A Critical Essay on the 2017 Australian Day Lamb Advertisement

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the 2017 Australian Day Lamb advertisement, focusing on its depiction of Australian Day celebrations and the ensuing controversy. The advertisement, backed by Meat and Livestock Australia, featured diverse celebrities but sparked criticism from indigenous communities due to its insensitive portrayal of historical events and cultural sensitivities. The essay delves into the advertisement's depiction of indigenous people, the target audience, and the reasons behind the backlash, including the historical context of the arrival of British fleets and the resulting hardships faced by indigenous Australians. It examines how the advertisement, while aiming to promote unity and diversity, was perceived as insensitive and offensive. The essay concludes by highlighting the importance of cultural awareness in media and marketing, emphasizing the need to consider historical sensitivities to avoid causing offense.

RUNNING HEAD- ADVERTISEMENT ANALYSIS 1
NAME OF THE STUDENT
NAME OF THE COLLEGE
CRITICAL ESSAY
SUBMISSION DATE-
TITLE- AUSTRALIAN DAY LAMB AD 2017

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ABSTRACT
Every year an advertisement is released on the occasion of Australia day which
focuses on promoting the consumption of lamb by the people on the following occasion. This
advertisement has never left even a year without coming out with a controversy after a great
screenplay. The people involved in the advertisement are one of the most famous people of
Australia whose presence can make a difference in the thinking of society and encourage
them for eating lamb on the auspicious day of Australia’s presence.
INTRODUCTION
Australia day is also known as invasion day and it marks the significance of arrival of
British fleets for the first time on the Australian lands. The meaning behind the day has been
evolving with the changing times but the basic idea of celebration is celebrating diversity and
warmth of Australian lands towards the welcoming of several communities in Australia. The
indigenous society of the continent marks it as a mourning day because of the arrival of
foreign ships on the lands of their nation. Earlier, the day was marked as a negative
significance by the aboriginals marking it as a public holiday but slowly it changed into a
celebration and a day of unity by the people of Australia.
THE ADVERTISEMENT
In 2017, a new set of advertisement was directed and published for the public to mark
the Australian day celebrations by eating lamb and this is backed by the meat and livestock
Australia which casted a very diverse category of stars in their video. Those were Cathy
Freeman, Poh Ling Yeow, Wendell Sailor and Adam Gilchrist, who held the former chair of
the national Australia day council. Some people gave a positive response towards the ad
whereas few indigenous communities commented the ad to be insensitive and highly
offensive(YouTube, 2019).
DEPICTION
The advertisement depicts a group an indigenous people on a shore, preparing lamb
for them to eat when they see that different explorers reach to the land one by one and star
joining them in the lamb eating party. The advertisement tried to depict a sense of diversity
and acceptance on the lands of Australia while the opposite is taken by the

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aboriginals(Crawford and Macnamara, 2012).It was marked that several aboriginals are dying
in custody and are being separated from their families and going through immense pain and
harsh conditions and making humour out of the sentiments is something very insensitive.
The marketing director further cleared it out that they had a serious conversation with
various indigenous people in their team before validating the script for the particular
advertisement. The following direction and production tried to spread the message of cultural
sensitivities and save the unity and warmth for the celebration of national day in Australia.
The history shows us the real picture of why people were so embarrassed watching
the advertisement created by the monkeys for the promotion of lamb eating in Australia.
Going back to the times, indigenous people remain sensitive of the issues that have been
faced by them in the past with the arrival of foreign ships to their lands. The advertisement
shows that British come up with a dip and cheese whereas memories from the past bring
terror to the people as they came with killing diseases like small pox. They declared the lands
as their own, ruling them as firstly discovered by the fleets that arrived. Indigenous people
suffered badly under the rules and regulations of the foreign authorities. Hence, the
advertisement was wrongly perceived by the people and the message was not accepted by the
aboriginal tribes of Australia.
TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience for the following advertisement is the people of Australia who
live united in the lands and it did not mean to hurt the sentiments of various indigenous
communities that are present in the state and are suffering(Davis and Southwell, 2015). The
targeted community took it personally on purpose because of the unacceptance that they
faced in their homeland and have suffered extreme tragic situation since then.
It has been seen that the indigenous communities have faced various situations and
have been discriminated not only in the past, but also facing the same situations in today’s
world. The news channels suggest that the indigenous tribes have the highest suicide rates,
jailed most often in world record rates, have their children separated and locked up in jails
and also have shorter life expectancy rate that other population(Moran, 2011).
REASONS BEHIND THE CRITISIZM

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Making foreign authorities coming to the homelands with funny dresses and
displaying them having a happy meal with the aboriginals is nothing, but an insensitive move
towards the indigenous section of society and it took over a large political concern in
Australia after its release. This was not just taken as a humorous advertisement whereas as a
well documented ideography trying to make fun of the people who have faced hardships due
the arrivals of foreign fleets. Genocide faced by the communities is taken seriously and
releases a controversial question by the people(Gracey, 2014).
This shows that the background of indigenous communities have been emotionally
breaking and also moving them from their original base to another hard level of lifestyle. The
advertisement, instead of capturing the message of diversity and unity in Australia, catches a
different set of position in the country(Moran, 2011).
CONCLUSION
Past has been hurtful when it comes to the indigenous society and their sacrifices but
in today’s world media has taken another level in creating content which attracts the attention
of more and more people outside. It might not be the basic thought of the direction authoriser
to hurt the sentiments or to mock their hardships faced, but it tried to give a message on
diversity in Australia(Gracey, 2014). It might be possible that while making it into a creative
content, the writers would have taken the situations a bit less politically. But, some histories
can be hurtful even after decades and it can ruin the sentiments of society.

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REFERENCES
Gracey, M. (2014). Why closing the Aboriginal health gap is so
elusive. Internal Medicine Journal, 44(11), pp.1141-1143.
Crawford, R. and Macnamara, J. (2012). Massaging the Media: Australia Day
and the Emergence of Public Relations. Media International Australia, 144(1),
pp.27-36.
Davis, M. and Southwell, P. (2015). Closing the Gap in State Legislative
Races: The Effect of Campaign Spending on Ballot Drop-off. Journal of
Politics and Law, 8(2).
Moran, A. (2011). Multiculturalism as nation-building in Australia: Inclusive
national identity and the embrace of diversity. Ethnic and Racial Studies,
34(12), pp.2153-2172.
YouTube. (2019). 2017 Australia Day Lamb Ad Video Full Version. [online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGdj1TwBU1w [Accessed
10 May 2019].