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Meat and Livestock Australia is making no apologies for a new advertising campaign which says Prime Minister Helen Clark "does a passable impression of a bloke".
The company launched its annual Australia Day lamb promotion today, fronted for a fourth year by controversial television and radio personality, former
Australian rules footballer Sam Kekovich.
Previous campaigns have drawn official complaints from Buddhists, vegetarians, environmentalists and even English women who objected to being labelled "trollops".
This year Kekovich takes aim at New Zealand's Prime Minister in a 90-second address to the nation, proposing a lamb-a-thon during a week-long national holiday which would replace Australia Day on January 26.
"Look at the Olympics, Oktoberfest, the Turkish Oiled Wrestling Festival - even Apec gets a week, and that's just a bunch of blokes in funny shirts (apart from Helen Clarke (sic), who does a passable impersonation of a bloke anyway)," he says in the ad.
"The placard-waving, police-bashing, weed-worshippers may protest about it, but it's nothing a few blasts from a water-cannon can't fix - they could do with a wash.
"And if they're still too unAustralian to chomp a few chops with the rest of us, send them to Nauru. The Refugee Processing Centre has plenty of palm trees they can hug."
Meat and Livestock Australia general manager of marketing David Thomason said he didn't initially think about the ad reaching New Zealand, but would be surprised if it caused offence.
"Most people would see it as tongue-in-cheek, the approach that Sam Kekovich is known for," Thomason told NZPA.
"There's no offence intended. I'm sure Helen Clark can see the funny side."
Two years ago, Australia's Advertising Standards Bureau unanimously dismissed complaints that Kekovich's address, during which he railed against, among others, "boofheads" on Cronulla's beaches and cricketers sending lurid text messages to English "trollops", and vilified people on account of their race, nationality, sex or ethnicity.
At an extraordinary meeting all 10 members present voted to keep the ad on air because they considered it a "humorous attempt to persuade people to buy lamb, particularly on Australia Day".
Thomason said the "very successful" campaign had helped double Australia's annual spending on lamb consumption from A$1billion ($1.15 billion) to A$2 billion in the past six years.
"It's a unique approach and everyone's been fair game. It's just a light-hearted look at the news."
Asked if he had a message for Miss Clark if she was offended by the ad, Thomason said: "I'd encourage Helen Clark to order some Australian lamb chops to have for dinner on Australia Day, to see what real lamb tastes like."
- NZPA
