MLA accused of promoting rape, kidnap and murder of sheep in Australia Day ad complaints
Meat and Livestock Australia is accused of promoting the rape, kidnap and murder of sheep in just one of hundreds of complaints received by the advertising watchdog since the campaign, starring SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin, launched two weeks ago.
The Advertising Standards Bureau fast-tracked its investigation into more than 600 complaints and handed down its decision yesterday, saying the ad was not in breach of standards and had merely employed humour to deliver its message.
Many of the complaints about the TV version of the ad were dismissed outright because they complained about a scene where a vegan’s home is torched, which appears only in the longer online version. Most had seen the scene in news broadcasts and on breakfast shows such as Sunrise.
Aussies used to have a great sense of humour. We’d laugh at most things whether it was PC or not. When was the last time you all heard a cracking joke in the office or from your friends?
In a world that is being dramatised by commercial news broadcasts with over-coloourful adjectives (just watch C7 news the home of dramatic news) and everyone being scared of saying the wrong thing in case of offending sensitive people can everyone chill a bit.
Some of those comments are like the ones when some scientists got some CO2 up their lab coats when ‘The Day After tomorrow” was release and banged on their thermometers that an event like that wouldn’t happen in that way. The studio replied “It’s A Movie!”.
Imagine the social stratosphere PC comments if Fast Forward, Paul Hogan, D Generation and the other great Oz comedy shows were airing today with the same content, jokes and skits (a lot that were so not PC) that made us laugh, cringe and share at work.
Whether you like the ad or not, good on you Monkeys and MLA for giving us something to laugh about – if not the ad then certainly the comments and “uproar” it’s generated.
Is it just me, or are the complaints more entertaining than the ad itself?
Suggesting Australian’s of “kidnapping and raping sheep” is preposterous – as for New Zealanders that’s another matter altogether….laugh…come on…its meant to be in jest…..like the MLA lamb ad.
I hope next year’s ad has Sam Kekovich in blackface to really get the lefty loonies up in arms!
“It’s a joke, Joyce.”
Sadly, Australia seems more intent on being outraged, offended and insulted these days than they are at having a laugh at ourselves.
Thank God sanity prevailed. Becoming a f@#$ing nanny state!
I am a vegetarian. My wife is too, and she used to be a vegan (that wasn’t much fun). We think the ad is fun. It won’t make us buy lamb though …
OMG Vegans really are pussy’s if they are complaining about being marginalised! Wake up people, it’s a joke : )
To hell with the vegans tofu is just UnAustralian, And as for the PC police most of them hadn’t had a laugh since 1991, that’s why their faces look like squashed lemons.
If anything it makes me want to eat more lamb and drink more beer. Its ‘Straya day people it is suppose to take the piss.
Perverse all this really because the ad isn’t at all funny.Corny if anything.
Hoges was really funny.
OK OK!! I’ll flipp’n watch it!!!
God..
The complainers are taking the wrong angle.
The real issue here is that not being funny is a crime against comedy.
It’s really sad to see how Australian comedy has waned in recent years, with the notable exception of the robust, in-your-face “Housos” – which was mainly funny for who it annoyed.
This isn’t the same – this Sam whatever-his-name-is and co are trying, but the writing talent just isn’t there, the directing and timing aren’t there. It’s lame. It’s embarrassing.
@Mike – your statement lost all credibility when you typed “It’s really sad to see how Australian comedy has waned in recent years, with the notable exception of the robust, in-your-face “Housos”
“Housos”. Yep. Comedy Gold.
I really hope you were being tongue in cheek. But assuming you’re not, then by your own logic, this Lamb ad should be hilarious by your ‘comedy rating meter’ because it annoyed a bunch of people, according to the ASB.
I agree with your “It’s lame. It’s embarrassing” part though. Oh hang on, you meant the ad, not ‘Housos’…
It may interest readers to learn that the funniest complaint (the allegation of ritual rape/murder of sheep) is in fact an oft-repeated mantra of the vegan militant project which is deliberately setting out to destroy animal agriculture in this country.
Vegan websites, particularly on facebook, create co-ordinated campaigns. One of their key mantras is that the “forced impregnation” of farm animals (i.e. letting them run with bulls and rams etc) is rape.
The campaign against this advertisement was a co-ordinated effort by vegan groups on facebook. Their facebook pages are full of threats of retribution against the meat industry.
Thankfully, Australians detest militant animal liberationism however it is dressed up.
I like how most of the posts say people should get a sense of humour. I agree, the writing and directing of this piece is absolute shite. It’s classic advertising hypster meets aussie guy with a southern cross tattoo… boring!! Not offended, just not funny.
@ DVDA and others who make judgements about the production and/or its right to be called comedy, and/or its degree of funniness.
The ads are clearly intended to amuse; the degree to which they will amuse is beyond the control of the writers, producers, actors, or the director.
Any production, comedic or dramatic, depends in the final analysis upon the audience. The willingness of those who view the work, to suspend disbelief and/or engage in the crazy nature of the plot and the action. In the case of these Australia Day ads, the producers did extremely well within the inherent time confines of driving a marketing message via the media to the maximum number of people who will experience the ads.
Richard,Richard,Richard ….stop right there and read my lips-IT’S NOT FUNNY!!!!!!
Bovine University…
I hope next year’s ad has Sam Kekovich in blackface to really get the right-wing fascists up in arms!
Any yet tits and ass in rubber is just fine.
@ Puhleeeeze
It is not possible for me to read your lips, but why don’t you read my opinion (the one to which you have replied) more carefully, you will see that within it, I have already supported your right to deem it funny or not.
OUTRAGE OUTRAGE OUTRAGE!!!
“I love lamb”…. No, no, no! Sorry I meant to say “I love lamp” 😉
The idea of having some unidentified person crashing into my home and unleashing a flame-thrower towardst my floor has always greatly amused me.
Dear Richard
To say that the extent to which people find this “amusing” is out of the control of the writers and directors is the most amusing thing I’ve heard so far!! You know that there are writers and directors that create TVCs that go beyond amusing and delve into the world of being funny!
Of course the MLA’s ad attacks vegans. They are a minority group in Australia that most people think are a bit odd. Easy target, guaranteed an easy laugh. And guaranteed to get riled up if you laugh at them.
And of course vegans are not the MLA’s biggest problem in terms of the Australian meat consumption market. About 30 years ago, Australians consumed equivalent amounts of chicken and lamb. Since then, lamb consumption has halved and chicken has doubled. Chicken is cheaper and perceived as more convenient and healthier*. And no amount of blokey ads will change that.
If the MLA want to pick a fight with someone who is a real threat to them then they’d go after chicken. But they are too busy being chickens** so they go after easy targets like vegans instead.
*I am not a chicken industry shill. And yes I know that many of the farming practices of the chicken industry are unpleasant.
**Did you see what I did there? With gags like that, I should be writing MLA ads.
Behold, some data: http://www.smh.com.au/national.....kjhp4.html
As the meat eating son of a family of Vegans, It is my duty to give my parents and brother a hard time about their lifestyle choice at every family event. I do this out of love. Nobody hates vegans. My family know this, and imo all of them do.
It’s the same treatment we give our mate for driving a Great Wall ute (great ute maate) and it’s the same treatment we give our work mate that gets a new haircut.
This isn’t bullying a minority group, it’s laughing at our mates. We do this pretty much for anyone who steps a little outside of ‘the norm’.
I thought the ad was a great step up from the regular Sam ads.