Has our creative flourish gone to South America?

Melbourne Herald Sun, Friday May 4th, 2012

The TV commercial starts with a serious voice-over. "Along with summer comes every family's worst nightmare (pause): Dads in briefs!"

The visual is a series of slow-motion shots of pudgy fathers shuffling about their houses in their underpants, much to the disgust of their children, from teenagers to schoolkids, not to mention mums and even the dog.

We're out of season now but the scenes, and the grossed-out responses, will be familiar to any Australian family. As it turns out the brilliant commercial promotes air conditioners.

It's a commercial that would be perfect for Australia. The problem is, says McCann Creative Director John Mescall, that it was made in Argentina.

"The issue for Australian marketers is: that used to be us. The South Americans are not afraid to be unique, and to express their cultural uniqueness through their work. But too much of our work feels like it could’ve come from anywhere in the world."

He sums up a feeling I've had for years now: why don't we create great work here any more? Once, like Olympians, we punched well above our weight in the creative contests of London and New York. These days the Cannes lions have been won by our PR and on-line work, rather than a strong representation of TV commercials.

"The work that we do has changed now," explained Mescall, "from advertising to integrated campaigns." As he sees it, a decade ago, "With a brilliant commercial you could shift the fortunes of a brand," and in turn the work attracted adventurous clients. Now the world is a more cautious place.

Worse, thinks Mescall, our modern generation's constant exposure to the world of TV, mostly American, has given us a global culture. This has been uncovered in research they have carried out which shows "There isn't a popular Australian culture any more".

If you doubt his words, spend a few hours channel surfing through young people's TV shows. The streets, clothes, accents are mostly American and the commercials feature skate boards and baseball caps because these are now the Australian norm. They don't even bother to change the accents on the imported TV commercials much of the time.

Alas to be a boring protectionist, but many of us predicted this consequence when TV advertising quotas were pulled down. Once a high percentage of commercials had to be made in Australia. Today the only local ones tend to be the boring retail one-camera walk-throughs.

However, talent can't be held back forever. Some good stuff does get through. The beer and drinks category still has enough money to make some witty, daring stuff. Like the Canadian Club "Beer Fairies" campaign, where beer drinkers are depicted as fat slothful boors with tattered wings on their backs.

One commercial that won gold at Cannes was really a short film. Made for rock station Channel [V], it's a montage of nightmare pictures worthy of Dante's Inferno, slowly rising up until it becomes a rock 'n' roll heavy metal heaven. Very clever, chase it down on YouTube.

The essence of great Australian ads has always been the strength of wit rather than big budgets. They might have been made before you were born but you'll still be aware of the Holeproof "Some day you're gonna get caught" or "I'm wearing no nickers" campaigns. No expensive sets or locations, just cleverly showing the benefits.

Or more currently McDonald's. where a couple set up a garage sale, anxiously watch till an item is sold for a small sum, and then rush off to buy the day's burger bargain. Simple, witty, award winning. We need more of these.

ray@ebeatty.com

Blog: themarketeer-raybeatty.blogspot.com