South Australia’s “Old Mate” Returns In Latest Iteration… And It’s Godawful

South Australia’s “Old Mate” Returns In Latest Iteration… And It’s Godawful

Putting the initial controversy behind it, South Australian Tourism Commission has launched its latest iteration of its “Old Mate” campaign and, much like the first spot, it doesn’t do a hell of a lot to entice visitors to the state.

The latest spot’s a mere 16-seconds and shows the actor from the original spot strolling through Adelaide Airport with two friends in tow and all to Thin Lizzy’s seminal track The Boys Are Back In Town.

Again, the ad’s the work of incumbent creative agency TBWA\Adelaide who appear to be referencing the initial kerfuffle from the first ad – which was labelled ageist, offensive and depressing – as people simply misunderstanding the parody.

Check out the new work below:

And here’s the first spot that was described as being “so depressing it needs the Lifeline number at the end”.

Not that it stopped Tasmania from parodying the idea, its state’s tourism organisation stealing the “old mate” idea in a cheeky rip-off campaign. Check it out below:

But if the old saying that “any news is good news” then “old mate” is definitely attracting plenty of PR.

According to South Australian Tourism Commission, the original campaign had 662 articles published about it, reaching 10.59 million Australians. The highest two days of domestic web traffic to Southaustralia.com were also recorded on the weekend of the 7-8 September. It also claims tourist visitation to the state has increased 23 per cent year on year.




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Ad campaigns Old mate South Australian Tourism Commission

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