“Aussies Wary Of Large Corporations (And Why We’re The World’s Biggest Internet Pirates)”

“Aussies Wary Of Large Corporations (And Why We’re The World’s Biggest Internet Pirates)”
John Bastick
By John Bastick



Australians have a natural suspicion of large corporations and that means we’re less inclined to jump on board large global brands as quick as other countries, says LOUD’s executive creative director Steven Thomson.

Thomson (pictured below) has been the ECD at the North Sydney-based agency for the past 12 months following a seven-year stint in the US and told B&T that from that experience he believed “Australians have a much greater corporate wariness”.

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He believes the suspicions arise from a view – founded or otherwise – that we’re paying more than we should for overseas brands and their products.

“I think when it comes to global corporates, I don’t think Australians are happy that we have to pay more for Apple products than we do anywhere else in the world, we pay more for IKEA than anywhere else in the world, we pay more for song downloads, more for movies downloads, and more for cinema tickets,” he argued.

“And because of that we’re some of the slowest on the uptake of those global brands and we’re the second highest for piracy in the world (it’s debated whether we’re number one or two – B&T). And why is that? Because we feel we’re getting ripped off.”

However, Thomson’s counter to the argument is, that unlike our American counterparts, we simply don’t like paying for stuff; particularly stuff we deem we should be getting for nix in the first place.

“Australians feel they have this sort of unalienable social right that they should have free to air TV, that they shouldn’t have to pay to watch sport,” he said.

“Take the Ashes that are coming up, I think most Australians would be very unhappy that they had to pay to watch it.”




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