring Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie and other Australian entertainers, are the central plank of Tourism Australia’s $34m campaign designed to make Australia the most desired destination to visit among US travellers by 2020.

The Super Bowl ad is a continuation of faux trailers that have emerged online in recent weeks to make it appear a Crocodile Dundee film sequel would soon land in cinemas.

The Super Bowl ad features a humorous appearance by the original star Paul Hogan, who also headed the “Shrimp on the Barbie” ads.

Margot Robbie in the Tourism Australia ad screened during the Super Bowl

Australia Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Steven Ciobo, was confident the investment will pay off.

“Creative ideas such as this are what we need to captivate our key target audiences,” Mr Ciobo said.

“I am confident that many Americans are looking at booking their next holiday to Australia right now.”

Paul Hogan in the original Tourism Australia promotion in the mid 1980s-90s.

Russell Crowe, Ruby Rose, Isla Fisher, Liam Hemsworth, Isla Fisher, Luke Bracey and Jessica Mauboy also appear in the ads and faux trailers.

The Super Bowl is by far the biggest TV broadcast in the US each year with last year’s drawing 111.3 million viewers.

Tourism Australia said the campaign, before the Super Bowl ad aired, already had a social media reach of 412 million people, the faux trailers were viewed 68.8 million times and double the number of any other Super Bowl ad online.

Hugh Jackman plays the prime minister in the Tourism Australia ad.

American comedic actor Danny McBride plays the central role in the ads as Dundee’s long lost doofus son returning to the outback to save his father. In the Super Bowl ad Hemsworth takes McBride to see “37,000 miles of pristine beach, mate”, and taste “some of the finest wines in the entire world”.

As they sit at a Sydney harbourside restaurant it finally clicks with McBride that he is in a tourism commercial and won’t be the star of a Crocodile Dundee film. “Yes, but listen,” Hemsworth, trying to calm McBride, says.

“You’re the best Crocodile Dundee since Crocodile Dundee.”

The camera then crosses to a disapproving Hogan sitting at the bar holding a schooner of beer.

AAP

The new Australian Tourism ad featuring Chris Hemsworth.