Wednesday, 13 April 2011

It’s Un Australian

It’s a term that pre-dates the 20th century, but only recently seems to have found its way into our everyday vernacular – ‘un Australian’. Apparently, it used to describe art or literature with distinctly non-Australian characteristics (thank you Wikipedia).

Nowadays though the term has taken on a life of its own and has any number of inferences. To some it means something that is ‘unfair’, ‘unjust’ or ‘unreasonable’. Or simply, something that defies what is generally accepted as ‘the cultural norm’ (AKA the majority view).

Politicians regularly use it as irrefutable justification for criticism of anyone or anything that contravenes their political agenda. Then there’s the satirical variation (think Kath and Kim) – instead of ‘un Australian’, it’s ‘un Austryyaaalyan’.

Whatever your interpretation of the term, Clubs Australia have just invested $20 million in a campaign based entirely on its premise. Launching online on Monday and scheduled to run across tv, outdoor, and online channels, ‘Licence to punt’ will attempt to convince you that proposed government reforms on pokie machines should be rejected, because quite simply – they’re ‘un Australian’.

Here’s an excerpt from the TVC:

Bloke 1: “This licence to pay the pokies the feds are talking about. That’s a bit of a worry.”

Bloke 2: “What?”

Bloke 1: “See some bloke in Tassie got voted in and Gillard needs his vote and he hates pokies”

Bloke 2: “No way, a licence to have a punt? It’s un-Australian”

Rather than focus on potential job losses or economic implications of the reforms, Clubs Australia have led with an ‘un Australian’ proposition. But will the message be accepted by its target audience? And what level of sophistication does it assume about them? Is the ‘un Australian’ argument strong enough to win the battle, or would another insight have done a better job. Time will tell…

THE DM GROUP develop strategic and creative communications for our clients every day. Integral to this is a thorough understanding of their audiences. If you’d like our advice on your customer communication strategy, we’d be delighted to hear from you.