Summer Lamb Campaign ‘Lambalytica’ via The Monkeys Asks tech-obsessed Aussies To Leave Their Screens For A Real Time Feed
The highly anticipated summer campaign for Australian Lamb has landed, urging Aussies to look up from their screens and share the Lamb. The integrated campaign, created by The Monkeys, kicks off with a long-form tech thriller directed by Plaza’s Paul Middleditch
The spot sets out to remind a tech-obsessed nation of real life connection and reunite Aussies, distracted by their phones, screens and social, over delicious Aussie Lamb.
In the ‘Lambalytica’ ad we see an elite team infiltrating people’s devices to bring them together face-to-face. From a couple who spend more time looking at their phones than each other, to a teenage gamer glued to the TV, ‘Lambalytica’ taps into the phones of unsuspecting Aussies and unites them over an epic Lamb barbie off-screen.
Says Graeme Yardy, Domestic Market Manager at MLA: “As a brand, Australian Lamb is famous for unity. In this digital age, we wanted to use the power of lamb to disrupt social media, peel people away from their screens and get them together over a tasty Lamb meal.”
Says Executive Creative Director at The Monkeys, Vince Lagana: “The ongoing conversations surrounding social media platforms and privacy have made us even more aware of the influence our devices have on us daily. We wanted to flip that on its head in true Lamb fashion. So in this campaign, ‘Lambalytica’ taps into the very devices that keep us apart to bring Aussies together for the ultimate social feed – a Lamb barbie.”
The ad airs tonight on FTA and Foxtel and will be pushed out across digital, social media and radio. one green bean will drive coverage for the campaign across earned media and owned social with UM coordinating radio media partner SCA, who will support the campaign across multiple channels, encouraging Aussies to get together and cook some Lamb.
The partnership with SCA and Hit Network’s Carrie and Tommy will bring this campaign to life on-air, culminating in an epic event which reunites people over Aussie Lamb.
Creative Agency – The Monkeys, Sydney
Group Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder: Scott Nowell
Executive Creative Director: Vince Lagana
Creative Director: Scott Dettrick
Creative team: Danny Pattison & Barnaby Packham
Head of Planning: Michael Hogg
Group CEO and Co-Founder: Mark Green
Managing Director: Matt Michael
Group Content Director: Ciaran Miller-Stubbs
Content Director: Victoria Zourkas
Content Manager: Will Davies
National Head of Production/Senior Producer: Romanca Mundrea
Producer: Cathryn Cooper
Production Company: PLAZA
Director: Paul Middleditch
Producer/EP: Peter Masterton
Cinematographer: Daniel Ardilley
Editor: Stu Morley – The Editors
Colorist: Ben Eagleton
Post Production & VFX: Fin Design
Sound Post Production: Song Zu
Sound Designer: Simon Kane
Music Composition: Haydn Walker & Lance Gurisik
Executive Producer: Katrina Aquilia
Music: Level Two music (Run to Paradise – Choir Boys)
Post & VFX: Fin Design & Effects
Head of Visual Effects / EP : Alastair Stephen
VFX Supervisors: Mikey Brown & Mikey Smith
Producer: Isabelle Howarth
Media Agency – UM
Charlotte Berry: Strategist
Jonny Day: Connections Designer Director
Hayley Pyper: Client Director
Jenny Lam: Senior Partnerships Manager
Bridgette Roche: Partnerships Manager
Bernadette Banasik: Partnerships Trader
Andrew Hales: Partnerships Executive
PR Agency – one green bean
MLA – Chief Marketing Officer: Lisa Sharp
MLA – Domestic Market Manager: Graeme Yardy
MLA – Brand Manager: Anna Sharp
88 Comments
I honestly do think my phone is listening to me! I was just about to fire up my barbie and this was sent my way!
Another Lamb cracker.
Well done.
The sad truth done in a hilarious way.
Nice work MLA, Monkeys and Plaza.
My only question, whose going to save the vegos and vegans?
This is woeful. The worst Lamb ad yet off a really low base. First comment I’ve ever made on CB and this compelled me to do it.
It’s actually pretty good
This was really difficult to watch.
Way overcooked. Wasted opportunity.
It seems every year that in our industry it’s un-Australian to like a Aussie summer lamb ad but this made me smile. Congrats.
This ad brought a little smile to what was a fairly shit day.
I watched it twice and yes I do like it. Some funny moments.
However, not sure if its intentional but there seems to be a tonal change from previous ads. Everyone likes a Lamb ads because they touch a political nerve. ScoMo got off Scot-free! Think of all the material ready to go for the Monkeys. Can only imagine MLA suddenly got more conservative than before.
If you take the W out of PWC you get?
Nice work!
Nice one Barney!
What was that? I had to stop watching. Painful and so many motion graphics and blue. Awful on all levels.
Hard to watch
“Run to paradise” is an awesome song, about heroin.
Hoping for a lamb ad. Got a ham ad. Not good.
Wow that sucked. And haven’t they done the special ops thing before to better effect?
Just felt like old ad dudes trying to make jokes about ‘young person stuff’
We’re literally in a climate crisis here in Australia. The country is on fire. Canberra was literally closed for a week a month ago due to toxic air. Hail the size potatoes destroyed hundreds of cars just days after the same suburbs were cloaked in smoke. And here we are still advertising fucking meat consumption – the single biggest contributor to climate change on the planet. The razing of land to grow the stock to feed animals, let alone the billions of animals we slaughter without a second thought, let alone the volume of toxic waste that no one has worked out how to safely get rid of yet, it all adds up, and you’re selling it, Monkeys. Advertising meat consumption is worse than advertising cigarettes. It’s worse than advertising a car you know has been modified to cheat an emissions test. It’s worse than advertising gambling. It’s the fucking worst thing you can advertise. We need to be drastically cutting down our meat consumption if we’re to make ANY decent dent in our emissions – not just Australia, but the entire world. Stop waiting for Scotty from Marketing to do something – we have to. It’s literally stupidity personified that on the one hand, we have unprecedented fundraising left, right and centre to support firies, destroyed townships and displaced families due to our mega fires and on the other hand, you’re imploring Gen Y to consume more meat. It’s fucking gobsmacking. Our industry needs to make a stand and stop advertising the consumption of meat. It’s time.
Just put a Rebel Whopper® in it mate and let all us balanced people enjoy a lamb chop.
Take a look at your teeth. Are you, as a species, supposed to eat meat?
Brilliant as usual. Nice one Monkeys!
But why run it after the Australia day long weekend?
OK Doomer.
Holy wow – so someone gives a fuck about the impact the meat industry has on climate change and raises it as a seriously valid point and you respond with a negative about mental health? What a fuck head.
Sounds like your unmerited freak-out is caused by a severe iron deficiency. May I recommend a healthy serving of Australian Lamb ™ to clear your mind and strengthen your body?
I seriously think you should stop watching propaganda documentaries on Netflix and book in some extra time with your counsellor.
See you on the sinking refugee boat to NZ!
Wow. That is some severely overcooked lamb.
Spot the vegan in the comments.
A message to @ can you take your meds please.
Nearly a million kiwis out of their very small population in NZ choose to live in Australia.
Can’t be that good over there.
But if all the other malcontents and Jacinda admirers wish to move to NZ,just go.
Did the Kiwis invent the Rebel Whopper®? Can’t for the life of me see how one would segue the comment towards the Australian population of Kiwis.
This is good. I chuckled. Brands are going to advertise. It’s called trying to sell their product. Which we all do working, in advertising. If you don’t like it, change industries.
*14 line post yelling about climate something or other*
Agency, get off the blog.
Self praise is the worst, and so obvious with this dogs breakfast.
Not sure whey that’s so hard to watch – it’s true, it’s funny and the product plays a plausible but exaggerated role. Well done to all involved, I say.
Why are the positive comments hiding behind pseudonyms? Out yourselves you bunch of monkeys
Spot the Meat & Livestock Australia clients in the comments
Meh. Just seems that not jumping on the whole plant-based movement in a funny ‘lamb’ way is such a missed and far more relevant opportunity. Adz do so well when they intersect with what is happening in the real world that very minute.
I am a meat eater, albeit a very moderate and thoughtful one.
The large scale agricultural mess we created in this country via European farming practices is the exact reason our lands burning. Less tress, more carbon, more carbon more heat. When we wholesale slaughtered our forests for meat production of ‘grass fed’ beef and lamb we effectively turned off the air conditioner. Then we ripped the topsoil out destroying any future.
What we need are companies like the Monkeys to take a stand and tell the MLA to fuck off.
You can make a meat ad and then offer your services to bushfire relief or spruik your green credentials in the same breath.
That being said, when a a company like accenture is at the helm….wel…..
“The large scale agricultural mess we created in this country via European farming practices is the exact reason our lands burning.”
Honestly, grow up. Bushfires are a part of living in Australia and always have been. They precede European arrival by thousands of years. It takes a certain talent to argue on one hand that cutting down trees equals more trees burning. Huh? Australia’s global carbon contribution is negligible. We aren’t burning for eating meat. You’re just a damn fool.
“Then we ripped the topsoil out destroying any future.”
…
Looks like @why I refuse has changed his handle.
Kinda. Sorta. But overall a no.
Trying way too hard – and somewhat up itself.
Left me cold and detached – and that’s not very Lamb or very Australian.
I think someone just jumped me.
#changethedate
#andthebrief
#baaaad
My mum makes a mean Lammstek
Why is it so long for such simple idea? The humour in the script is questionable or maybe it’s poor direction. What a waste of money.
Brilliant!
Middleditch and Co did an amazing job. Wish it was on my reel.
I think the insight is great, but the execution made me cringe.
If the poms or the yanks had done this it either would’ve been slapstick or dry. This is neither. It’s overcooked.
“We aren’t burning for eating meat.”
What? Are you an idiot?
If meat production is the biggest contributor to climate change (FACT) … aaaaaaaaaand climate change has been the biggest contributor to our unprecedented drought, tinder-box dryness and hence never-before-seen bushfires (FACT) …. then yes, we ARE burning for eating meat. We’re burning for the year-on-year global increase in meat consumption since the 50’s, and Australia is the canary in the coal mine. Wake up.
If I say (FACT) it’s fact. That’s smart advertising fella. If you ever need a job, I have a janitorial position available. You’ll need to be able to lift a bucket though.
I am sick of zealots like Meathead bludgeoning anybody who doesn’t share their view.Stop attacking and people might start listening.
And you can pass that bit of free advice to young Greta.
Phones are bad, again.
Sometimes I come to work, look up the blog with the most comments and just read this stuff for pure entertainment. So brutal! Like UFC with words and with lots of king hits from behind by anonymous people.
My general consensus is this, anything that is remotely good gets torn to shreds in a pack mentality. And anything from the Monkeys, CHEP, DDB or BMF gets completely annihilated. Ironically, these are the same places all my tutors, mentors and peers in the industry told me I should desperately try land a job at.
Funny industry this one.
Look. Just because they were your mentors ( and good agencies in their time) doesn’t make this ad good, or great. It’s average. It’s really average on a bar that’s been set so high.
Maybe you can tell me where you work because in my eyes these places are doing the best work. Please tell.
That was hard to watch.
Aren’t we done with the whole ‘Hurr durr, phones are bad thing’?
It’s very well made, but I’m surprised nobody has remarked that it’s simply an ad ripoff of The Truman Show just in time for 2020.
You lost me at “summer ad”
@ Why I refuse to watch this,
Here I was thinking that indulging in my favourite Lamb Souvlaki dish might actually help the hundreds of farmers affected by the fires and here you go and try make me feel bad.
How dare you?!
No, it’s ‘How DARE you!!!’
This is the most accurate response to this ad:
https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/karl-rips-worst-lamb-ad-ever/3930755/
Off the mark on that one old fella. You might need to re-watch The Truman Show… I’d say this is more of a Dark Knight machine.
This is total shit. Sorry.
the keka ads have aged terribly- they’re from a different time. but they were populist and people loved them.
this feels like it’s made for inner city types carrying new yorker totes who followed the cambridge analytica scandal with interest.
as opposed to reading the tele about what’s going on in rugby, the prices of groceries, and whether there’s going to be a new hospital built in their suburb.
simply put-
it’s not populist, it’s up itself, and frankly, i don’t think the majority of australians will give a shit.
also, it overstays its welcome.
anything that’s not a nike blockbuster or apple film nowadays rarely deserves a 90″ runtime.
this brief faces an existential crisis now it can’t rely on jingoism.
i’m with karl.
misses the mark.
i think this type of work is indicative of the problem with our industry- we don’t create populist work (which the us, uk and even nz do well), we try to be too clever to chase metal or recognition and outdo our local peers who are equally over indulgent, and the result is work like this.
True on the ‘populist’ account, but I think that problem represents a social problem rather than an advertising problem. As that bald bloke in the Mojo documentary said, Australia today is far too fragmented to deliver a brilliant catch-all ad like those of the 70’s. We haven’t yet quite figured out how the Brits do their segmented advertising so well — I expect it’s their ability to remain cutting-edge modern. Something we lack.
@mussolini intelligent and thought provoking response. i still need to watch that doc- thanks for the reminder.
it really is a problem with our industry, and if we had intelligent discourse here, and not 40 year old incels flinging turds at each other, maybe we could unpack it.
Why is Aussie humour always so obvious and overdone? From the stand up to morning djs it’s fucking lame. Agree that the brits or kiwis would have executed this so much better.
Cheers, yeah. It would be well worth having a forum where these sort of questions could be addressed without the egos involved. Damon Stapleton has plenty good to say on the subject, but more would be needed. There’s probably a bit of a project here, email if you’re interested:
j_incognito1@outlook.com
WTF is that dreadful sound that happens each time the Lambalytica video plays on their phones? Why? In fact the entire spot’s hackneyed 90’s sound design really lets this TVC down.
Both the Agency & Client responsible for this over length, not funny, boring crap should be fired for wasting valuable hard-earned money.
Given the current crisis with fire and drought, surely the money wasted on this campaign would have been better spent on helping struggling Australia farmers.
Shame on you.
Crap, yes.
The second part of your comment is lacking knowledge.
Lamb doesn’t end up on our shelves because of Investment Bankers herding them down Macquarie Street for a feed of grass in the domain.
The campaign is supposed to support Farmers through the sale of their product and I can assure you they would prefer to be making sheep fat than getting public hand outs.
I’m with this guy.
ant keogh.
he knows how to create relatable comedy spots that punters talk about.
Good point but Farmers cant sell if they don’t have stock and secondly promote through cheaper productions. This film looks like a million dollars.
Jesus that was painful.
Also, MAGA meat-bros of advertising commenting above – maybe worth listening to some of the others on here re: ethics? It’s true we can do better than make tone-deaf stuff like this.
You know people are desperate to attack when they listen to the opinion of Karl Stefanovic!
Fucking really?
Since coming back to the morning show the viewers have dipped. He is desperate and would say anything yet you wankers who normally probably hate on the guy decide to listen to him.
Shows how desperate people are in the industry to spread hate.
I like Lambalytica. I admit last year’s ad was better but this is no where near as bad as the keyboard warriors are making out to be. What a fucked up industry we work in.
The ad comes off as some upper-middle inner suburb dads needed to vent about their kids. It’s as amusing as the coronavirus.
As for our resident Greta Thunberg, if you look at carbon footprint per calorie rather than weight, that lamb might have a smaller carbon footprint than your veggies.
@ Please give the 2021 lamb brief to.
Ha, are you talking about the same ‘relatable spots’ that people on this blog bagged out not so long ago? Double standards.
I’m sure the creatives were briefed on this long before the bush fires and extreme heat that most of the country experienced, but surely someone at MLA would have been sensible enough to acknowledge the effect the livestock farming is having on the AU climate. Many of these farmers replace local grass (quick burning) with grass that’s better for animals to eat. However they burn many times hotter and longer, thus destroying more of the landscape. Additionally, animal farming is one of the worst culprits in Aus for climate change. I don’t know how the ad could have been edited (not a creative), but I’m just unable to watch it without first thinking about those negative things.
(NOT a vegan btw)
About as unwatchable as the 9th Fast & Furious movie. Call it and move on to a new strategy…
I had to see what all the fuss was about. Honestly, some of you are just being spiteful twats. This is nowhere near as bad as some of you are saying. It’s still better than 80% of things posted here.
Monkeys, take it as a massive compliment. Historically you have created Lamb ads that everyone in the country look toward to, know and talk about. As much as we’ve all tried, no other brand or agency has ever achieved that before in Australia. With that comes a lot of expectation and unfortunately a lot of angry jealousy. Tall poppy at its best.
I’d be happy to have any Lamb ad ever made on our agency reel.
It’s just laughable how some people on this blog use their soapbox to crusade against meat and livestock. I once had a creative director who refused to work on the agency’s two largest clients! One of them was meat!!! It’s not the job of agencies or creatives to reform their clients or to help them see the error of their ways. It’s to find a compelling, persuasive and entertaining way to deliver a marketing strategy developed further up the chain. And sell a shitload of product. If you don’t think that’s your job, get out of the world of commerce and do some nice esoteric art.
I know people in the industry who’s agency tried to force them to work on the “Stop The Boats” scaremongering campaign for the Liberal Party a few years back. With your logic they should have just done it even though one of them was Japanese as was quite appalled by the whole thing on a very personal level. You’re saying they should have just shut up and done it? Might as well just jump off a cliff because someone told them to while they were at it?
The Snickers Super Bowl Spot is this idea done well.
Australia misses BMF
So I saw the 30 on telly. My family starter teasing eachother as they were associating the actors with what each family member is like. “No Sebastian” got the most chuckles.
Thought it was mentioning considering the industry nonsense.
Do yourself a favour, skip to 1:10.
Poo