Torching of vegan’s home in lamb Australia Day ad draws dozens of Ad Standards complaints

“We must be outraged about something!!”

Since when did lamb become the symbol of Australia Day? I wonder if it was around the time Meat & Livestock Australia started splashing money around trying to make outrageous ads about it.

I’m sure if we saw what really happens – someone butchering a lamb and slicing it up – instead of focusing on celebrities, it would put people off their supper (on any day of the year) instead of deriding vegans and vegetarians as being weak and inferior.

As a vego I’m more offended by the unrealistic size of that NYC apartment.

This is about the third Mumbrella article in a row where people have been outraged about something trivial. However, I suspect this one was carefully planned to elicit just this type of responses. Mission accomplished.

Vegans don’t mind a joke at their own expense, especially when it comes from carnivorous fat-munchers who will be on life support in the cardiovascular ward 30 years before they ever will.
And they’re accustomed to juvenile characterisations by oafish, sausage-fingered types as we see in this campaign.
But advocating acts of violence towards vegos is going too far. Forget about advertising standards – it’s actually against the law, as is any incitement to violence.
Beyond that, the Meat & Livestock board are simply embarrassing themselves. Clearly they need some grown-ups to run the organisation.

@Andy I’m sure if we saw what really happens on Australia Day that sausages would be the food of choice and not necessarily lamb ones either.

@Spinner and your point is?

Brilliant Ad. MMmmm Lamb

Brilliant ad; makes me wanna eat lamb.

violence? Its so clearly a tongue in cheek ad. some people have no sense of humour

Just shows how defensive Meat and Livestock Australia is about veganism. I think they are starting to realise the size of the groundswell. Keep the ads coming!

they should add : this lamb is halal; eat halal lamb for more outrage

Come on you guys, where is your aussie sense of humour? Really I sure there are more important things going on in the world to worry about don’t you think?

@Spinner What is trivial about the unnecessary violence and suffering of 19 million innocent lambs that are killed each year in Australia?

I’m glad more people are speaking up against the systematic oppression of animals and calling out organisations that promote violence.

Dumb carnists.

The ASB makes lodging a complaint a really difficult exercise.

This is so close in execution to cod napped from 72 and Sunny.

http://www.advertolog.com/call.....-18763705/

It’s very entertaining (the 72 and Sunny piece)

First world problems. Some people clearly get offended at anything on TV.

@ Andy & others. I’ve actually made my own lamb, suckling pig etc on the spit, including the slaughter. Best way to eat meat, fresh. So no, it wouldn’t turn everyone of there dinner.

Just proof you need to eat meat to have a sense of humour and to recognise parody

The more vegans the better, more lamb for the humans,

Aussie Vegan here. If any other vegos out there think this is a reason to get your knickers in a knot, you’ve lost it. We know the lamb industry is horrible, do what we can to shut it down but I’m personally flattered they think we’re such a big problem they have to keep putting us in their ads.

As a vegan, I think the way the lifestyle is getting a mention is showing that we’re on the radar in ways no one would have expected a few years ago. To be made fun of is part of the enterprise. Social media is making a difference in letting average people into the hidden worlds of the meat and dairy industries, so that will only continue to reach more and more. As for bad taste, though, how are none of the normal, lamb-munching Lefties up in arms about calling it Operation: Boomerang to celebrate Australia (Invasion) Day?

How do you know if someones a vegan. Don’t worry they will tell you.

“How do you know if someone is vegan, don’t worry they will tell you”

You say this after watching an ad saying that unless you eat lamb you are un Australian. If that isn’t shoving your opinions down our throats, I don’t know what is”

Aussie vegetarian here. That ad is hilarious. And I think he is taking the flamethrower to the food on the table, not the table.

I think the ad is demeaning to Australia, and to all Australians. Surely, they could have created an ad without the images of violence. It is not funny or clever, it is just plain stupid. The MLA must have money to waste, and they certainly need a revamp of their advertising propaganda.

I am not a vegan, but, I do respect the freedom in Australia to choose our own lifestyle. Why pick on vegans? Suggesting violence to vegans is disgusting, imagine if other minority groups were targeted in this manner.

This add is barbaric n offensive. Why not watch something like this https://vimeo.com/130694373 n see what truely happens in animal agriculture. Its barbaric.

This add is offensive n racist.

Vegans are from Vega, right?

As such I’m opposed to any ads denigrating (am I allowed to say that?) friendly aliens – and dead sheep.

The ad is fun. Some people – and aliens- need to get a life or six.

Is this ad meant to insult us? Australia Day is our special day, and this this ad is degrading. We have more than enough violence in our society without an ad campaign which exploits Australia Day, it is not amusing, it is rather sad.

The money the MLA spent could have been spent feeding disadvantaged and homeless people on Australia Day, this would certainly have gained public support.

I particularly noticed the violence aimed at vegans, which I think is inappropriate, My family and I are not vegans. Vegans have the right to celebrate Australia Day in the way they prefer. Many people choose not to eat meat, for a diversity of reasons.

The outrage is hilarious. Doubly hilarious given many vegans are the first to dance with glee around the supposed prospect that meat eaters will all die horribly early of heart disease (even if the stats dont back it up). See examples in this very thread.

It’s not Australian to eat lamb, it’s a forced barbaric tradition you don’t understand.
If you need to endorse the slaughter of innocence to celebrate the beauty that our country holds, what are you celebrating? the rape and torture that we commit? To bully and victimize another individual who holds a different opinion to yours?

I’m not sure but this is backwards, twisted and an insult to the beautiful country that I live in and it’s sadly blanketed by a group of murderous cowards whom justify their pathetic actions for greed and easily transmit this propaganda to a society unable to think for themselves.

‘How do you know if someone eats meat? Don’t worry they will tell you, insult you and belittle you.’

I can think of few brands and NO other industries that; like threatened children, present the non participants as people deserving of punishment. It’s not offensive, it’s just silly. I can’t imagine the outrage of a community like car owners, if the public transport authorities made a commercial that singled them out as a threat, torching their propert and suggesting they were an enemy. It’s a crude example I know, but apply it to any other philosophical opponents. I just can’t think of another example.

Suck it up guys – it’s got you all talking so did its job. Ambush marketing at its best.

Once the clever country, now just a lump of dirt covered in bogans.

If they want to advertise Lamb, why don’t they show a baby sheep crying out for its Mum before getting its throat slit…(what, the truth!)

The ad is dribble aimed at morons and a good excuse for some creative t-shirts and a note taker to have a world trip.

Wah wah f@#king wah…. Some people are just born f@#kwits with nothing better to do than p!ss and moan about anything that should dare stray from the politically correct ideals… Grow a sense of humor you deadsh!t pr!cks

Really scared by 8yo Veggie daughter.
Thanks.

‘Operation Boomerang’
Someone signed off on this?!
Yikes…

Eating lamb has zero to do with being Australian. Being Australian is about helping the weak. Not eating them.

Vegans, or at least those I know, will see the joke. But I can see the Australian ambassador to Denmark being called in by the Danish Foreign Office to be severely reprimanded for the kidnapping scene, which will lead to a boycott of Danish pastries by outraged Australians. I am ‘rasende’!

@Mike. Sounds like someone needs some lamb…

The outrage bus now stopping at the Meat and Livestock Association. Where’s the next stop?

Clearly a case of veganophobia. No different to homophobia or xenophobia. How long before we hear stories of vegans being violently attacked on the streets? Fear and hate are NEVER a good basis for humour.

You have to hope that the real idiot posts here, and they are not hard to spot, are from people outside the advertising business because if they are not we’re all screwed.

This ad would be off the air in a second in a lot of other western countries where people actually think critically. Australians just don’t get it. Australia day ignores and laughs in the face of genocide, the livestock industry is unimaginably unethical and cares about you and the animals as much as the tobacco industry and torching someone’s apartment for their lifestyle choice is just something we don’t need, particularly for the way that it plays into their commercial interests.

So irresponsible to trivialise the gross carbon footprint, suffering and health risks involved in consuming mass produced ‘meat’. Very un-Australian.

As a person, I can take many jokes but i will never laugh at something that validates oppressive behavior or pokes fun at minority groups.

Vegans are a peaceful minority group who have done nothing but stand up (peacefully) for a gross social injustice. Encouraging violence toward an already persecuted minority is irresponsible advertising.

Completely insensitive and Unnessecary.
I don’t see how barging into someone’s house, scaring them and burning down their table is considered funny or acceptable! Along with this brings violent towards a peaceful minority group is Australian??

If Australia was built on mateship, then animals are my mates. I don’t eat my mates. Is that Australian enough?

Proved Vegans don’t have a sense of humour

Australia Day?? No day justifies the cruelty that abounds in the agriculture business! As long as people view animals as a commodity, there will never be any change.

What a disgusting ad on many levels. Glorifying the violence of war and glorifying the murder of innocent sheep!!

Some vegans aren’t doing their stereotype any favours by reinforcing those steretypes

Get a life for goodness sake its meant to be tongue in cheek…or are they all so sensitive they cannot take a joke…..Good on you Alan for being upfront and telling it how it is..

Fifty years ago I had the chance of coming to Australia permanently from the UK. Stupidly I opted out. Since then I’ve been cheered by the Aussies’ sense of humour, their directness and bluntness- at times just brilliant. Here’s a cold one held up to Aussie humour and a big thumbs down to the miseries. Happy new year and have a great day –

as a vegetarian, i have to say i find this whole situation deeply offensive. i mean, have we come to a point where THIS ad is deemed offensive and requires immediate and panicked investigation? really? what about it was offensive? have you ever listened to a vegan rant? they’re more violent than this ad ever could be.

as someone who despises bigotry and the boganification of our public transport, i am even MORE offended that this ad tweaks someone’s political correct tear ducts. really? THIS is what you want to cry about? THIS?

pick up your pants, australia. and clean your room while you’re at it.

As a vegan expat, i found the ad really funny. That said, I don’t really celebrate Australia Day, (insert intelligent Indigenous rights comment)…

Bring on the Aussie Day BBQ with lamb the focus. Critics accept the ad for what it is – great promotion of lamb meat delivered in true Aussie style.

The people who made this ad should be executed.

The advert shows our kids that’s its cool to torch someone who’s different table/lounge.
Had the vegan been a muslim, black, disabled, the public would be up in arms. Why could’nt they have just left that bit out?

Have any of the advertising people involved in this advert gone and taken a lambs life, cut it up and cooked it on the barbie? I doubt it. Its all done for you, neatly prepackaged in plastic wrapping at Coles. Yet we are not allowed to advertise that on TV because its too offensive and violent.

Wow.

“violence”, “genocide”, “war”, “murder”, “homophobia”, “racist”

Are people really using these words to discuss an ad for chops?

With over 23 years in the advertising industry, this ad is a waste of money and does not at all depict what Australian’s stand for.

Get a grip!!!

Political correctness = enemy of comedy

Brilliant advert, people will remember it and what the object was, Lamb!

It’s not at all surprising that the ads feature such violence. That’s what the meat industry is all about: violence towards our fellow sentient beings. It’s also about indulging a harmful appetite and environmental destruction. Hopefully, however, the Advertising Standards Bureau will have the good sense to acknowledge that allowing the promotion of such violence is completely inappropriate and not in the public’s best interest. Hopefully the public will realize that the production and consumption of animal products is animal abuse: plain, ugly, and unjustifiable.

I just don’t know what MLA gets for their money with this annual f&@?fest.
Can someone explain.

Oh dear, there are masses of reasons for eating whole foods & plant base, ie the environment, health, animals welfare our children’s future. However will leave you with a response to violence & killing by the well known Australian painter Jo Fredericks.

Silence of the Lambs.
A response to the meat industries annual TV commercial for Australia Day.
‪#‎neverlambalone‬ ‪#‎farm365‬ ‪#‎voiceless365‬ ‪#‎toplambshotthat‬ ‪#‎AustraliaDay‬
https://www.facebook.com/Jo.Frederiks/photos/a.177961972286102.45994.177955435620089/773620606053566/?type=3&theater

Cutting out animals products will reverse coronary heart disease & many many other diseases. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTf0z_zVs0

I have just completed a 12 week course by the Diabetic Health Clinic on the Sunshine Coast. Of the 50 people who completed the course ALL went of their medication & lost weight even the type 1 diabetic. The evidence is out there if people choose to read it otherwise they can bury their heads in the sand & die early, sad deaths.
https://youtu.be/ONypm91T6Cs?t=7

They’re not trying to sell lamb to vegans, so who really gives a shit what they think…

To all the vegans posting about “genocide” and the like:

Well done, you’re doing exactly what’s expected for this campaign. You’re not lost sales, as you’re not potential sales anyway. MLA don’t care if you’re offended, but they love the publicity.

And the histrionics above mean you’re unlikely to convince anyone to give up meat. You are to vegetarianism what Donald Trump is to conservatism. A small percentage of nut jobs love you, but the majority can’t stand your extremist bullsh1t.

@Jesse Wright

That’s the biggest load of bull – or in your case tofu sh*t – I’ve heard in a long time.

In America they advertise vibrators during prime time TV. European ads are known for being ridiculously risqué. That’s coming from someone who’s lived there, not someone who’s just seen the awarded work.

The only countries where advertising could possibly be more conservative than Australia are Malaysia and a few other Asian / Middle Eastern countries with high cultural sensitivities.

Now if you dislike the ad because you’re a vegan, that’s your choice. Be offended. That’s your right.

The fact that vegans are responsible for 4 football fields of the Amazon Rainforest being cleared every day due to demand for soy-based products from Asia (the main one being Tofu) makes me very angry indeed. Soy based products that you eat. That’s 4 football fields of rainforest with potentially life saving medicine that we will never know about. Does some of it go to cattle-feed? Sure. But only if you eat ranched cattle from the US.

My lamb and beef is Australian and it’s grass or saltbush fed. As a result, I actually kill less animals a year than yourself.

Don’t believe me? Think about this. Why is a cows life, which gives a small village it’s protein needs for easily a week any more precious than the millions of insects killed to make your food?

Foods that you need to eat more of to make up for the vitamin and amino acid deficiencies caused from not eating meat.

You can get as high and mighty as you want. But you murder far more animals than I do, yet you call an industry that is the backbone of this country and supports many farmers who grow other crops, namely vegetables ‘unimaginably unethical’. I simply point out the hypocrisy.

Not fussed by the vegan thing.

Very fussed by how unoriginal this is. Watch this, then watch the video again.

Very, very similar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6Si3bmogK4

I don’t think there was anything offensive about the vegan part. But just really think about this. Moral question – Irrespective of whether you eat meat or not – a lamb is a baby sheep that never got to grow up – do you think it’s ok?

Go Vegan.! : )

Meat and dairy sales continue to fall. So, spending the farmers’ and slaughter industries money to claw back some sales is predictable. The trouble is people are becoming more compassionate or more health conscious or both and trends like that are going to be hard to reverse. Animal cruelty and their needless death is not so popular when the facts are out and folks have had a gut full of losing family and friends, way too young, to rampant man-created heart disease (just one example). So, their real enemy is education. And once governments find out the zillions that can be saved by emptying hospital beds, those sales will go South much faster.
Meat and dairy are shrinking; Veganism (read “common sense”) is multiplying, it can only go one way, despite clawing.
Some industries will shrink, others will grow, crop farms will flourish and a healthier, happier, longer living, massively less polluting, ‘humane’ race will be the outright winners.

This ad is really stupid, Un-Australian because if they don’t eat lamb? What idiot thought that one up?

One day MLA might actually produce an ad that will encourage me to go out and have an Australia Day Bar B Que. So far though, their yearly Australia Day ad campaigns have been dismal failures and this years ad is no exception.

Organisations like MLA want people to complain, complaints generate untold free publicity for them. Ignoring the ad and not going out and buying meat for an Australia Day Bar B Que is the most effective way of hurting them where it matters most, the financial bottom line and ultimately, they end up loosing because they’ve failed to achieve what they set out to do. The thing advertisers fear the most is indifference by the public to their advertising or the public completely ignoring it.

If we can live without causing suffering and harm to others why wouldn’t we do that? It’s not necessary to consume non-human animals, and it is difficult to see why people are still so attached to doing that when there are alternatives to supporting an industry that institutionally causes harm.

After reading this article now convinced the world has gone mad.. can’t handle a bit of cheeky advertising.

The truth may well be that social media has given very “Loony Tune” an in-road to the mass audience.

We are clearly looking at a comedic send up of every western “might is right” movie ever made.

Vegans, vegos, and anti meat groups, have boycotted, used graffiti, and generally rallied against meat, meat production, and meat eating, for decades if not centuries; a bunch of them even jeopardised a live meat export, by contaminating it with pork products.

The Vegan character in the ad. is unharmed and never in any danger, only his vego lunch is barbecued by the flame thrower. None of the complaints seem to be aimed at the destruction of property or the abduction of Royalty, the blatant disregard for foreign policy, or the arrogance of Australian attitudes. Why? because the whole thing is a very entertaining joke, a satire, a bit of fun…..remember fun?

I am waiting for some expert to tell us that plants have feelings & thus should not be murdered.

Then what are these complainants going to do? Eat fossil fuel based products?

Brilliant ad to make people go vegan!

This ad is so offensive, what a waste of money.
An insult to vegans, vegetarians the indigenous community.
I don’t think killing and eating a lamb represents what being an Australian is about.
I think Australia day is about more than a lamb chop….
Not to mention all the violence, again what a waste of money.

The Monkeys definitely made those complaints. Love it.

Whingers, boring whingers everywhere.

There certainly is is a lot of high dudgeon in this string about what is essentially a joke. Right then. No more laughing!

Vegans demonstrate why only Vegans like Vegans.

If a brand like Coka-Cola came out and said that people who didn’t drink Coke were unAustralian, there would be widespread uproar. The reason meat-eaters don’t seem to mind being told the same thing by the meat industry is because they find safety in numbers; a refuge in the masses shielding them from the unease they feel about the slaughtering of animals – If the majority thinks it’s ok then it MUST be fine.

ABC News and other media outlets, report that the new Australia Day lamb advertisement attracts dozens of complaints from vegans. One particular scene has already been the subject of dozens of complaints.
It shows a team of special agents breaking into a New York apartment and using a blow-torch on a table holding a bowl of kale, after the occupant protests that he is vegan. Complainants argue that the use of a blow-torch was an act of violence, and had no place in food advertising.
How is blow-torching kale any more violent and unsuitable in food advertising, than kale, together with other innocent vegetables, being reduced to ‘smoothies’ in a blender with a 1700w motor and extractor blades?
In fact, the chomping on and gnawing at these much revered vegetables, as well as fruit, by devoted vegans, hell-bent on extracting their optimum nutrients, could not be labelled a merciful act.

Oh the moral outrage. Seriously, have we lost our sense of humor? Its hardly denigrating vegans, it does not promote violence towards any individual. Its tongue in cheek, good creative fun. Well done guys… its a winner for sure.

entries will soon close in this year’s competition to find the most literal, unimaginative and humourless consumers of advertising.

it appears the contest will be tightly fought with a record number of entries with selection criteria that will no doubt prove offensive to all competitors.

Good luck to you all

Btw – I think it would be interesting to tally up the comments from the vegans and those from meat eaters and analyse the sentiment. It seems that the carnivores comments are a lot more aggressive, personally attacking and insulting than those from the vegans. Why get so worked up about it? Or does shouting the loudest make it easier to cover up those feelings of guilt and unease about eating another species babies?

https://vimeo.com/151448380

What sort of idiot really thinks MLA spends this much money to sell more lamb one day of the year?!

How do you know someone is a vegan? They tell you.

Hilarious

there is a context to the complaints, vegos wouldn’t care less about the torching bit but ag-gag laws in Australia and America are aiming to make exposure of animal welfare concerns illegal (illegal to take and release footage as proof) and its been years now that interference in animal agriculture via protest or rescue of injured,mistreated animals has been classed as terrorism (no , not joking unfortunately).

So when you have an advert where a vego blokes house is broken into and set fire to it makes peoples hypocrisy detectors go off *because* the advert and lamb campaign is pushed by meat and livestock australia who also support the restrictions on public reporting of animal welfare concerns.
They are saying people can’t jump gates to record an animal dying in its own filth but then joking that you can break into a vegos house and take flame throwers to it.

nick williams, imagine for a second that animals australia had an advert where they sent armed personnel kicking down doors, said they were taking a bloke for a vego meal and when he said “but I’m eating a sausage” they torched his place – Barnaby Joyce would have a conniption and people would be going on about typical militant vegos.

in a vacuum the advert would just be viewed as humorous but we are in an environment where the lobbies who funded this campaign are pushing politicians to make animal welfare reporting by concerned parties effectively illegal.

The most astounding thing about these ads is we constantly see meat producers putting their hand out for emergency government financial assistance all the time, yet they always have plenty of money to have their marketing organisation MLA make these expensive and extravagant Australia Day ads every year

Boo hoo! Cry me a salad!

It’s brilliant & it’s just the kind of Icon injection Australia needs. Bugger off back to your soy-infused Tofu burgers before you upset your tummies.

Steve Jobs was a vegan. ‘Nuff said.

How do you know someone isn’t vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll be shoving the bodies of sentient beings down their throats.

How do you know if someone isn’t vegan?

They have a heart attack and die. Mmmmmmmm heart attack hahahahah pmsl!!

If you think veganism is a joke why don’t you watch Earthlings and then get back to me you corpse-munchers.

I think this is a good campaign and is obviously working based on the polarising comments. It’s super-bowl-super-social approach will work here in Australia and no doubt start spreading through the Aussie expat community, especially in London. I reckon the key to it is the activation component which makes it more credible and will make Aussies miss home. They should partner with Qantas if they haven’t already thought of it. I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t win creative / effectiveness awards for the agency and client. And no I don’t work for the Monkeys!

How disgusting to incite hatred towards vegans in such a violent way and to trivialize the abuse and murder of animals.

Merriam seems to think that Vegans are not Earthlings. Perhaps Merriam thinks they are higher beings.

Corpse munching lions, tigers, whales, and eagles are also “Earthlings.” Since they are neither vegetarian nor carnivorous, poor old humans have the choice to eat meat along with their vegetables or not, which along with the things over which they have no choice, like the colour of their skin, their individual origin, the colour of there eyes or hair, or the way they speak,makes them vulnerable to attack from those who are different.

I am sure that many Vegans and Vegetarians would hate to be thought of as prejudiced, as they would also hate to be told what they may or may not eat, but this doesn’t seem to be a consideration they extend to others.

Just what Australia needs: promotion of violence. This is an extra insult to our first people. I’m glad the MLA are feeling threatened by vegans though.

Every year Kekovich rambles on about lamb, and every year I think what a dickhead he is, and every year I don’t eat lamb.

As a promotion of Australianism, this add is beyond cringe factor. Makes Australians look like a bunch of morons… Hmmmm… Isn’t it time we looked at adopting some more mature cultural values, like inclusion, tolerance and acceptance, and make our goals for the future, equality and the saving of our planet, instead of continuing in our usual gluttonous small minded way.

Won’t go on a vegan rant here, but I have lodged a complaint. Hopefully the advertisement gets pulled and the MLA lose a lot of money.

Some people are just desperate to be offended by something, even an advert clearly made in jest. Ridic.

When will people wake up and realise that advertising excessive meat consumption is in poor taste?

The western world is wisening up to the negative effects of eating meat – on our environment, for animal wellbeing, and on our bodies.

So why are we still viewing animals as commodities? As an item we *need* to consume?

You’re not telling people to buy more toilet paper or fresh fruit. You’re encouraging people to consume more dead animals. Let’s be a bit more mindful of that.

I wont get started on the disgusting use of Aboriginal appropriation, but to quote a friend of mine “They love our culture, but they don’t love us”.

White Australians this means you: Stop taking what is not yours.

>>”Vegans are a peaceful minority group who have done nothing but stand up (peacefully) for a gross social injustice.”

Hitler was a vegan.

Morrissey is a vegan.

Wow. Someone must have linked this post to a Vegan facebook group, or yarn bombing circle or something.

All the vegan ranters that probably never read Mumbrella at all.

Hope Tim’s getting some click revenue out of it.

I’m off to eat a lamb sausage or two.

Yawn!!

In the context of a world where violent attacks against many minority groups are a shocking reality, I think that portraying this on an ad for a laugh is really disgusting. And a further twist of the knife to take an aborigonal word “operation boomerang” in relation to a day that is an insult to the genocide of aboriginal people proves to me this ad should be kept off air.

Just wanna know where is the violence
A flame thrower on a plate of veggies is hardly violent

Typical bro ad made by bro’s for douchbag bro’s to think is heaps mad so they’ll stuff more death into their colon. This ad is not funny (especially the second time), promotes violence to a country that already has significant violence issues, is insensitive to the unnecessary slaughter of millions of animals and, for the home run, racially insensitive to a people who had their homes and children taken from them. It is the same kind of crap formula that every brand with a target market predominantly made up of “da boys” falls back on. Not in the Aussie spirit of acceptance and open-mindedness either.

Freedom of expression means that people can voice their opinions for all sides of any topic, you don’t have to agree or disagree with anything presented. Thats the beauty of this country, you’re welcome to have an opinion, but that also means you might have to listen to one that you don’t agree with. Getting offended by an opinion is juvenile, expecting others to take on board your opinion is infantile and calling for an opinion to be removed from the public forum, because you disagree is downright unAustralian. Our forefathers fought and died for your right to express yourself, please don’t diminish their contribution by advocating againsts the rights that we all have because you personally disagree with a topic. Nobody is forcing anyone to eat lamb, nobody is forcing you to watch the commercial, get over it.

@Natasha.

Yes, but as you defend the supposed sacred nature of the Boomerng, you seem to have overlooked the fact that, not only is it a shared Australian Icon, but it was for thousands of years a hunting weapon, used for killing animals for meat.

The boomarang in its time, must surely have brought many home for a meat feast.

It was interesting reading Helen A Handcart refer to “All the vegan ranters that probably never read Mumbrella at all”.

I have to ask Helen A Handcart, how many times have you previously read Mumbrella?

And how many of the posters here, especially those making ignorant offensive comments about other posters are the same poster posting under different names

A previous comment was among other things trying to lump “genocide” into this contrived outrage of the totalitarian political eaters. Anybody remember the original Twilight Zone, which most people knew was fiction, but not all. Dear oh dear, the Education/Indoctrination System is failing us all.

Don’t worry about this promo. More people will eat the lamb and end up with a hideous form of cancer. Less of those morons in the world.

You don’t have to be vegan to see that this ad is offensive. No wonder the world is in a mess.

Can’t we all – white, red, blue, black etc – just celebrate Australia together because we’re all happy we live here? The more you shout that everyone is different, the longer society will stand divided. I love Australia – the end.

I bet you’ve never met a blackfella in your life. Your description ‘aboriginal’ confirms it – you’re probably some pasty white-boy who ran like the clappers when you saw a real-life fulla when you accidentally crossed the road at Sydney Uni one day.

Stop being so offended on our behalf. We actually don’t care about you.

As a body wash using, non pot smoking vegetarian I say “Let them eat meat” ….. also let them enjoy chewing down on the flesh of a cruelly butchered animal. Can you taste the fear..I heard it tenderises the meat. Or some lovely aged, putrifying flesh that has been dry aged. Oooh yumm. The older and more rotten the better, it ‘melts in your mouth so they say. I bet it does!!
You can have your meat, enjoy it. Buy it, cook it, eat it. I have been a vegetarian through personal choice since I was a young child. The rest of my family enjoy a good chew of the meat of a dead animal.
Stop rubbishing vegetarians. I don’t ram my views down anyone’s throat. Might have just now teeheee. Free will to eat antibiotic and hormone filled meat… your choice. As is my choice NOT to eat the stuff.

Watch “Hilarious behind the scenes clip from the new Aus Day Lamb Ad” on @Vimeo https://vimeo.com/151448380

This ad is just ridiculous. Yes it is offensive and violent, but even if one were to take it as a joke it doesn’t make much sense anyway….like why burn someone’s table?!wtf

Richard Moss

The Boomerang is not a shared icon but a symbol which over time was appropriated by white Europeans to represent Australia.

And even then, the boomerang is not actually Australian in origin as it has been well documented that it was used in other parts of the World and examples have even been found in the Egyptian Pyramids

And in any case when indigenous peoples hunted for food, they only ever took from the land what was sufficient to meet their needs. The same can’t be said for the aim of MLA’s champaign which is essentially to encourage excessive consumption of meat in the name of some manufactured jingoistic public holiday

I know right? They should have torched all those who go ‘gluten-free’when they aren’t actually coeliac sad well as the damn vegans.

Dr Mumbo are the IPs from all over ITT?

Wow guys let your freak flag fly, really this is fertile territory. I live with a plant genocidist but I never really knew of her otherkin.

Vegan: The Second Helping
“Can you taste the fear”
“putrifying flesh ”
“hideous cancer”
“murder innocent sheep”
“vegans violently attacked on the streets”
“slaughter of innocence”

I’m the first one to scoff at people complaining over ridiculous situations (reporter being asked out by cricket player, anyone?), however, this ad is so incredibly wrong. I am a vegan and it has transformed my life. I eat as much as I want, when I want- and honestly I’m not munching on carrot everyday like everyone thinks I would be as a vegan. It has cured so many serious problems in my body and I now look and feel the best I ever have in my life. When overpaid, desperate, unhealthy and weak people like Sam Kekovich jump their way onto the Rv screen in attempt to get his yearly “top up” on his bank account I get really upset and offended. Sam, here is a lesson in human decency: if it’s not yours, you don’t take it. Animal agriculture is without a doubt the worst industry overall that this world has seen. I advise the self proclaimed ‘meat heads’ to do some research. I understand you don’t want to be told what to do, or that what you have been eating your whole life has been detrimental to your health, the environment and another living things life- but your pride is worth sacrificing in order to make a positive change in the world. I think an incredible amount of violence in the world would disappear if the meat, dairy and egg industries disappeared. I’d like to see Sam do some good and advertise something worthwhile, rather than advertising something murdered and dipped in teriyaki that is not even tradition (just a well funded scam), on a holiday that really should not be celebrated as it was the worst day for the traditional Australians in history. Although I’m not surprised if I’m honest- eat death on a day that probably encouraged more murders that the indigenous Australians would have ever seen in their time on the land prior to British “settlement” (aka invasion).

@unpersuaded

What point are you making apart from your ability to wikipedia the origin of the boomerang and to let us know that advertising is essentially ‘encouraging consumption of some sort of product’ ?

@Lil Paper

I find the ad enjoyable and if you knew me for 5 seconds you would realise I’m probably the furthest away from your ‘description’ of the target demo. You, like the rest of the anti ad brigade are also suggesting that any use of the boomerang is culturally insensitive? derp..

On that note, I also doubt you’ll find many complaints from Indigenous Australians. Why not let them demonstrate how they feel rather than speaking for them? Yet it’s a convenient addition for the PC/vegan’s to utilise.. “It’s not just offensive to vegans, but the indigenous, the true land owners”

lol you guys are so lame it hurts.

What a brilliantly funny advert! I look forward to them every year. One of our most endearing features as Australians is the ability to extract the urine and laugh at ourselves. I am a healthy 60 year old who enjoys a sensible, balanced diet with the occasional addition of red meat. That labels me a bogan apparently? Veganism/vegetarianism is a lifestyle choice not a bloody political,party! Some of you need to take a good, long hard look at yourselves in a mirror and ask why you are getting so angry over a harmless piece of satire when there are so many more serious things happening in the world worthy of such anger.

They are torching the kale, not his house

@Adam, clearly it is the occasional red meat treat that keeps you on an even keel.

Gee, the vegan mob has come out on fire, hasn’t it? (pun intended). Did someone sic the local collective onto Mumbrella? I haven’t seen such an outrage dump in yonks! Vegans and animal lovers: you are not the target market for the ad. Therefore you will probably not find it to your taste (pun intended). I would suggest the correct response to items you disagree with is usually to just ignore them. Otherwise you will have a hell stressful life, trying to fight these ridiculous skirmishes every time they crop up. Have you ever watched Family Guy, or seen Louis CK et al. taking the piss out of your – and so many other – minority groups? What you gonna do about it, seriously? I can claim to be pissed off and offended by stupid ads targeting stupid women (FFS, Alpha Romeo, “it’s not a car… it’s an Alpha Romeo.” I’m pointing at you). My response: I will never buy an Alpha Romeo.

Everyone here is taking the piss with their mock outrage, right? If not it’s way to early in the year to get so wound up…get netflix and chill..

This is so typical of Australian humor. Larkin attitude. Get over it all you do gooders. This is Australia.

Speciesist. Nationalists. Wake up to reality, open your eye to the truth.
Start searching for the truth instead of feeding your brain of with rubbish teLIEvision.

Ironic that a leading representative of one minority appears in an ad that vilifies another minority. Imagine an ad for Aussie pork showing armed military torching the house of a bearded Muslim or Jewish person because they didn’t eat ham. Don’t think that’s funny, eh; a bit of larrikin ‘humour’? Neither do I, but it wouldn’t happen (thankfully). As a non-bearded, non-anaemic, non-hipster proud Aussie vegan male, I object to my hard-earned taxes helping to fund Meat and Livestock to produce these idiotic, offensive ads. It’s not un-Australian to forgo lamb or meat, but it is un-Australian to be intolerant of cultural minorities. Apart from that, these ads are clearly an act of desperation to halt falling sales. According to recent press report, despite an overall increase in meat consumption (mainly chicken and pork), we’re now eating half as much lamb as in the 1980s. Hmmm, maybe Lee Lin and Sam should go back to what they do best: reading auto-cues and spruiking cars…

#humanrights vegan families, kids watching this. Vegan kids will be bullied at school for choosing compassion http://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/8950052

Didn’t realise there were so many Aborigines living outside of Australia.

Save our lambs..! Someone.

Hopeless Programmantic

One would ask what point you are making , other than to deride those whom you don’t agree with.

I was BTW highly amused that you assumed I’d googled Wikipedia for information on the history of the boomerang. Apparently it’s beyond your ability to comprehend that others have a wide range of knowledge on a wide range of subjects and that not all of us need to resort to [the often very inaccurate] Wikipedia for such.

Time to take your foot out of your mouth Hopeless Programmantic LOL

This is insanely overblown. Seriously. Everyone needs to take a real big deep breath.

@Tom Lee Lin Chin is not part of a minority she is Australian.
Muslims and Jews who are devout don’t eat pork because of the rules of their religion, not because they are vegetarian, hopefully you can see the difference
The MLA campaign is paid for by a levy on meat sales not out of your taxes.
The decrease in lamb consumption is due to preference shift to other meats – in most market segments there are trends and counter trends, the meat market is no different. Significantly consumption of meat is consuming.
The campaign is not in response to falling lamb sales, the Australia day lamb campaign has been around for years.
Maybe you should go back to what ever it is you have been doing if you have the energy, it certainly isn’t getting things correct is it?

The debate should really be about the violence and constant reinforcement that its OK for police to forcibly enter a building . The programming of our acceptance of “The Police State ” in an australia day add is the issue ….. you sheep !!

… Aaaand… @brevil introduces yet another “issue” to the debate! Reinforcing Police State messages for Australia Day! Wot? Gosh, that’s indeed a new angle and one which should be carefully considered in deciding whether to allow this ad to continue being aired.

neither those supporting this ad or those opposing it, are doing their cause any favours.
All these individual posters do, with their attacks on those from the opposing camp is give an insight in to their individual personalities and attitudes. And frankly, going by the tenor of their comments, not people one would want to spend one’s time with.

At the end of the day though, whether you love or hate the ad, the harsh reality in the real world is that consumers have increasingly become desensitised to advertising and advertising in general isn’t having the same impact with consumers that it used to have, which is why organisations like MLA need to resort to controversial ads like this one.

@ unpersuaded

haha, classic.

ok, well the point I was making was to call out the pointless response you gave to another comment, stating that the boomerang wasn’t Australian in origin. Well done, impressive FYI.

Now, go out and ask 10 internationals what they associate with the boomerang? Better yet, with where do they associate the boomerang? So, the point I was making was who cares where the boomerang originates? It’s iconically Australian…

The wikipedia reference just made the sentence a bit punchier… ^^

Hopeless Programmantic

Actually, suggest you go out and ask ten internationals your questions, both of which are essentially variations of the one question. It’s a well documented fact that most people from overseas wouldn’t have a clue what country the boomerang is an icon of. It’s simply something they’re not taught.The only symbols overseas people associate Australia with is the kangaroo and the koala. To most of the rest of the world, Australia is thought of as being a bit of a backwater – a perception which ironically this ad will simply reinforce.

And BTW your wikipedia reference didn’t make your sentence a bit punchier, all it did was to show you attempting to belittle another poster with a rather silly put down.

Happy Australia Day https://youtu.be/WO6Wd1i7eoM

I look forward to the Australia Day BBQ with lamb cutlets and sausages. If you’re vegan, stay away. No-one wants to hear you party-poopers and whingers.

So.. we can have every screaming minority group in our face, year in and year out.. vegetarians, vegans, halal.. yet when someone pokes fun back at them, it’s an outrage?!? You know what.. I always eat lamb on Australia day, not because of this ad, but make you realise that you are the MINORITY! It’s like walking on the grass only because the sign said not to.. Too much lamb is greasy.. but it’s my tasty greasy meal, not YOURS

All this fuss over what is essentially extreme barbecuing of a few veges. Straya!

50 Comments?! What a joke. Time to get a life people; Best ad ever! I am, you are, we are AUSTRALIANS and it’s time to contribute and stop whinging & undermining our Nation.

why there is so much hatread about vegetarians/ vegans?

Let people choose what they want to eat / not to eat

One does not become Ozzie by eating lamb only

About time

So it’s ok to make an ad which supposedly pokes fun at other peoples food choices but I wonder what your reaction would be if someone came out with an ad poking fun at meat eaters or bogans et el. I can already hear you loudly protesting how dare those “minorities” make an ad poking fun at me and those of my ilk

BTW vegetarians and vegans are not minorities these days in Australian society. Their numbers have continued to grow substantially every year to the point that they are now reconised as and accepted as a major lifestyle alternative – something which organisations like LA fear because it means just so many less people are consuming meat products as a result and which is why MLA deliberately sets out every year to vilify such groups under the guise of “poking fun” at them in their ads.

There is absolutely no way that there are that many vegans in the advertising industry. Clearly the Vegan religion has motivated members who follow around controversy and sign up to newsletters so they can bombard normal people with tripe like this. Atlas Mumbrella has increased its email newsletter database.

Best ever Australia Day lamb ad i’ve seen. Pfft to the vegans, get a lamb in ya, you’ll thank me for it later. It’s good to see something humourous instead of the other crappy ads on tv at the moment.

Not sure if someone has already shared this, but this is how Aussie Farms responded to the ad (warning graphic content):

http://www.aussiefarms.org.au/australia-day

Doug

Actually, Mumbrella doesn’t have an email newsletter and even if it did, it would need each poster to give their permission to be sent such an email newsletter.

Vegan is not a religion

And what exactly is “normal people”

And to object to being made the but of a joke in an advertisement is not a case of members of a particular philosophy being “motivated to follow around controversy”

Oh, and the word is “alas” not “atlas” and no you can’t claim you hit the wrong key.

Such ignorance on your part Doug.

Thank you Alex

Happy to be corrected about newsletter

Well, blaaaady hell!

Vegans baaaabeecueing laaaamb eaters!

Australia…the great Aussie humour…baaaaned.

Baaa baaa qued young tender laaamb.

Blaaady beudy maaate

Farmers pay for it, not taxpayers.

Where is the data about the number of complaints sourced from ? Does the ASB publish them ?

rich
The Advertising Standards Bureau is the official organisation which handles and deals with complaints regarding all advertising and it decides if the ad concerned is acceptable or not.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] is, as its name denotes, the government organisation which collects data about a wide range of areas and the data it collects is used to assist government and other organisations to make particular decisions
ABS does not collect data on advertising or associated complaints

“By mid morning the ASB said it had received more than 50 complaints” ……..”Overnight, the number of complaints grew from 50 to more than 240″.

I’m just surprised that the ASB is releasing this type of information, which then fuels further publicity ….. such as this article here !

Hi unpersuaded. The reality of the TVC is that it uses hyperbole caricature violence on a bowl of Kale. Not the guy.

1. “Atlas” was autocorrected… it should have been “At least” but thanks for being a Vegan Grammar police too
2. “normal people” is the 99%+ people in Australia that aren’t Vegans. (as per Vegetarian Vic stats)
3. This article has generated 50% vegan content in comments.. way more than the general pop.

Vote with your wallets not your mouths, don’t buy lamb on Australia day. Don’t like the add, change the channel, close the online add. All the control is in your hands!

What offends me most is firstly the misleading headline which misleads people into believing that the vegans and their home were torched, i.e. set on fire, but worse than that is the offensive grammar.

I’m just happy there’s an Asian in an Australia Day ad for once!

Hitler was a vegan.

Imagine the smell in the smell in the bunker???

Agreed! But then again, maybe too much meat has clogged the blood vessels supplying their brains.

Yes, splashing money round. It is called marketing. Seems to have worked pretty well.