'Rescue operation' reunites Australians with lamb chops

Over the years we've seen a number of high-concept campaigns from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) for Australia Day (26 January), and this year is no exception. A seemingly big-budget production starring several well-known people, the ad shows TV-news presenter Lee Lin Chin commanding a quasi-military operation to bring Australian expats home for the holiday (and some lamb chops).

Unfortunately, it's not that funny. And given recent terror attacks, it may hit people the wrong way even though the troopers in the spot are armed with nothing more dangerous than BBQ tongs.

On the bright side, the campaign extends beyond the TVC thanks to a radio partnership with The Nova Network’s Fitzy & Wippa show, which will see radio hosts travelling to London to seek out overseas Australians to be flown home for the holiday. Hopefully they won't be dressed as special-forces operatives, or tragic misunderstandings could occur.

Finally, although It's nice to see Indonesian-born Lee in the starring role, Ad Nut thinks this commenter on the 'We love our lamb' Facebook post for the video has a point:

So, operation "boomerang" seems, well, rather lacking of the original people who coined the term boomerang in the first place? Rather ironic to name something that (for "Australia" day, no less) without even one aboriginal face in your promo?

Given that the holiday marks the day in 1788 that the British claimed the continent for themselves and has been called 'Invasion day', Ad Nut admits that this is a touchy situation for any brand or agency to handle.

CREDITS

MLA Group Marketing Manager: Andrew Howie
MLA Brand Manager - Lamb : Matthew Dwyer
PR Agency: One Green Bean
Media Agency: UM
Advertising Agency: The Monkeys
Executive Creative Director: Scott Nowell
Senior Art Director: Paul Sharp
Senior Copywriter: Mike Burdick
Head of Production: Thea Carone
Managing Director: Matt Michael
Planning Director: Michael Hogg
Content Director: Katie Wong-Hee
Content Manager: Siena Shuttler
 
Production Company: Rabbit
Director: Lachlan Dickie
EP's: Lucas Jenner & Alex Hay
Producer: Lucas Jenner
DOP: Germain McMicking
Production Designer: Jackson Dickie
Offline: Dan Lee @ The Butchery
Post Production: White Chocolate 
VFX Supervisor: David Mosqueda
Colourist: Scott Maclean
Designer/Compositor: Michael Blanche
 
Sound: Song Zu 
Sound Designer:  Simon Kane 
Producer: Jess Bonney 
 
Music 
Damian de Boos-Smith
Sound Planet Australia