AUSTRALIAN LAMB CONQUERS THE GENERATION GAP IN LATEST SUMMER CAMPAIGN VIA THE MONKEYS
Australian Lamb is back. This year, the hotly anticipated summer campaign is skewering the generation gap that continues to divide the nation.
Created by The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, and co-directed by Aimée-Lee Xu Hsien and Trent O’Donnell – a Millennial and Gen X-er, respectively – the film imagines a world in which the generations have been separated by The Generation Gap: an impassable chasm that keeps each age group away from the others.
Left to their own devices, each generation has become the worst version of themselves – until a lamb BBQ appears to remind Australians of all ages that, actually, we have more in common than divides us.
The full-length ad premieres during the evening news of Seven and Nine today (7th January), followed by a rollout across free to air and subscription TV nationally. It will be pushed out across TV, online video, catch up TV, paid social and retail OOH channels by UM, with One Green Bean driving reach for the campaign across earned media and owned social.
For the first time, One Green Bean will also amplify the campaign via a social-first content piece launching across owned and influencer marketing channels from 15th January. The campaign will also be supported through key retail and butcher channel activation and integration.
Says Graeme Yardy, Domestic Market Manager at Meat and Livestock Australia: “Pop culture would have us believe that the generations are practically different species. Apparently, Boomers are unable to master the basics of technology whilst Zoomers spend every waking moment making TikTok dances and Millennials spend too much on avo toast and craft beer.
“But in reality, there’s far more that unites than separates us, and that’s what this year’s Summer Lamb campaign is all about. Whether it’s a love of our sporting heroes or our beautiful landscapes, the best of Australia always brings us together, and what better way to break down the generational divide than over an epic Aussie lamb BBQ – the ultimate unifier!”
Adds Scott Dettrick, Creative Director at The Monkeys: “With growing differences in wealth, opinions, and ways of communication, the generation gap in Australia has never been wider. The various frustrations this year have each generation throwing tropes around, looking for someone to blame. When you scratch beneath the surface though, it’s attitudes, not age, that divide us.
“Maybe if we just got around a lamb BBQ and had a chat, we might find out that grandad is actually pretty cool, or all that stuff millennials know can be really useful. Our entire creative process this year was a fun generational debate, and with multi-generational directors and editors on the films, it was all very method.”
Creative Agency – The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song
Chief Creative Officer: Tara Ford
Creative Director: Scott Dettrick
Creative Team: Jake Ausburn & Alex Polglase
Head of Production: Penny Brown
Senior Producer: Elliot Liebermann
Production Coordinator: Emily Coleman
The Monkeys Group CEO and Co-Founder & Accenture Song ANZ President: Mark Green
Managing Director: Matt Michael
Business Strategy Director: Kit Lansdell
Head of Business Management: Topher Jones
Senior Business Manager: Celine Dinant
Business Executive: Matt Stafford
Production Company: Rabbit
Directors: Aimée-Lee Xu Hsien & Trent O’Donnell
MD/Partner/Executive Producer: Alex Hay
Partner/Executive Producer: Lucas Jenner
Producer: Morgan Hind
DoP: Emma Paine
Production Design: Virginia Mesiti
Casting: Citizen Jane Casting
Post-Production: The Editors
Edit House: The Editors
Editors: Grace O’Connell & Stu Morley
Executive Producer: Rita Gagliardi
Lead Flame Artist: Stu Cadzow
VFX Supervisor: Andreas Wanda
Colourist: Greg ‘Elvis’ Constanaras
Music & Sound: MassiveMusic
Composer: Haydn Walker
Sound Designer: Simon Kane
Producer: Katrina Aquilia
Media Agency – UM
Client Partner: Lauren Thornborough
Senior Creative Connections Planner: Cayley McArthur
Senior Planning Manager: Bernadette Banasik
Senior Partnerships Trader: Joshua Coles
Trader: Jess Curran
PR and Social Agency – One Green Bean
Head of Creative Innovation: Hannah Stalder
Head of Content: Laura Byrne
Account Director, PR: Molly Dodwell
Account Director, Social: Amy McCann
Senior Content Creative: Jack Williams
Content Creative: Gabi Kearney
Senior Account Executive: Bridget Patterson
Client – Meat & Livestock Australia
General Manager – Marketing and Insights: Nathan Low
Domestic Market Manager: Graeme Yardy
Brand Manager: Derek Lau
94 Comments
“Your phone torch is on..” nails the generations perfectly. A great laugh, well done Monkeys. Classic.
so self conscious.
Our John Lewis.
Hats off. Again.
Could hit a lot harder if phone torch is the best joke.
And the dialogue is pretty spoon-fed.
Is this supposed to be funny?
Great idea, dare I say nice writing. But the execution is more of a let-down than hearing farmers shooting their lambs because they can’t sell them for more than $3 a-piece.
Nailed it.
Lefty Woke nonsense….
I like it….
Zzzzz
These are good every other year. This is not a good year….. overly cliched, trying to do too much….
I laughed. A lot. Great, as always.
How?
Why?
And not really succeeding
Selling meat is now ‘lefty woke nonsense’.
This is bloody great.
I want to like it, but seems very forced and long. Phone light bit is funny.
Not their best, but still much better than most ads on TV.
Nah
Agree with @GEN X. Why does every 2nd year seem to miss the mark? Love the idea but production looks cheap (even for Lamb) – just a string of one-liners and performances that fall flat. No likeable or relatable characters….. Rather cringe-worthy on all fronts.
This is the worst lamb ad so far. Maybe the co-directing thing let them down as the performances are not funny.
Phone light joke was the only funny part. The execution of this is not to my taste.
Performances in most parts fall very flat. Phone torch only but that works
Actually did not love this as all. Arrogant and 3 min OMG
Last I heard, farmers are paying people to get rid of their lamb.
I liked it.
Some funny lines and construct for a brief that is hard to keep fresh.
indulgence
Coffee could be a bit hotter!
I wish one day to make a 3 minute ad
“Take away coffees could be hotter”
Such a great ad, i love the funny jokes. Brb gonna go for a skate cause i love it
What’s the go there? Looks like he’s got a pair of wind up clackers in there
Wait…I don’t remember filming this one… Is that someone wearing a latex mask and pretending to be me? Or has lamb built a 3D model of me? Either that or I’m pretty sure all the skin on my face is about the slide off.
Big miss on this one. Will stick to eating lettuce.
I think they spent the whole VFX budget building a motion capture Sam Kekovich. It’s getting too difficult to wheel him out once a year to make one of these stupid ass ads.
Woke AF.
Just make me laugh without the tired social commentary.
The last few lamb ads haven’t hit the mark. This one did.
Nice work to everyone! I needed a good lol.
it’s that it’s not very funny
Proof of just how hard it is to make one of these Lamb ads really stand out from the herd. Sorry, this year’s method was off.
Didn’t they already do this but with walls and better comedy?
The spend on this for one day of the year while lamb sales are plummeting. If I was a farmer I’d be livid. Seems like an exercise in self-justification of the marketing department vs actually doing a job. I’d pitch the account, personally.
loved it. genuinely joyful feeling at the end too, which I haven’t seen in previous years.
very funny
bleeting dreadful like all lamb ads.
if this is Aussie comedy then it’s no wonder all our best comedy directors bugger off abroad!
time to serve this campaign with a side of fava beans and chianti and give it the hose.
If you make it 3 minutes long, it had better be good enough to sustain it. This really should have been a 90 or 2 mins at the most.
The phone torch thing?
Why is that funny?
Do old people leave their phone torches on or something?
oh, an upbeat summer ad campaign. let’s all complain! move on people. it was funny and fun.
Exactly
Lamb jumped the shark
John Howard… Laughed out loud.
Great writing.
…reflects the stupidity of the gags throughout
5/10
is terrible!
Cringe factor: 11
The strategy of Lamb saving all of societies problems is such a ridiculous overpromise.
Please stop beating a dead sheep.
What a load of tripe
this is a great ad for ham
“it’s attitudes, not age, that divide us.” is a very very strong insight.
This is really bad. the execution falls flat, the edit is laboured and poorly crafted, there’s nothing to like about this years ad.
Its 2024, and i told myself for this year, if I had nothing good to say, then just keep quiet. Seems like that has lasted 9 days thanks to this dreadful 3minute, over indulgent ad.
I haven’t commented on here for years and now I remember why. It’s a quagmire of bitter ‘ad people’ who deep down are pissed off that they’ve never created something half as good for their shitty portfolios that are jammed packed with MRECs and EDMs. Maybe for 2024. spend less time being bottom feeders and focus on producing some half decent work. Or maybe leave advertising and become a sparky. Well done Monkeys. What a fabulously scripted piece of film.
Wow, why so narky? I don’t disagree with what you are trying to say, but calling people out for doing MRECs and EDM’s is a bit low. Every agency needs to do them. Most junior creatives start off doing them. In smaller agencies, everyone does them.
Get off your high horse. You are not beyond others. Stay humble.
And yes, I do like this ad. Well done Monkeys.
Agree with you.
Such a tosser comment. Could have been said in a much more productive way.
And what’s wrong with being a Sparky?
In attempt to defend this work by calling out others, this person somehow ended up looking like someone I hope to never to work with.
I’m with you on this, I can’t believe the hate on this. It’s more than watchable, and much better than most.
So funny. Generational insights spot on. Love it, well done!
I don’t think I’ve ever hated an ad as much as I hate this
Briliant.
Worst Lamb ad ever, or should that be eva?
‘Lamb is the one meat we can all agree on’ works when it is about cultural differences. For me it doesn’t quite scale the generation gap, unless the boomers are claiming lamb cutlets on their franking credits.
I know you’re not meant to comment if you haven’t seen the whole thing, but I couldn’t get past a minute. Excuriating and cringe and trying to say so much and delivering absolutely none of it
Well, I for one thought the humour was a touch high brow. It’s a ad, folks… not a shakespearean play. Bring it down a notch please so we can all understand.
Wow. This ad’s copping a real lambasting in the comments. hahaha I crack me up.
What a great watch. Well done Monkeys. I’m still giggling at “Here, have a house.” Alas, I understand why Gen Z hate it. After all, it has a story to it.
Who said all the critical comments are from gen Z? You are the problem.
huge cast, epic story, big production value (on what I bet was a too small budget). congrats to all involved.
loved the treatment on the gen z city. reminded me of squid game for some reason
…they really could be. I thought they nailed it.
You simply have a screw loose. You’re so upset. Go play some vinyl.
…is like a dead party and everyone just wants to leave.
This is what happens when your mum says you’re funny for too long. This isn’t ‘Australia’s John Lewis’ this is an embarrassment
The strategy made sense when the idea was to connect lamb and Australia via Australia Day. Now that we can’t talk about Australia Day, it feels very forced and tired. There’s got be better ways increase demand for lamb.
They even enjoyed the best era in Australian advertising.So much fun.
The bastards.
really hard to make it through this one lads
People overseas are going wild for it. This tweet has 4.5 million views and hundreds of positive comments. Seems like we’re the jaded ones here.
https://x.com/huinguillaume/status/1744724351013069284?s=46
Well planted Monkeys person.
i think it’s a nice bit of storytelling, it’s fun, it’s taking the piss out of the current cultural zeitgeist. if you can’t laugh at how your generation is portrayed, grow up!
Thankfully all those overseas people who are ‘going wild for it’ are going to rush out, hop on a plane, buy some delicious lame and throw it on a BBQ.
Best one in a long time.
Head of social at McDonalds tweeting about it is hardly something to flaunt. This is more like the cries from the last vestiges of a dying breed.
Cranking hard on this one
You’re all completely off your chops! This ad is not Baaaaaaa-d! In fact, it’s the GOAT of Lamb ads! The only thing missing is a boomer in a Lamb-orghini and some Gen Z’ers in vegan baa-kini’s. Ewe herd it here first. It’s going to win by a Lambslide at the annual Meat and Livestock’s Award show at the Wuhan wet market.
Comedy in advertising is hard. Especially in this country. For starters, there are bugger-all local creatives who write genuinely funny scripts. Then when you give it to comedians or directors with no advertising experience, they often end up with the super lame tropes we were told to set on fire as juniors / award students. On top of that, try and be funny without taking the piss out of your target market, who are likely to be more endearing towards your brand if you’re not making them look like dicks. Take all of the above and this is a colossal fail. It’s nobody’s fault, but there is nothing funny, endearing or likeable about it from any of the demographics they send up. And it’s very poorly executed. Which reminds me of an old copywriter’s saying… if you can’t say it great, say it straight.
Um, the correct quote is ‘say it straight, then say it great’.
But agree with most of your rant
On the nose. Felt like a hype reel for the actual ad. You’re also promoting the slaughter of baby sheep. And, general scientific consensus says red meat is a big red flag for heart health. Unethical, unfunny, unair it please.
so embarrassingly bad… a total waste of money