Australia Day Lamb
Meat & Livestock Australia (Australian Lamb)2005
Australia Day Lamb is a 2005 television commercial for Meat & Livestock Australia, created by BMF, Sydney.
Why it works
Former AFL footballer Sam Kekovich sits at a desk in front of the Australian flag and delivers a deadpan, mock-statesmanlike rant against all things he considers un-Australian, vegetarians included, ordering the nation to eat lamb on Australia Day. BMF's 2005 spot was briefed to halt a decline in lamb sales and did it by attaching an everyday meat to a national holiday and a patriotic ritual. It is studied for owning a moment in the calendar and for its deliberate use of provocation: the first ad drew a wave of complaints, and controversy became part of the formula. Meat & Livestock Australia reported that within a decade lamb sales in the week before Australia Day were running about 48 per cent above an average week. The campaign has returned every summer for twenty years, later made by The Monkeys, and in 2024 won Australian Effies for both short- and long-term effects.
Techniques
- Transfer Seats its spokesman before the Australian flag and ties an everyday meat to Australia Day, borrowing patriotic ritual to make eating lamb a national duty.
- Humour A former footballer delivers a deadpan, mock-statesmanlike rant against all things he deems un-Australian, vegetarians included.
- Shock and provocation Deliberately provokes with its attacks on vegetarians and others, courting complaints and building that controversy into the yearly formula.
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