It’s reassuring, I think, to encounter representations and perspectives that allow us to feel good about who and where we are. And if you’re selling a product, creating such an experience for your would-be consumers is probably the best strategy available to you. (It’s either that or convince them that without your product, they’re sad failures destined to die alone, I suppose.) A few years ago, those in the lamb section of the Australian meat industry decided to mark out a strong commercial presence for themselves, and along the way, settled on Australia Day as their marking target of choice. It’s a decent enough ploy; create an association between your product and national pride, and let the lure of the barbecue do the rest.
Except when it comes to advertising, people have grown accustomed to every new advertisement outdoing the preceding one in scope and scale. And in order to create the desired impact, the ovine folk really went for broke in 2017, busting out a near-four-minute re-telling of Australia’s history. Pretty ambitious for chop-makers, you’d have thought. And as it turns out, sadly, they were a bit too ambitious, after all. Despite their best efforts, rather than create a harmonious, party-driven environment into which they could effectively ‘product-place’ their snaggers, they ended up bastardizing Australia’s actual history to the disappointment of many and to the disservice of all.
The problem with this advertisement is the seemingly harmless – even positive - manner in which Aboriginal people are cast in the role of welcoming hosts, who accept with smiles and wry jokes, the tall ships and other vessels as they make their way to land. As most Australians (hopefully) know, in reality, Aboriginal people did not welcome these visitors with open arms, and those who arrived did not come bearing gifts of beer and cheese. Instead, they brought and imposed an imperial mentality, and with it, disease, death, occupation and dispossession. Hardly the stuff from which you can make a happy beachside barbie, you’d have thought. But that didn’t stop the woolly mob from trying, nor did it stop those who liked the ad when they first saw it bleating about the sad-sack do-gooders who keep whining on about the past. Some people really don’t like it when reality intrudes into their fantasy. But intrude it must, if we are ever going to come to terms with our history.
Imagine the outcry if the ‘lambers’ had tried a similar trick with the jolly old Nazis and a smiling and dancing crew of happy Jews. It’d have made front-page news around the world. And yet, an ad that seeks to literally whitewash the sins of Australian history out of minds, so we can focus on eating sheep-bits on Australia Day – that most sacrosanct and loveable of Australian holidays – actually got made. And shared. And viewed. And liked, by many. It’s funny how little we can collectively choose to see sometimes.
Let’s be clear: it’s not like I went looking to find a source of anger or sadness in an advertisement. As a general rule, I give the telly as little attention as possible. (The footy and Doctor Who – that’s about it.) To me, it’s got to be pretty glaring and significantly problematic before I even notice the advertisement is on. And believe me, this advertisement tries really, really hard to get noticed. It’s got tall ships, celebrities, and it’s even got an overt – and admirable – sociopolitical message about welcoming all those who seek to come here, regardless of when or how. It’s just that by casting the Aboriginal people in the role of gracious and welcoming hosts, they are given a power that they historically did not have. And as a result, the sins of invasion simply fade away.
Now, if you want to sell lamb, you probably don’t want to focus on the more genocidal undertones associated with our national day. It probably makes sense to give them as wide a berth as possible, in fact. Which make me question just how inadvertent this ad’s utterly misleading representation of Australian history really was. And as a society, do we really want to go on record, so to speak, as being comfortable with the effective de-registering of Indigenous suffering when it is done to make us all a bit happier when eating sausages? Call me a spoilsport, but I’d like to think that we’re better than that.
The ‘Australia Day’ lamb advertisement for 2017 is pretty shameful when you look it objectively. Our national story should not be cheapened or blurred by or for marketing or commercial reasons, and I’d like to think that such flagrant misrepresentations of our collective history would embarrass us greatly. None of us should have who we are – and our story is an integral part of who we are – co-opted and supplanted by others, especially others whose only real objective it to increase profit.
But the nature of meaning is such that we make what we make, and we all make different things. All too many Australians are effectively blind to large parts of our collective story, and as such, would only see the happy camaraderie on display. They’d see the jokes and the inclusivity; the big budget, the pop culture references and the ‘fair go’ message that we all like to believe. But they won’t see the big lie upon which all of this other stuff resides. And that’s pretty disappointing.
All texts have something to reveal. Some reveal more than others, whether by accident or design. This text, this ad, reveals that as a culture, we still have a long way to go. And for the record, I like lamb. But I’ll make a point from now on, never to eat it on Australia Day. That might not make much of a difference to many, but it’ll make a difference for me. And that’s a start.