Where the bloody hell are they?

The tourists. That’s what some are wondering after Baz Lurhman’s new ad campaign debuted in the UK and US, funded by the Australian governement and piggy backing Australia, the film. It’s too early to tell if the campaign will be a success and it could be argued we’ll never know for sure, due to the global economic turmoil that will have seen a lot of people revise their travel plans…

According to reports today:

Here’s the first ad…

The report continues….

The Luhrmann ads draw on the movie’s theme of transformation and
market Australia as the antidote to the stresses of modern life.
They are running in the US and Britain and be shown in 20 more
countries.

“If you look at the ads then they have the potential to stand up
in their own right as they actually advertise Australia featuring
that young indigenous boy Brandon [Walters] …” Mr Ferguson
said.

“It is an independent advertising [campaign]. The issue is
whether we could have got a bigger bang for our dollar out of the
film Australia but the campaign itself is independent and
the ads show that.”

Asked if he thought the tourism marketing campaign would get
that boost Mr Ferguson replied: “Time will tell but it is too early
to say yet.”

A proper evaluation of the campaign’s effectiveness will be
carried out in due course, Mr Ferguson promised. Earlier this year,
the national auditor criticised Tourism Australia for failing to
check whether the $180 million it tipped into the “Where the Bloody
Hell Are You” campaign worked.

That ad’s provocative catchphrase was lost in translation in
Japan and offended some people in other markets.

Yesterday, the tourism body said publicity about the movie had
“reached” 100 million people, visits to the Australia website by
Britons had risen 77 per cent and half a million people had watched
the Luhrmann ads online. A spokeswoman stressed the campaign’s
success was not pegged to that of the film: “Ultimately that reach
is the icing on the cake.”

And here’s the Shanghai version for China….

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And here’s a reminder of what it has replaced…..the Where The Bloody Hell Are You campaign..