THE Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) has received just five complaints about Meat and Livestock Australia's controversial Australia Day lamb campaign which has cracked new records with more than 7.2 million views in four days.
While there has been loud support from many levy payers calling the advert one of the best promotions of lamb, this year's offering has upheld the campaign's ongoing controversial and polarising reputation.
The MLA advert confronts the controversy around hosting the national day on January 26 - a date marking the start of colonialism and the dispossession of Indigenous Australians.
It starts with three Indigenous Australians who remark on being the "first here" while having a barbecue on a beach.
Ships of explorers arrive, starting with the Dutch, followed by the British, French, Germans, Chinese, Italians, Greeks, Serbians, New Zealanders, and finally "boat people".
The cast includes Cathy Freeman, rugby football player Wendell Sailor, actress Poh Ling Yeow and former chair of the National Australia Day Council Adam Gilchrist.
While the advert has drawn criticism from Indigenous groups, the main theme of the five complaints received by the ASB related to the Australia Day advert failing to actually mention the national celebration.
"We have received very few complaints and we are still considering whether any will be accepted as a formal complaint," an ASB spokesperson said.
"Most (complaints) are concerned about Australia Day - which isn't something we can consider under the (advertising) code."
Last year's campaign, Operation Boomerang, starring SBS newsreader Lee Lin China received more than 700 complaints, making it the third most complained about commercial of all time.
While ASB dismissed all complaints, the publicity surrounding the controversial campaign achieved a 36.9 per cent increase in lamb sales for the two-week campaign period.
While this year's advert "played within the ASB rules", MLA group marketing manager Andrew Howie said the campaign aimed to continue to create debate.
"To generate transactions and get cash registers ringing, you need to have a campaign that engages the wider public," he said.
"The result from previous campaigns would draw a correlation between talk-ability and an increase in sales."
The 7.2m online views from four days outperformed the entire reach of the adverts from the past two years by more than 2m.
"We previously promoted lamb consumption on merely one day of the year but to maximise the return on the levy dollar we are promoting consumption on multiple occasions," Mr Howie said.
"The campaign makes no statement as to the relevance of the date Australia Day currently falls on - whether January 26 is right or another day is more suitable - but for the country to be truly united, then there is actually 365 days of the year people can come together and celebrate.
"The furore that has erupted on social media notes the absence of what we haven't done, not what we have done."
Annabelle Beale
National Sheep & Wool Writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media
National Sheep & Wool Writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media
