USA lobby group Property Rights Alliance has taken a flamethrower to Australia’s plain cigarette packaging laws with an three minute advertisement which stars a terrible Aussie accent.
Plain Packaging: Know the Real Facts by Property Rights Alliance features a voiceover attempting an Australian accent- the key word is ‘attempting’. The Property Rights Alliance is a project of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a US-based lobby group, which has taken money from tobacco firms like Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds.
Check out the ‘ploin pickagings’ ad:
https://youtu.be/V0Zm8XtTBj0
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the number of adolescents currently smoking reduced by more than 70 per cent in 20 years. The reduction is linked to effectiveness of plain packaging laws, price increases and public education campaigns.
The radical experiment of cigarette plain packaging laws has recently passed by parliament in the UK, Ireland, and France.
The advert has been viewed nearly 48,000 times on YouTube, with some stellar user comments:
- I think I speak for all of Australia when I say, what the fuck is that accent? and I’d like to follow it up with BAAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHA.
- Practice your accent. It is as fake as your facts.
- That accent is about as authentic and credible as the ‘facts’ alleged.
- That fake accent is so s***, the Simpsons wouldn’t even use it in a parody episode.”
- “Did Crocodile Dundee have a stroke?”
https://youtu.be/HV_O3BA5e28
