Nation branding is when a country consciously
works on its image in order to elevate its reputation globally and unify its
citizens. It refers to a country’s whole image including political, economic,
social, environmental, historical, and cultural issues. In today’s post modern
society countries are in constant competition with each other and one of the
most prominent ways in which they compete is in the tourism sector.
In 2006 Australia released an advertising
campaign titled “So where the bloody hell are you”. The campaign was an
initiative by Tourism Australia created by the Sydney office of the London
advertising agency M&C Saatchi, and it cost them a whooping $180 million
dollars to produce. The Television advertisement featured some well known
Australian landmarks, citizens of the country speaking boastfully about its
many attractions and model Lara Bingle ending it off in a shot where she is
stepping out of the ocean and enthusiastically asking “So where the bloody hell
are you?”. The use of profanity in the catch phrase, although memorable and
amusing, would prove to be the campaigns ultimate downfall. The word ‘bloody’ was
the reason behind the commercial being banned by the Broadcasting Advertising Centre
in the United Kingdom in March 2007. It was also banned by regulators in Canada
because of the implication of “unbranded alcohol consumption”, by the
commercials opening line “We've poured you a beer”.
Despite all the controversy surrounding it,
The Age newspaper credited the campaign with a $1.8 billion increase in tourism
spending in the country, but tourism figures compiled in late 2006 lay counter
to this argument. Apparently German tourists were down 4.7% and UK tourists by
2.6%. Copy write plays a vital role in branding so much so that the Australians
catch phrase for their campaign caused a reaction counter to one which they had
anticipated. So what do you think, should the Australians have paid closer
attention to linguistics or are people too sensitive?
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