‘Don’t feel sorry for old mate’: Ad for Adelaide shows no sympathy for sad elderly man
An ad promoting the various experiences one can have while visiting South Australia’s Adelaide has savaged those who may regret not visiting the capital city sooner.
The ad features an elderly man getting teary as he looks around at younger people enjoying the city’s riches. The emotional music then cuts out as a voiceover says: “Don’t feel sorry for old mate. It’s his own damn fault he didn’t visit Adelaide sooner”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jyndIVod4k
The campaign also features a blog, allegedly written by the sad old man, which details to would-be-visitors what they can do on their trips.
Why do this?
Sadelaide.
This is a great example of new team, new agency making changes to something that wasn’t broke. SATC had such marvellous advertising going back just a few years, and now this, and that ridiculous train movie. Honest to god, what a disappointing waste of money.
After watching the ad I don’t want to visit Adelaide. I want to volunteer somewhere to help reconnect our seniors to their community.
Genuinely
What a horrible ad.
Who ever thought this would be a good idea needs to step out of adland and into the real world for a while.
Id expect this kind of cringe from Supercheap Auto, not a tourism council.
Completely tone deaf.
To me, this ad is actually quite amusing and cuts through the clutter. As one element of a bigger campaign, it can serve a solid role. The thing is, KWP or another Adelaide based agency could have easily created this sort of work given license to do so. Having grown up in Adelaide myself, it’s a highly creative place full of some of the most talented people I know; largely frustrated for lack of opportunity. This seems to me like a microcosm of a bigger issue within the industry – that is, the perceived need to pitch out accounts to deliver ‘more creativity,’ when the actual problem stems from the lack of candid and trusting relationships between clients and their agencies. Simply tell your agency that you want bigger and better ideas; it’ll be the best news they hear all day. Then, be bold enough to be pushed out of your comfort zone to actually buy it. Then both be accountable for its effectiveness. You’re likely to be pleasantly surprised, save yourself a pitch and in this case, keep the account where it’s sure to be most valued and prized – South Australia itself.
Great to see that unsuccessful pitch for White Lady Funerals didn’t go to waste.
I think this is a prime example of advertising trying to skate the fine line between subversion and creating an outraged response and being genuinely outrageous.
The story this ad is telling at its heart is of a sad old man who regrets not visiting the city earlier. So much so that it makes him cry in the final shot. This story is implausible and not exactly positive but I suppose it could appeal to people’s sense of YOLO.
In reality it’s a decent enough subversion of usual ads and tropes so it will get some attention. Would be interesting to see if this is part of a longer campaign where “old mate” returns for less morbid offerings. You might actually get a narrative and character arc (unlikely but hey – AAMI did it for Rhonda and Ketut).
Terrible ad, this!
The Barossa masterpiece launched 6 years ago challenged and championed South Australia and is still talked about. It was brave, empowering and turned tourism on its head. This ad is in stark contrast. Moody for all the wrong reasons. Shame SATC not even safe advertising – just sad.
Not sure if you’ve seen the comments online, but there’s quite a few that have said at least it wasn’t as bad as the Barossa be consumed ad. Public opinon hated that ad.
IMO it was fantastic and memorable and ultimately resulted in industry award winning work, but ultimately it was ineffective and turned out to be nothing more then a beautiful cinematic piece that won silverware.
Time will tell on how this current ad works effectiveness wise, but it’s certainly something that’s gotten attention.
Actually confused if you looked at the NVS (National Visitor Survey from Tourism.Research Australia) you would have seen there was an increase in visitation due to the “Barossa”.effect in 2013. It put SA on the map – sure there were haters but the overall consensus was that the rest of Australia used this ad as a benchmark for best in class Destination marketing, pivotal turning point I’d say.
If you dug deeper into the Barossa campaign, you’d find the only negativity about the campaign came from the cultural-cringe / never-happy-with-anything lot within South Australia itself. Interstate this delivered nothing but great out comes for SATC.
I don’t care what the outrage police have to say but it’s rare that an ad captures my attention enough for me to sit up in surprise, exclaim “OMG, I love it”, subsequently remember who / what it’s advertising and then say to my friends “hey have you seen the new SA ad… isn’t it awesome?”
I understand that it might not work the same way for everyone, but I do think it works to challenge perceptions of SA (boring, something to do when you’re older) and appeal to the vast array of us (the people who they have identified as their target market) who use the words “old mate” not in an offensive or ageist way, but to refer to a person we simply don’t know the name of.
I’ve been to SA and I’m not sure I had a compelling reason to go again until I saw this ad. And reading/hearing how people are going on about it – you know what – I might just go to stick it to you all. Good on SA for daring to challenge and be different from every other boring postcard tourism ad.
The sad thing about missing the mark with humour and bringing our unconscious bias out in the work we produce is not being aware of the stereotypes that are harmful to others and are perpetuated through accidental small and seemingly harmless decisions throughout the creative process. The end result is something that offends people and harms a segment of the community. Worse still it impacts the performance of the brand and their reputation at the same time.
This attempt to be funny is jarring to people because it is showing an elderly man, alone and sad in the later years of his life which is feeding off a stereotype or a misunderstanding of this generation that many find offensive (fair enough too). Showing him looking on over the young spritely people having fun and him not contributing in the same way as if a lesser person is offensive to many. There is no reason that someone of any age can’t enjoy the same things. There should be no sense of ‘missing out’ just because he is older in age. This is probably the worst part of this ad.
My concern is that this was completely accidentally approved by every person in the creative process and no one had a clue that they were collectively moving the campaign to an ageist place. Unconscious bias does that to you.
The creative process begins with research, strategy and ends with the production company and amplified by media. I can guarantee you that many agencies do not have this on their radar and are at risk of producing work that is off the mark like this. In my experience it is Ted Horton’s agency Big Red leading the way on this topic, by the way if you want to know. They never shout out about this, but they are definitely breaking ground and are a brilliant role model.
A survey by Kantar recently said that 83% of marketers in APAC believe their organisations are creating advertising that avoids gender stereotypes, but 63% of consumers disagree and think advertising reinforces stereotypes. We are so off the mark as an industry. Gender is way ahead of the curve compared to ageism, so we need to be smarter about this, collectively.
Please agencies… let’s get better at this stuff.
Wonderful, thoughtful reply. Sadly, probably above the heads of many of the people who are too busy patting themselves on the back at how good they are and lamenting how some people “must don’t get it” to even hear what you’re saying, let alone acknowledge it and adjust accordingly. I liked your comment so much I checked out your website – great to see actual goodness making its way into our industry – I’d work for you any day. Keep doing the right thing.
Spot on.
My first reaction to seeing this ad was “why can’t our old mate be enjoying himself too? Is it because he’s old? Alone? Do young people have the monopoly on fun?” It’s the “too late” that’s particularly jarring – oops, you’re old now, forget about enjoying life!
Lazy stereotyping, and agree wholeheartedly with the issue of unconscious bias in agencies. The copy on the blog is cringeworthy too.
This is an awful advert – just loosing my father pulls at heart strings not about Adelaide (even though I am from Adelaide) I felt sorry for the elderly gentleman as being alone not having anyone to share the last golden years of his life. Outrageous never disliked an advert more that this one …
I can tell from the comments that this is unpopular – but I liked the ad
The concept is very fine, the shots are excellent, there is only one thing wrong with this ad, and that is the lack of care taken in the artistic direction of the short but oh so important voice over.
Theatre demands that there is a carefully controlled metering of the truths intended to evoke emotion.
The images here build to a crucial point which works brilliantly well, then the poorly directed voiceover delivered without care, robs the hitherto well-constructed device of its emotional power, which has the immediate effect of leaving the audience cheated, let down, or even worse, it leaves them hostile.
N.B. The best of theatre is always a collaborative exercise, each element must interlock with the other, this is how it retains its structural integrity.
Residents of the territory promoted are always the most vociferous critics of their destination’s mass media campaigns. I’m in the target market (70+) of the exampled creative ‘presenter’ – but the real target market is obviously those not yet this old. It’s generating much discussion and flow-on awareness. Like some other commentators, I will be keeping an eye out for any integrated campaign extensions . . . and it has actually sparked consideration for me to revisit this always attractive city. As a tourism marketer of 40 years experience, the challenge is always to convert vague positive intention into a ‘must go’ decision. Suggest critics climb down from their vocal idealism and look at the visitor figures change in the next 12 months before making a valid judgement.
First I see an old man walking by himself. A bus ride to what looks like a picnic. Walking A child runs past. His grandchild? He sees a young couple. He is sad. I think, ahh, his wife just died and this is her wake. We then see him travelling around someplace and visiting different locations, by himself. Visiting the places where he and his wife lived. He is at a stadium. He cries. Something memorable happened here! Their first date? No. It was a set-up for a gag at his expense. Geez, for the first time I wished I was watching Seniors Insurance! Even the underlying insight of regretting that you did not see something sooner before it is too late, is pitiful.
‘Adelaide. Where the plot goes to get lost’.
Cruel, bullying, disrespectful, unfunny. Crass, primary school-level unpleasantness.
A crying old man is never going to be funny. Nobody involved thought of that? None of you have grandfathers? What makes it even more pathetic is that there’s no truth in it— maybe if it was Rome or Paris , but if you’re crying about Adelaide you’ve got other issues.
Yes, the reviews are negative, but the images are not to blame for this outrage. the ill-conceived and seriously misdirected voicing is the culprit and the sole seat of the problem.
I would have cut just before the old man’s eyes drop at the close of the wine in the park scene, but apart from that, the images are just fine.
This is a good ad ruined by a bad moment.