The Advertising Standards Bureau has ruled that the recent Tourism Northern Territory “It’s about time” campaign does not promote suicide or are ageist.

The “It’s about time” campaign, launched by Tourism NT and its creative agency Common Ventures, used the concept of limited time, the humour and larrikin persona of the NT and the current brand positioning of ‘Do the NT’ to promote tourism in the area:

Complaints against the campaign included:

“Suicide is NOT I repeat NOT an appropriate use of getting a product out… sigh.”

“It is ageist in the extreme. I’ve already complained about this ad. And I spoke with someone from your organisation. Appalled that this is allowed on TV. Very upsetting. Ageism should be regarded as seriously as any other form of discrimination. Please pull this ad. Immediately.”

Tourism NT and Common Ventures responded to ‘ageist’ accusations by arguing;

“We feature a range of everyday Australians in normal everyday situations including an older lady in her lounge room, an older man at the bowling club, a middle age man outside, a middle aged woman at work and children located outside their house. Within this spread of age groups we have purposely featured two older Australians as that is the target market whose attention we are trying to capture in the campaign.

“We are definitely not trying to discriminate against them as we wish to appeal and attract this mature market.”

The second complaint about suicide, the advertisers responded:

“Only if the ad is not seen in its entirety could someone reach a negative conclusion. Admittedly the beginning is quite sombre but this is to draw the consumer in so they pay attention and question what the shopkeeper is talking about. This question is then quickly and clearly outlined by the shopkeeper saying her sister has gone to Darwin and loves it so much they’re never coming back”