Right Wing Group Threatens To “Bomb” Canberra Theatre Showing Aussie Day Hijab Ad

Right Wing Group Threatens To “Bomb” Canberra Theatre Showing Aussie Day Hijab Ad

The controversy surrounding the two young hijab-clad girls that appeared in an out of home campaign to promote Australia Day last week took a sinister turn after it was revealed the Canberra Theatre Centre that showed the ad had been attacked online and included calls to “bomb” it.

The image has been cause of ongoing debate over the past 10 days since an iteration of it first appeared beside a Melbourne freeway 10 days ago.

8211334-3x2-700x467

Following threats against the billboard operator, QMS, the ad was removed until a campaign by media identity Dee Madigan had it reinstalled just in time for Australia’s national day last Thursday.

The campaign ran on digital boards outside the Canberra Theatre Centre and photos of it were posted by the nationalist, anti-Islamic group Respect Australia.

Comments to the group’s Facebook page included members calling for the theatre to be set on fire, bombed and the screen destroyed with bricks. Others called for “people … to go there and destroy it” and “torch da (sic) dump”.

In a video uploaded to the Facebook page, an organiser of Respect Australia can be seen with supporters out of the front of the theatre, accusing it of being “un-Australian”.

“This isn’t a racial thing, it isn’t any religious discrimination or anything, this is an Australian cultural thing,” the man says in the video.

It has been reported in local media that the the theatre had to lock down its social media pages after it was inundated with threatening and aggressive messages.




Latest News

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm
  • Media

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm

Sydney Comedy Festival 2024 is live and ready to rumble, showing the best of international and homegrown talent at a host of venues around town. As usual, it’s hot on the heels of its big sister, the giant that is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, picking up some acts as they continue on their own […]

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth
  • Advertising

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced the final epic lineup of local and global marketing powerhouses for RESET for Growth 2024. Lead image: Josh Faulks, chief executive officer, AANA  Back in 2000, a woman with no business experience opened her first juice bar in Adelaide. The idea was brilliantly simple: make healthy […]