Public Servant Not To Blame For “Paleo Pear & Banana Bread” Line In Terrible Government Ad

Public Servant Not To Blame For “Paleo Pear & Banana Bread” Line In Terrible Government Ad
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



Remember the godawful ad for the federal government’s Department of Finance that copped a flakking from ad experts, SBS and the general public?

Well, it turns out that the junior public servant who delivered the infamous “paleo pear and banana bread” line and was subsequently mocked for it – “Claire” – has been wrongly blamed by her boss for inventing the line.

At a recent Senate estimates hearing at Parliament House, Liberal senator James Paterson said the line ‘stood out to me and struck me as perhaps a little trivial”, and asked the Department of Finance for an explanation, according to Fairfax.

“I understand the reasons you would be doing this, but it seems a bit trivial for a serious agency of government… to be joking about paleo pear and banana bread,” he said.

A deputy secretary of the government department who also appears in the video, David Fredericks, told Paterson that the agency responsible for the video – Together Creative – did not write the line.

“That was a change made in the script at the time of the filming. It was actually made at the request of the graduate,” he said.

“It was basically accepted because we took the view, and I think the agency took the view, that we are possibly not the best people to know and understand how best to communicate to a young generation of graduates. So this graduate, with a bit of innovation, wanted to change the script.”

But as Fairfax understands, Claire never asked for the line to be included, and Frederick’s blame claim did not go down well inside the Department of Finance.

Frederick has since revised his claim, writing to the Senate committee that “a member of the production crew suggested this change to the script”.




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