Hey hey, is Tourism Queensland’s latest campaign the worst tourism campaign in the world?
August 27 2009, 2:24 pm | | 130 Comments
Lee Taylor from News.com.au reports that Tourism Queensland’s new TV ad campaign has been labelled “embarrassing” and an “abomination” by Australians.
The campaign was created by CHE, Brisbane. View the series of commercials
130 Comments
i just realised what this reminds me of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLtnUfyZJ7s
if only it was that good
That doesn’t look like Queensland to me.
Just when you thought that there couldn’t be anything worse than the Donut King ads.
I feel sorry for the creatives who actually try and do good work in Brisbane. 3 Grand Prix’s then BANG. Back to square one.
Oh My God. That is just simply embarrassing. Reminds me of a Bing Lee or Harvey Norman ad. Cringe x a million +1!!!
Fuck me. Did all the copywriters and art directors in Brisbane just resign? Was this done by a 60 year old suit who is having a trip relapse??
The whole state’s a bloody embarrassment. Last time I went there I saw 7 fights in 3 nights in the classier end of Brisvegas, and was picked twice, once by a bouncer.
Ahh that Juicy Fruit spot is awesome
There’s one to put on the reel!
Now that’s the way to back up 3 Cannes Grand Prix. Shit and shit… so sad QLD!!
Who did this?
Surely not Cummins?
Need to know for career reasons :o)
I just threw up in my mouth a little…
Oh my god this really is that terrible.
Just the other day I remarked having watched yet another crap ad that maybe I’ll eventually do alright in this industry. Then this comes along and I wonder why I’m not a CD yet.
God they’re horrible.
Firstly – I’m a copywriter from WA with NO connection to this ad at all.
You people are so up yourselves. Advertising is not made for advertising people. Sure, it’s not ‘short walk and a handshake’ material, but it’s not so terrible. Embarrassing? Why? For whom? Do you really think the young travelers it’s aimed at are going to watch it and judge it like you? It doesn’t take itself seriously; basically it looks and sounds fun. Not a bad basis for a tropical holiday. It’s deliberately got the hand-held home-movie feel – follows on from the massive publicity of ‘The best job in the world’. Seriously, why you are embarrassed? Because it won’t get a Lion? Will you also admit you are embarrassed if QLD Tourism figures rise? I reckon it will work. CB please keep us posted.
PS – no wonder you get belted wherever you go 3.38, elitism is not endearing
These was produced by the people who beat Cummins to retain the business.
Go figure
Makes you wonder – how good is ‘The world’s best Job’ as an idea.
They’re already struggling to campaign it out………..just awful.
For years being gay was illegal in Queensland. These ads prove it’s all OK now.
I can see why ad wankers hate it but for those non ad people going through a bit of a grim time with the recession etc, I’d say this is a bit of fresh air and light relief. The images look nice and fun and I’d say the choice of soundtrack means QLD isn’t taking itself too seriously, which is an endearing and likeable quality.
This was obviously produced before the pitch. Why and wtf.
Anyone getting the feeling that the pitch process has spiraled its way out of control?
Agency’s are being screwed. How often does an agency even make the work they pitch? It really is a tired old ritual.
Yes, my eyes bleed and my soul cringes at that concept….BUT…. the reality is this ‘idea’ somehow won CHE arguably the biggest account in town! Moreso, don’t forget Cummins were dumped by Qld Tourism despite all their Cannes success, because the campaign failed.
Ultimately, as long as the touring public buy into it… it doesn’t matter what we/you ad-wankers think!!
4:44 PM You’re a bully and a tyrant if you think people randomly deserve to be picked. Queensland is just like that, many people complain about the level of violence up there. If you can’t see that this ad is crap, that even the punters think it’s crap, maybe you should switch to interior decorating.
Spot on Deano.
These are just plain fun – and for a holiday campaign, that’s not such a bad idea.
I bet half you wankers would be desperate for a campaign like this if you owned or operated a tourism business in Queensland. Save your angst for another 387 touch points-through the line-channel marketing- wankathon- for a boutique beer.
Jamberoo Action Park – Where You Control the Action!
Deano – it’s not just ad people who are bagging todays subject matter.
http://WWW.news.com.au/travel/story/0,28318,25988985-5014090,00.html
… Even the people these ads are aimed at don’t much like them. So they do judge it, just like we do. And they also say poo.
So, if it doesn’t even appeal to its freaking target market and it looks crap, i say bag the shit out of it!
So, we’re not that up ourselves. For once…
@ Joh
That is fckn funny
So…it’s the eighties again and not in a good way, if there ever was one.
Hey – Hey – We – Are – In – Queensland
Needs subtitles and a bouncing ball, you know, so we can all sing along!. Maybe it was inspired by the return of Hey hey it’s Saturday, Oh my god! they can run it during that program! genius.
I’m surprised that it’s taken 21 comments to hang the guilty…CHE. The weakest link of the Clemenger network has just raised its head. My advice…duck and run for cover whoever worked on this.
The Subway ad, the Donut King ad…now this…
Amazing isn’t it. The best job stuff cost practically nothing to make and run.
This cost $500 000 and it’s on its way to 5 million.
signed
not from cummins.
Cummins gives them one of the most successful campaigns they’ve ever had creatively and effectively and TQ reward them by giving the lions share of the account to Clems who in turn produce this.
Everyone at Cummins must be shaking their heads in disbelief, that’s insulting.
CHE created this ad, not Cummins.
My eyes just threw up and when my ears (who were already on the brink) smelled it, they threw up in sympathy.
p.s: 4:54. You clearly lost the pitch for grammatical reasons.
How bloody sanctimonious to sit in judgement. Like everything you’ve ever produced is unflawed, brilliant and Cannes-worthy. The truth is 70% of what even the most creative agencies produce is ‘workman-like’. Sure we should all aspire to do great work but sometimes stuff gets in the way.
In this case before you judge ask yourself and consider; do you know anything of the brief? The client? Imagine all the stakeholders. Imagine limitations around existing footage that doesn’t necessarily work. And I wonder how many great ideas went by the wayside because of poor judgement. I’m certainly not advocating this is a great campaign. But sometimes agencies aren’t allowed to produce their best work. We’ve all been there. It’s been said clients get the work they deserve. I think this proves the point.
Commentators on this blog need to chill, stop being small minded, bitchy and judgmental and factor in the day to day realities of what we do.
Let’s pause for a moment and think of the creative who stood up in the boardroom and sang the new lyrics to the client et al.
“Yeah, I think it went well.”
Brie, anyone?
Clems Brissy usually do good solid work.
Apparently Host are planning something similar for WA Tourism with “Last Train to Dullsville”
You’ll struggle to find a prouder Queenslander than me, but I just don’t understand this campaign. At a time when the state finally seems to be growing up and really pissing with the big boys on so many other levels, they go and do this with their advertising. Maybe it really is true: going to QLD is like taking a huge step back in time …
Deano,
It’s not just ad people taking the piss out of it. Go see what the ‘consumer’ thinks on some of the news blog sites – they don’t much like it either. So perhaps this forum has a point…?
Lame. Just proves that winning pitches has nothing to do with producing great work anymore.
Queensland…
Top of the world one day – scrapping the barrel the next
Creative Director: Anna Bligh
Copywriter: Her Mum
Art Director: Her Dad
Director/Producer: Harvey Normal Handycam department
truly truly awful… what were they thinking?
It’s so easy for you clowns to over analyse everything. This ad is light hearted and fun. That’s how it is up here. This ad isn’t aimed at sore losers and jealous fools. It’s aimed at normal people around Australia and the rest of the world. I’m sure the increase in the amount of families and people coming to Queensland who are up for a great time will prove this. Well done CHE.
I agree with 5:28 PM. In fact I’d go even further and suggest the choice of soundtrack means QLD isn’t taking anything too seriously at all.
Ok, I admit the song is terrible, (I’m under thirty so the monkees are pretty ghey) but you really have to ask the question, what did Cummins do to lose the client to this?
I would assume that this job was already in progress before the pitch and sure it’s not a good ad, but Cummins really must have screwed up somewhere during the pitch process as the client would already know that this is the type of work coming out of the agency that they hand the $50 mill.
Personally, I’d happily make a shit ad that gets the client in a good mood about my agency around pitch time when $50M is on the line.
The campaign was created by Clemenger Brisbane, not Cummins Brisbane. Thank God.
The truth is, it’s not only Ad Wankers having their say. Have a look at the link.
I think you’ll find that this is where the idea came from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmH9ahaTt7k
Deano at 4:44pm and 5:28. You’re both bang on. It’s nice to see a tourism ad showing there is a bit of fun to be had in a state… Not just filled with helicopter shots along a coastline etc. If I lived outside Australia these ads would get me interested in heading to Queensland. Unfortunately the papers and media have turned it into a circus once again. The ads aren’t absolutely amazing. But they’re not shit ads, they’ll work well I’m guessing
And to the tosser at 3:38pm. I’d say even your family would try and smack you out. You’ve grown up to be a complete nob head. Well done!
If ever you needed proof that a whole lot of ad people are out of touch, 90%of the negative comments above is it.
This campaign is perfect for what it is and for what it needs to achieve.
It builds on the ‘Worlds Best Job’ perfectly.
So from a non BBDO man to CHE Brisbane, well done.
And to all those wankers who are sooooooooooo embarrassed – get a life.
lol 8.21, sure, you’re no way connected the CHE.
A bit of fun? Does overcranked action equate to fun? It’s just so dated in every way. Even its pop culture reference is over 40 years old. It’s stale.
Well done, 11.25, Last Train to Dullsville.
As a creative from Brissy all I can say is “Ouch”. This work has re-cemented our position as the laughing stock of the industry.
And… When politicians start defending the merit of creative work, there is possible concern for worry.
Maybe Cummins Worlds Best campaign [which I love] made the Best Job famous but that campaign and all the other stuff they’ve done for Tourism Queensland didn’t make the cash registers ring that much. Getting people to enter a comp for best job is one thing. Getting mum and dad to cough up $5K for a family holiday to the Gold Coast Worlds is something else entirely.
These are bad. I agree. But I also agree with 8.32pm. The best creative agencies still have to produce dross like this to survive. The Just Car Insurance ads from DDB are a good example. What do they mean? Someone tell me! But I digress. Clients are more interested in results than awards.
All these comments about ‘3 Grand Prix’ and ‘what did Cummins do wrong’ are indicative of an attitude that’s a far bigger worry than the ‘Cannesworthyness’ of these ads – a complete pre-occupation with egos and awards that keeps coming through on these blogs.
Maybe that might help explain who ends up getting the business in the end.
I’d say these spots were made to sell Cairns, not getting to Cannes.
The client might have been more impressed with this than dealing with inflated egos.
Yeah that’s it folks, keep on shitcanning Brisbane agencies and creatoves! I’m not defending this new tourism ad – as a local creative and as a local, I really cringe over it – but to summize that this whole state is a talentless backwater because of a few recent lacklustre examples is ludicrous! I’m sure you southern state agencies NEVER do any crappy work! Yeah, right!!
I can tell you for a fact that the leading Brissie agencies are swamped with CV’s from Sydney & Melbourne agency people BEGGING to move up here for a dozen reasons. Unfortunately, all the seats are full right now, so you’ll have to wait! Meanwhile, I might head out for a pleasant lunchtime walk… it’s ANOTHER perfect blue-skied 29 degrees autumn Brisbane day.
The defence:
“It’s light hearted fun”
The prosecution:
“It’s light hearted fun that’s so ‘light’ it treats a sophisticated travel market like a pack of idiots. Where in this ad do we see any surprises. Where to we discover any unique insights into the wonder that this place really is to discover. Unfortunately the defenders can stick their head in the sand all they like, people dancing on a beach will not make people curious about travelling to a destination.”
Based on my experiences of Queensland, this is my script.
Scene opens on a beach. it’s night.
Camera pans to find a teenage couple rutting furiously.
We pull back to reveal a few beer-swigging middle-aged men standing at the edge of the beach pretending they’re not watching.
Cut to nightclub, exterior.
A young woman is being consoled by a mate. She yells into the nightclub ‘He’s just a cunt!’ before vomiting on the pavement.
We cut to a crowd scene.
A man, shirt covered in blood, leaps in front of the camera before being dragged away by his mates.
Cut to a bus-stop.
Three young men are stuffing burgers into their mouths. A fourth is on his back, immovable.
It starts to rain. Hard.
A beer can falls in front of the camera. The camera pans up to find a giggling group on the balcony of a cheap hotel pointing down and laughing.
A police car drives past, screeching to a halt in front of the nightclub we saw earlier.
Police run into the club.
The puking girl is led away by her mates.
As the super fades up, we hear her drunken sobbing fading into the night.
Super: “Hey Hey, this is Queensland.”
Sometimes the client gets exactly what they want. And so does the agency – a big fuck-off account that spend assloads. So while you’re all eating baked beans and being uber creative, I’m sure CHE Brisbane will be eating prime-rib and doing shit work that keeps their clients happy… But yes, if my ears and eyes could have pooed themselves, they would have.
I’m intrigued that this ad has created so much conversation.
It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just a bit lame. But hardly a hanging offence.
I’m even more intrigued that a lot of big brand campaigns from big name agencies escape scrutiny on this blog. Why is that?
Because at least the Qld ad is kind of consistent with the brand values of Qld tourism, while so many ads I see are actually damaging brands rather than building them.
You sound like a Queenslander endorsing child abuse.
Get a life mate, there’s life outside watching roosters fight in the Northern and XXXX.
I could have nailed this.
“Queensland. Fuck off ya bloody ad-wankers and nips we’re full.”
Stop defending these ads, and just accept they’re shit.
I have no doubt the creatives knew it too when they first proposed it. We all know when our work is shit. Sadly sometimes that’s all we can get through. Although I’m surprised this crap flew at all, who’d the present to, my grandmother?
11.00am.
You might like to look up the definition of ‘bathos’ to see why this ad is attracting so much comment as the follow-on from Best Job
A word of advice to most (not all) of you who comment on this blog. As you can’t possibly have jobs, given you’re so uninformed and frankly bloody stupid, bitter, twisted and jealous of those who do work for a living ………. instead of writing pathetic comments on this blog, why don’t you spend some of that spare time doing some research, and becoming, just a tad, better educated about what you’re mouthing off about.
“Best Job in the World” was a great idea. But IT DIDN’T WORK. It didn’t get any more people, less in fact, to visit Queensland. And as much as I’m sure Anna Bligh and the Qld tax payers would love to send some advertising wankers to Cannes .- I imagine their aim was actually to create BUSINESS.
Before you continue to mouth off about what you know nothing about, maybe work out why you’re all unemployed or in shit jobs, and so bitter and twisted, and totally uninformed. Then maybe you might become employable, and won’t have time to write idiotic comments on this all day long.
(And I’m a client, not an agency person.)
Hey 9:49am (aka 101), it’s still winter you knobhead.
12:19
Tell ya what Mr client.
Next time your agency gives you an idea that costs absolutely fuck all to produce, but gets you on every single major news network in the world, including a live linkup to Queensland on CNN when the actual job was unveiled – giving you, conservatively, about 20 million dollars worth of completely free PR – (and, of course, a few major international awards to boot) just tell them to fuck off and write a jingle eh?
Jesus, if you are a client, and your stupidity convinces me that you are, then you and your similarly ill-educated, narrow-minded, double-guessing, completely terrified ilk are the single main reason Australian ads are shit.
Fuck off.
Jesus, I’ve waited years to say that.
Katrina, if the best job idea didn’t work, can I ask why they used a few of the contestants from the idea in these ads?
Are you sure they didn’t just rape a good idea that brought millions of dollars of free PR into the state?
Go Malcolm.
Oh no.
The blood of a client is in the water.
The piranhas are circling.
I predict more blood on the screen before this thread is done.
These ads aren’t great but coming from someone who worked on Tourism NSW for three years I know most of the stuff we presented never got made and what did wasn’t much better than this. It’s a combination of public service, stale strategy, suits not prepared to do the ground work before the sell, and creative forgetting that tourism/holidays are for everyone. I can’t remember a good tourism ad in Australia in the last 5-10 years apart from Best Job, but that obviously didn’t get enough people going to the state.
Katrina… I’m not bitter or in a shit job. Or unemployed. Just bemused by the… how should I put this… ‘kwality’ of this campaign.
I wonder why people waste money on this crap. Why do you clients people need to do bad ads in order for things to work? Please research the effectiveness of creative campaigns, like Carlton, LynxJet and Cadbury, particularly the ‘sales’ bit and ‘brand recall’ part.
Please research the ‘brand recall’ of Best Job. Please research the ‘free publicity’ component. I’m sure Cummins presented ways of converting sales (as well as putting QLD back on the map), the client probably didn’t listen so they went ‘bugger it, we’ll make a really nice entry video’.
It goes both ways.
This is without a doubt the funniest series of ads I have seen in a very long time.
I was actually laughing out loud at how bad they are.
The fourth execution where they are walking around like emus is so cringe-worthy I’m thinking about taking out Latvian citizenship because of the sheer embarrassment of them.
How can anyone in their right mind defend them? It’d be like trying to mount a case for Adolf Hitler.
But in parting, I’d just like to say that it truly gave me a a ‘bright’ moment in my day.
Now I’m off to drink ethanol to try to forget the whole tawdry experience.
Fuck yeah Malcom.
All I can say is thanks to CHE for making this ad. Without it, I wouldn’t have been so entertained over the last ten minutes reading the comments posted. Gold!
God I love it when a client makes a comment.
Especially one as classic as the one above.
Go guys, it’s anonymous. Say what you REALLY think!
Katrina you poor silly thing; I’m a client (ex agency creative, believe it or not), but as both a creative and as a results driven marketer, I find your commentary incredibly naive.
C’mon tell me that you’re double degree’d with an MBA and you work in the marketing department of a finacial services company.
This is the fundamental issue with many clients; they’re just text book marketers taught at uni by failed advertisng and marketing has-beens.
And because you get little bits of paper, you’re suddenly an expert.
The work Cummins did was brilliant, the CHE ads are an embarassment to me as a Queenslander.
The reason people aren’t coming to Queensland in droves is because there is a global finacial crisis, swine flu, and bloogy Irukandji in the water killing people.
Man this is one nasty blog, I mean, I’ve seen shit flying here before, but never on this scale.
I had nothing to do with the spot, but I think all the negativity is unjustified.
It’s all just a bit of fun, like chocolate sauce on ice cream…sure it’s juvenile, but I kind of like it.
Go the Monkees…
M.
Let’s look at one of the other major crimes of the ad. pretty much every scene could have been shot in NSW WA NT or QLD. face it. the main selling point of QLD is it’s proximity to the equator and it being warm when other states arent.. Now there’s an idea: we open on a map of the world with the lines of latitude clearly marked… a little smiley cartoon sun shines near the upper eastern part of Oz while a little cartoon cloud with a sad face drizzles in the south. See? Job done. TV and online done.
Katrina said…
“”Best Job in the World” was a great idea. But IT DIDN’T WORK. It didn’t get any more people, less in fact, to visit Queensland”
Are you saying, Katrina that “The Best Job in the World” not only didn’t attract people but also caused people to stay away when you say “less in fact?”.
Because i think if people stayed away recently then it might have something to do with the fact that unemployment was and still is on the rise right around the world..hmmm…maybe that’s it and not the ad.
The old global financial doom and gloom thing…could be a factor?
Do you think that might be a factor?? hmm?? No spendy any money.
The Best Job stuff was very popular in the Northern Hemisphere because people had no jobs! no joby joby…
So at the time the news headlines went something like this.
“We’re all gonna die there’s no more money”
And TQ and cummins said “Look there’s plenty of money and fun here”
It was like throwing meat to starving dogs and made Queensland world famous…again.
It put Queensland top of mind.
and when the money flows again, Queensland’s on the menu.
And when that happens it will because of the buzz that Cummins generated more so then it’s suckcessor.
Raf.
Research brand recall – who cares. If brand recall was the criteria for success you’d be handing titanium to Qantas every time they ran I Still Call Australia Home.
But guess what? The brand recall is thru the roof but the love for the brand is thru the floor. Cadbury Gorilla? Great brand recall, but no sales increase. Brand recall doesn’t always equal succes$ Raf, [like the way I used the $ for an s] but you sound a bit too young and naive to get that.
Clemenger in Brisbane was once great, I know I was there. Everyone good came to Sydney or went to Cummins. Remember before you are two brutal, a client had to write a brief and the agency had to answer that brief on budget. Saying that it is so bad. What do you think Sandy? Sandy…..Sandy…….Hello……
Decore, Good Guys, Queensland. All daggy song spoofs. Decore sold product by the Duke load. Good Guys sales keep the vibrations happening and The Monkees will rack up tourism sales by the squillions. Grow-up people. Have some fun and stop taking the serious pills.
I remember, I think in the early 90s an ad…which I think was for Tourism Australia featured Jimmy Barnes played in NZ. Jimmy at the time was pretty big across the Tasman and this combination of great music and great images was a pretty powerful combo. For me, you can’t go past a great soundtrack .
Can someone tell me where the 1/2 million went because it’s not in the talent, music, images, concept or post house.
‘Ha ha this is rubbish!!’ (also sung in an American accent)
Can you imagine how soul-destroying it must be for the person in the agency whose job it is to come on here and “even things out a little” with a few positive comments? Worst job in the world
12:32 Get your facts straight. The ‘Best Job’ campaign was indeed a cracker, but sizeable $$ were spent running press ads internationally to promote it, plus the prize came with a hefty pricetag. So don;’ think it just magicaly took off.
People seem to forget that hugely popular viral/social media campaigns like this almost always have a budget pushing them. Like the Evian Rollerbabies… you really think it just ‘spread’ naturally? They employed 600 bloggers to push it!!
So why didn’t Cummins get the TQ business? It’s obvious isn’t it? It’s all about who you lunch with (lunching is still big in Queensland, believe it or not!!).
The ‘World’s Best Job’ was a one-off thing – too good for TQ to ignore obviously. Cummins still have some TQ business as they look after specific regional campaigns – for Sunshine Coast, Whitsundays and Tropical North Queensland.
Will be interesting to see if this campaign works to drive visitor numbers.
It’s like someone said earlier, it’s not good but it’s not bad, just lame. Maybe someone should try mashing it with another soundtrack? Might give it totally different feel – fun, upbeat, energetic, young? Less cheesy?
Being government, I have no doubt it would have been extensively researched, at concept and final production stage – with the actual target audience. It’s aimed at under 30s (maybe even younger? Under 25s?) – so in fairness don’t think you can take the results of an online newspaper poll as ‘target audience’ feedback!
Cummins insider:
Whoever thinks the BJITW campaign failed better get a few things straight.
It was designed to create awareness. Tick.
It was designed to be a promotion. Tick.
It was low budget so give it a roll. Tick.
It was rapturously received around the world because of the beauty and honesty of the idea. Tick
It was launched well past the Northern hemipsphere’s ability to plan and book holidays. Tick
Queensland is on the radar in those markets for the first time in years. So the numbers will grow. Tick.
It put Brisbane advertising on the map. Tick.
It made the client famous. Tick.
The TQ client is neither sophisticated nor pleasant to work with. They are highly political and worry more about their own PR than marketing.
The agency (CHE) that did this work should take responsibility for the work. They presented it. They couldve chosen not to.
I wouldnt right off us guys here in Brissy. We cant help client decisions. But we can choose always to decide what we present. And what we do not. Just like the dreadful Subway campaign that Mojo did..we were never going to present sub par work.. That’s the price you pay for being a creative shop with standards.
EXPOSED! Katrina is the client that wrote the brief! Oh my god!
First spoof:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ThisIsQueensland
Having just watched the ads again, this time on mute, they’re not as bad.
3:31 PM You patronising, no nothing, dribbling pathetic excuse for a $20 suit. Brand recall is nothing? ALMOST EVERY BRIEF I’VE WRITTEN HAS STATED: Drive brand awareness. Increase sales (secondary).
Sometimes sales don’t increase because you have a shit product. What Cummins realised is they had the best product in the world, got out of the way and let it sell itself, rather than think advertising can magically trick people with a jingle or a dingleberry. But you sound a bit too far up your own fanny to get that.
Do you like eating feet?
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/worlds-best-job-a-job-well-done-20090826-eytk.html
“Before you continue to mouth off about what you know nothing about, maybe work out why you’re unemployed or in a shit job, and so bitter and twisted, and totally uninformed.”
Cockmonkey.
That’s my team!
Remember that? Took a famous, Aussie song, matched it to pumping visuals of the product and the punters loved it.
This takes a long forgotten and irrelevant song from the US and marries it to pedestrian, cliched visuals of the product.
The broad approach can work. It just needs to reach far deeper into the soul and energy of the product than this rubbish.
Very, very poor.
Just watched this with five reasonably sophisticated, non-advertising grown-ups and we all laughed our tits off.
RE: Katrina – lol
Thanks Katrina for making all of us clients look so pathetic. I am not only embarassed by these ads for our great state, I am now embarrassed that people like you can be so sad. Success in all forms takes partnerships, maybe you should show some respect for agency partners and you will realise you get better results, as will TQ.
(A Brisbane client)
Judging by the amount of comments this campaign’s getting, I think “Worst Ad” might challenge ‘Best Job” for most effective generation of free media. See you at Cannes CHE!
Calm down Tony 8:55.
World best created awareness tick. It was a promotion tick [thanks for reminding us]. It was low budget tick. Well done, but you would’ve been fine if you had’ve stopped there.
But no, according to you it just didn’t put Queensland advertising on the map it’s made Queensland famous! Puleeease!
Tony, I think The Great Barrier Reef did that a long time ago.
And claiming to be a Cummins insider and then ridiculing the TQ people, well I think you’ve just gone to the heart of why Cummins don’t have the business and it ain’t as someone else suggested because they didn’t take TQ out to lunch. By the way, those unsophisticated not very nice TQ people were smart enough to run Worlds Best Job, but too dumb to choose an agency.
And now you’re telling the world that you, yes you, were never going to present sub standard work for Subway. Well, guess what, you did and we all saw it the commercials.
Trust me Tony, theses ads will work, just as Cummins Worlds Best Job campaign worked.
The best person to comment on whether the Best Job campaign worked is undeniably the CEO of Tourism Queensland and here’s what he had to say only last week:
The real measure of success for any tourism campaign is whether it delivered visitors. According to Tourism Queensland’s chief executive, Anthony Hayes, the campaign did its job.
Hayes told the recent Tourism Futures conference on the Gold Coast that US visitor numbers to Queensland in the quarter to June increased by 15 per cent on the same period last year and the biggest travel wholesaler in Germany has reported sales 50 per cent higher than in the same period last year.
“Also, usually there are 4500 sales out of Scandinavia over a year – we sold that in one three-day period this year,” Hayes says. “We expect those kind of figures to keep on coming. And it’s all down to the campaign.”
So before anyone goes questioning Cummins one had better take a close look at just what’s going on inside Tourism Queensland’s head.
Katrina….leveler of cities…antagonist of advertising types.
Next up Katrina and the makin waaaaaves.
Thought i’ld add a little levity. Don’t breach my levities Katrina.
fck i’m on fire!
Hmmmmm I just love a bit of toe-jam for breakfast!
4500 sales in one 3 day period vs. a whole year… Hey Hey this is Marketing!
1:30pm, might also have something to do with the world economy bottoming out, the stock market up 30+% etc.
Always good to take a wide perspective.
Could all Cummins staff and other agency staff who are bitter against Clemenger at the moment because they won the Tourism Queensland account, please get back to work….
Hurricane Katrina!
Apologies if this has already been touched upon – but who reads copy these days, eh? I think the point is that this odious mess from Tourism Queensland is just a typical example of the woeful, unimaginative work that’s being signed off by most state tourism boards. It’s all a montage of meaningless stock-type footage that assaults the senses and leaves viewers with absolutely nothing to hold onto. Pick a state and look at the ads – they’re all the same. The Best Job campaign was different. It engaged and inspired. This stuff just nauseates. The reason is the poor calibre of people that are working in these departments. Usually just out of uni with nothing more than irrelevant degrees and nice racks.
I can just see the brief: “We’ve got all these runners up from the Greatest Job on Earth campaign…”
The only problem is that virtually no one knows who they are and even fewer care.
Why on earth you’d have it as your opening line is beyond me.
It’s cold and it’s pissing down here in Melbourne.
Makes me wanna go to Queensland.
It’s fun for fucks sake … and that what holidays in the sun are.
CHE CHE this is cra-ap….
Aug 30 12:52 PM – congratulations, looks like you’ve summed things up perfectly. Tony et al sound like the same geniuses who treat consumers with contempt – if the target audience don’t like a creative’s ad it’s because the consumer is ignorant, not because the ad doesn’t do the job.
3:59 you are a silly little thing aren’t you?
Now read this slowly and try and understand it if you’re capable of understanding anything other than cliched dribble.
Its no use doing an ad if people can’t recall what brand its for, but amazing brand recall alone is hardly a measure of success.
Every day brands that are readily recalled are changing agencies because their advertising has had plenty of recall but no change in sales/behaviour towards the brand.
A perfect example of the recall story is Qantas. For twenty years they’ve had astronomical recall of the brand and their I still call Australia Home campaign, but consumer’s love for the brand has continued to fall.
You see 3:59, it’s too easy to quote brand recall as the barometer of success. If we used your thinking there’s a pretty good chance this new Tourism Queensland campaign will be a great success, because you’d have to think brand recall will be pretty high.
But somehow, I doubt you’d be the first to congratulate CHE and TQ if that was the case.
If Consumers love for Qantas is falling it’s because their planes are failing. Not a product to cost cut on.
1:37 I don’t know if you’re a creative or a suit. I don’t see why a client would go on this blog and preach.
Our job is to get people through the door (as in QANTAS). The rest is up to them. If they have crap service, keep canceling flights and you get food poisoning from the coffee, well the ads did their job, but the product didn’t.
Brand recall is important for one reason, your product is top of mind when a consumer is looking at booking a holiday (for example). The rest is up to channel marketing and a whole other 4 years of marketing at a reputable university to work out.
Now about the ad… well it doesn’t do it for me, but lets hope all the lame-ass people who like it do go to Queensland so it damages their brand and all the hip people with money come to NSW.
’nuff said.
To anyone doubting the effectiveness of ‘Best job in the world’ please read this:
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/worlds-best-job-a-job-well-done-20090826-eytk.html
Stop beating the ‘we want to make craps ads because they are effective’ drum.
It’s horse shit, even Harvey Norman can testify to that.
There’s something missing here (haven’t read ALL the comments for obvious reasons…) You have to ask yourself after viewing the bizarre ad:
Who is it intended for?
60-something Americans who might remember “The Monkees” but who would care more about comfort and convenience etc?
20-something Europeans who have absolutely no relation to the ill-fated TV series (and band) and to whom the rather lame ersatz and humor-free mannerism mean nothing?
Asians of any age? I have absolutely no idea. I may work great for all I know.
The impression you get from viewing the ad is that nobody at the agency nor the client asked themselves this either.
But the talent was cheap…
it certainly depreciate Australians as creative minds. I can imagine how hard the “creative” of this “commercial” have to think to make something so crap. THE BRIEFING MUST BE SOMETHING LIKE, THINK OF THE MOST IDIOT THINK FOR A CAMPAIGN, THINK REVERSE, THINK IN SOMETHING TO AVOID THE TOURISM IN Queensland. Or maybe that’s a joke, like a teaser for the next step for the Queensland Campaign. Hahaha. Sorry guys for some inapropriate mistakes on my language… I am not Australian, the english is not my native language, but i hope you have understand what i meant. Thank you mates and congratulation for your beautiful country, one day i will be there as a tourist, but not to Queensland. 😉
Thanks 6:41.
I took nearly 120 blogs but we finally got to the core of your dislike of the new Queensland campaign.
To quote “lets hope all the lame-ass people who like the ad go to Queensland and all the hip people with money go to NSW”.
So, it’s not hip enough for you. Well, what a shame.
Queensland is a fun, family destination with the odd schoolie and Mexican retiree escaping the winter. 99% of them aren’t ‘hip people with money’, never have been, never will be.
But if i was ‘hip’ maybe 6:41 could tell me where to stay at The Gold Coast; Versace? I don’t think so. There’s cool and there’s…..well, Versace.
And besides Qualia on Hamilton Island and maybe a few other places, where would you recommend ‘hip people with money’ holiday in Queensland 6:41?.
Like so many ad people too young to know anything other than what’s on page
36 of the last award annual, Tourism Queensland is guilty of that most horrible of crimes – producing a product that isn’t as cool as the advertising people like 6:41 hell-bent on creating for it.
Just put this in your head 6:41 [I think you’ll find plenty of room]. The major media spend on this campaign will be in Queensland because the overwhelming majority of people who take holidays in Queensland are Queenslanders themselves. And from all reports, most of them aren’t hip with lots of money.
If I was you, I’d stick to doing scams for hip gay bars and hairdressers in Sydney
Thankyou 7:32 somebody needed to say it.
I quote:
“I’d stick to doing scams for hip gay bars and hairdressers in Sydney.”
Spoken like a true, tolerant, multicultural Queenslander. I wonder if you knew the guys who beat the shit out of my gay mate in Brisbane last year?
Hey guys, if people want to convince themselves this crap is good advertising, will win Gold at Cannes and increase sales by 15 billion percent crashing 25 websites across the universe, well let them.
We don’t need to point out how stupid they are, they do a perfectly good job of it themselves.
And I’m sorry to hear about your mate 9:23, but if he was in Brisbane… well it would have happened to anyone, straight or gay.
I looked at a holiday in QLD recently and it was double the price of one in Thailand. I’m flying Death Star and I’ll see real monkeys.
I’m not sure why 7.32 would want to sell queensland as a daggy place by doing daggy ads. The place has been fighting these perceptions for years.
In recent memory the ads promoting Brisbane did a fine job of promoting their town as a sophisticated place with loads of surprises. They reshaped in people’s minds what they thought of the city.
Unfortunately for the agency and client on that campaign, they have been brought undone by this recent effort from Tourism QLD.
The whole state and their stakeholders deserve better.
Someone call the old mans home – 7:32’s forgotten to take his pills again.
7:32 definitely has a point – if you think about it like this:
Each state positions themselves in a different way – Tourism Victoria has positioned itself for the urban/culture/arts message, Tasmania has dibbs on the wilderness/natural parks message, NSW has a really confused message basically resting on the Sydney Opera house and forgetting about the rest of the state, NT have the Aboriginal/bush angle, whilst SA and WA have barely any discernable message at all from what I can tell…
Anyway, QLD has always been reliant on the good weather/great barrier reef/family oriented message, and that’s not going to change any time soon. People visit QLD for an active, fun, reasonably inexpensive family/backpacker holiday. I think that message has gotten accross in these ads. And the talent, whilst they aren’t necessarily recognisable here, enjoyed celebrity in their own countries, reinforcing the push to grow international markets.
Whilst I personally don’t think that the Hey Hey ads are wonderful and I don’t think they have been executed in an effective way, I think that throwing shit on the positioning of the ad is a bit redundant.
After all, for all the whinging there is about how QLD should be portrayed as “urban” and trendy and whatever, they are selling QLD, not South East QLD. The majority of regional based destinations do not have sophisticated holiday experiences to sell.
Hang on, didn’t ‘Best Job In The World’ cost a fuck pile of money? I thought it was around the $2million mark? Didn’t they personally fly journos from across the world to cover it? That would have been REEEEAAAAAAL cheap.
Some of my best friends are QLD creatives. Young and talented too, luckily they know better to seek better arenas to display their work. Not necessarily going to Melbourne or Sydney. But taking massive pay cut to go to NZ or Singapore where fresh creative is not only expected but encouraged by both the agency and the Clients.
Having said that. I really believe that Brisbane has a massive chip on their shoulder. They see themselves as a small town, and refuse to think of themselves as another major australian city. Now, some people might find this behavior charming, understated, True grass-roots. And even take pride in not taking yourself too seriously like the rest of the country is.
The fact that Cummings lost the account after they’ve achieved so much for their client and their state. Shows just how backward the place is. Even worse the lack of vision. Not only buy such crap work, but to display it so proudly, as if disregarding the efforts of the previous agency.
Let’s face it. It’s the type of crap campaign that a crap client pushes you to make with the threat “We’ve got 5mil, we’ll get someone else to do it” . And CHE was more than happy to oblige.
When i was growing up, i quickly worked out that if i chatted up the fat ugly chicks, i was more likely to get more head jobs from them than from all the cute girls. Yes i got tons of headjobs, but soon i was known around the campus as the “dragonslayer” And never got a head job from a cute girl.
CHE its a business. If they wouldn’t have made it, someone else would have. So they took their money, and drop their pants.
I hope you like Fat and Ugly CHE. Cuz that’s all you’re gonna get from now on.