SO WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU?
 

Wondering what overseas visitors will make of Australian Tourism's new ad - www.sowherethebloodyhellareyou.com

Queensland Prime Minister, Peter Beattie thinks its fine for Australian audiences but won't translate overseas.

sorry, that should be www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com

Duh, can't get this right at all, Peter Beattie is Queensland's Premier, not Prime Minister.

I LOVE IT!!!! It's a very clever ad campaign. It makes me wish I could hop on a plane and go back to Australia right now!

What's to "translate", exactly?

Hi Pat, as a Canadian I think it was great, especially after the wettest January ever. The 'bloody hell' may offend a few people over the age of 80 but I doubt thats the target population.

I love it, and I think most other Americans will too.
Liz

Neil, I think Peter Beattie felt it would be tricky to translate for Asian and European markets, he wasn't objecting to the "bloody hell" bit for use in Australia; he hardly could after being sprung for using far more colourful language in public just the other day.

It sure makes me want to come back!!! :)

Pat, some people worried that it would either bemuse or offend North Americans, so I jumped to the conclusion that this was Beattie's theme. Rubbish, I thought. For a start, surely any ads placed in Asia (except perhaps the Subcontinent and Singapore) and continental Europe will by in the target country's language, which won't have a direct translation of "bloody hell" anyway.

weasel, I think you're right. An article I read reported that the Australian Tourist Commission has now segmented the market by "psychographics" rather than nationality. The horizontal slice they're targeting with these ads are people whose tastes and desires are similar irrespective of nationality. They're active, experienced independent travellers who like to engage with the local culture of the host country. The ad agency is the same one that came up with NZ's last successful campaign.

Pat, is Beattie the guy who won't pop for a rebuilt Tully River Crossing?

A/D

Bloody dunno where you are Pat and I dunno where I am as there is a fog as thick as pea soup here and I am freezing cold!
Anyway wern't we gonna pop Beatie'just çause he is stupid?

Beattie is a populist in the grand Queensland tradition. He also has the great advantage of having a turkey farm on the other side of the House.

Yep, Andrew, that's the turkey, but he's only a State Premier. But then we had a Labor Prime Minister who sold his loss-making pig farm to Indonesian interests for a very good profit.

Most Queenslanders I know haven't much time for Beattie, but have even less for Springborg or that bloke who looks like a budgerigar!

So, Pat, if most Queenslanders you know don't have much time for Peter Beattie, how come he keeps getting elected?

As for the ad - it's sort of clever - can't imagine it would offend "Europeans", especially the British, from whom the expression probably came in the first place.

The "Bible Belt" Americans? well, maybe, but that's their problem - they are so out of kilter they might as well be living on a different planet. Powerful and dangerous group, though.

Because, fuzzylogic, Beattie keeps getting elected because he's a better choice than the opposition. No kudos to him, look at the choices.

Great advert for Australia.Enjoyed it !!
However:
I am deeply offended that there were no free plane tickets for me to get back as quickly as I would like...


:-(

Muck

I don't know Pat, I reckon that if Mr Springborg had some PR people to work on him I reckon he would clean up really well. At last he can articulate the Queen's English somewhat better than Beattie and I think that Springborg actually had an education as well. As for poor old Quinn, I think that he is made for being a candidate on one of those fantastic makeover shows. Beattie just needs to go back to doing what he should have always continued doing and that was pointing speeding guns at unsuspecting motorists, running a State and trying to keep his Members in line is not working one little bit. However I guess he could always resort to getting some pseudo Ministers in the Parliament from wherever they got Dr Death from.
Thinking of running myself for the seat of Gaven where the local member got tossed out çause he went to Thailand to get a knee replacement and decided to stay there when he was supposed to be working! Just shows how much faith the Labour Party has in their very own understaffed hospitals when they themselves go overseas for operations! I think that it would have been much better to see one of their own wait around for as long as it takes everyone else to get treatment.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander or so they say!

Peter Beattie isn't educated, Liz? Don't a BA, LLB and MA count as education any more? His opponent Springborg is by comparison a high-school dropout. That doesn't worry me in itself, but we may as well get the facts right.

"His opponent Springborg is by comparison a high-school dropout" - that was ambiguously worded - he really is a HS dropout. To quote Seinfeld, "not that there's anything wrong with that".

Oh chucks Neil, so Peter has a Law degree - doesn't everyone, if not everyone then it just seems like it?????? The others he got given as honorary degree/s because he was Premier.
I have never watched Seinfeld so whatever you said went over my head.
Don't forget that a lot of famous people in history were school drop outs which actually must give them some sort of edge over a lawyer. Before you snarl and growl I have two in my junior family and believe me I wonder just what was being taught at Law school sometimes.

Hey, Liz, it wasn't me that said Springbok had an academic edge on PB! Actually all three degrees are the real deal - I didn't bother mentioning the honorary doctorate.

At least he's a classic Qld pol in the great tradition of Sir Joh ("Bananas") Bjelke-Petersen (but minus the brown paper bags stuffed with cash). It was Joh who described himself as a Queenslander first and an Australian second and championed the car that ran on nothing but water.

I just have to ask you this Neil, what would you southerners do if you didn't have our pollies in Qld to make fun of - mind you we are doing a good job on P.B. ourselves right now what with the fiasco that is the Health system, the fiasco that is his members of Parliament etc and you have to admit that when you see some of them "perform" there is laughter and rolling in the aisles. Life was never as good as when we had Jo, we all looked forward to him "feeding the chooks" and battering the lefties over the head. Those were the good old days. We had Jo and you had Nifty Neville and Canberra had a raft of other queer pollies - I guess I should really use the word "strange" in case my description is taken out of context completely. But for my money, nothing yet has been as wonderous as Dunstan trying to hold back the tide ( water) wearing his pink hot pants OR your little Italian with the facial hair ( member for
Griffith ) whose wife made him the most flamboyant articles of clothing which would have made Liberace blush.

Liz, we're probably wearing out our welcome by now, and I apologise to non-Australian readers for all this parochial chit-chat.

Having said that, all those pols were part of the rich tapestry of life, and it was definitely more fun when the political stage was awash with individuals - the good, the bad and the ugly. These days it's mostly shades of grey - a state Premier (who I might add ran a progressive, efficient and honest administration) turning up to Parliament in pink shorts would be a welcome relief. On that note may I express my gratitude to the good people of Queensland for doing more than their fair share to keep us entertained, even if they did overdo it by sending Pauline Hanson to Canberra.

Back to the point of Pat's thread - I suspect that Peter Beattie is wrong on this point.

TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE FROM AFAR WHO ARE WONDERING WHAT SORT OF GOVERNMENT WE HAVE IN AUSTRALIA AND WHY YOU HAVE TO READ ABOUT IT ON THIS TRAVEL FORUM - MY APOLOGIES - however Neil has dementia and is forgetting the really spicy bits ( and you thought that Monica was a blight).
Neil you are forgetting Cheryl who we also sent to Canberra for your entertainment and who had had a "relationship" with one of her students when she was a teacher - when she got to Canberra she had an affair with another Polly and changed sides. Then there was the affair in the Whitlam era with "heaven's cannot remember her and his name". In the most recent times we have had the entertaining writings of Mr Mark Latham who seems not to realize that you just do not go around thumping people in the face all the time. I just cannot wait until his next book is released.
Then of cause there was Mr Brown ( polly) who had sex on the parlimentary office desk and left the panties there to prove it, just to make sure that everyone knew that he could!
No folks, if you thought that Monica made you blush on the International stage, we in Australia were going alone quite nicely thank you with a strange lot of Government bed-fellows ( literally) doing all sorts of things that people in the lime-light should have hidden in their cupboards. In fact I think that someone should really write a book on, how does Neil put it, colourful characters in Government. One really has to wonder if they did ever get time to do any governing!

I especially liked the line about the Aborigine dancers "We've been practicing for over 40,000 years." Really made me "homesick" for Oz. Thanks for sharing it (and the local government tidbits, too!!)
Sally in Seattle

Hi Pat!!

I got a sneak preview of the ad as it was sent out to the Premier Specialists since we're on the website; I thought it was fantastic! But I still haven't seen it on TV here yet.

As far as the terminology used, most Americans, unless being fans of British TV or movies have no clue what "bloody hell" means. I take that back, even fans of TV / movies probably wouldn't know, but think it's cute saying akin to "Good GRIEF" and love the accent! :)

Same is true for the ad....Americans love the Aussie accent and all manner of speech / sayings, so the ad just re-confirms all the iconic images people associated with Oz.

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

Why is this thread intermixed with political banter?

Pat, the courier mail reported that the website has attracted a bundle of visitors (to the site) and that the pre-testing showed that the key markets "get it". personally, as an australian I don;t get it. I get the language, I get the phrase - I get the advertising creative, I just do get the "feel". ON that basis I think peter's wrong because its not whether or not overseas markets will understand the words and what it means.

The point is whether or not the markets will understand (or rather, appeal to) the message. The fact that they don;t "get" the use of the phrase "bloody hell" is not an issue. Its not because it creates an appeal for them. However, from an aussie persepctive the use of the whole phrase (not just bloddy hell) is negative and represents australians in a bad light. But so long as the overseas markets don't translate it that way then good.

Why is this thread intermixed with political banter?

Pat, the courier mail reported that the website has attracted a bundle of visitors (to the site) and that the pre-testing showed that the key markets "get it". personally, as an australian I don;t get it. I get the language, I get the phrase - I get the advertising creative, I just do get the "feel". ON that basis I think peter's wrong because its not whether or not overseas markets will understand the words and what it means.

The point is whether or not the markets will understand (or rather, appeal to) the message. The fact that they don;t "get" the use of the phrase "bloody hell" is not an issue. Its not, because it creates an appeal for them. However, from an aussie persepctive the use of the whole phrase (not just bloddy hell) is negative and represents australians in a bad light. But so long as the overseas markets don't translate it that way then good.

The ad is cute, but the sentiment is exactly why I will return to NZ again rather than visit Australia.

mlgb, can you please tell me what you think is the "sentiment" within the add because I cannot find one.

mlgb, given taht the respective cultures of Australia and NZ are very similar, what is it about the "sentiment" of the ad that would decide you against visiting Australia?

"bhuty" this post is intermixed with political banter because I am a Queenslander and Neil is from Canberra and he is from one side of the political fence and I the other. He is of course wrong because he is 1/ male 2/ not from Queensland 3/ older than me 4/ grumpier than me 5/ he is probably uglier than me 6/ he always gets to have the last say and I have decided that its MY TURN NOW !!!

Well, may I as a resident of California who had a father born in NZ but raised in Austalia just make one comment? And that comment is made gingerly because I must confess that some of the language (words, expressions) here leaves me confused and I sure don't want to get into any politically discussions. We have enough political problems here in the US ( you might have noticed) that I certainly can't find time to follow all of the problems in Australia.

But, and my point is this; when I was growing up my brother more than once used the term "bloody hell" and my father had a fit in a half and said that no gentleman used that term in front of ladies. And somewhere along the line of childhood I did pick up what it meant (at least at that time).

Perhaps decades ago that was true and perhaps it is no longer true. But I must say that I was a bit surprised to see that the Australian Tourist Board is using that expression in their advertisments.

But considering what is going on here in the US I shouldn't be surprised by anything, so please dear cousins, do not take my comments as being critical of your beautiful country.

Liz: hahahaha good response.

LoveItaly: I agree. Whatever the sentiment is I find it whingy and whiny. Think about any time you've heard someone say "where the bloddy hell are you" and I bet you'd be struggling to make it a happy memory. It makes Aussies look bad. Now that's from my perspective only so hopefully potential tourists see it as cool or appealing in some other way.

IMO i reckon either keeping it as "where the hell are you" gives it a better chance at selling it in a tone thats less whingy and/or use someone like brian brown etc. To me if they wanted to use the word "bloody" then maybe they could ahve said "we got the bloddy roos off the green" or something instead. I dunno

Just a bit too much "in your face" for my tastes. I am well aware of the expression, btw.

My first thought when I saw the ad was - 'hey, that looks and sounds a bit like the one made for the Queensland tourism board.'
Then that line from that pretty thing -
I have lived in another country for more than 18 years; that expression would confirm in their mind an unhelpful stereotype of Australians.
And LoveItaly - thanks for your note - there are still people around today who find 'bloody hell' somewhat less than charming when spoken loudly in the hearing of others.

bhuty, Liz is 100% right (and 100% Right!) and this time I'm happy to let her have the last word.

Interesting take on what struck me as a good-humoured use of a common phrase. Maybe we've unearthed a little culture clash here? Australian humour and terminology is very similar to British, and I doubt that the UK market would have a problem with the ad. Straight faces, tongues in cheeks and friendly banter disguised as dire insults are all part of it. I've found to my cost though that while this approach works with some Americans, success isn't always guaranteed.

Only last week I phoned an English friend who was running late for our dinner party and said "Where the bloody hell are you? Get your slack arse over here!" This conversational gambit was of course taken in the right spirit.

I do find it hard to believe however that most Americans, inured to years of Hollywood movies in which every third or fourth word seems to be "f***", would be shocked by the phrase "bloody hell", though.

LoveItaly, your father was definitely one of the old school. Even "bloody" used to be frowned on in typical households.

this doesn't add anything to the thread. but I just wanted to acknowledge Neil's wit - one of the reasons I keep tabs on this board.

"Liz is 100% right (and 100% Right!)"
is an absolute classic.

Thx. Much enjoyed.

I didn't like the angst in the post earlier, and I don't think we all understood the argument - but let's leave it. I am very interested that overseas visitors didn't find it too bad or offensive. Maybe the Australian research was correct. I don't know - I am not in market research. I guess the real test is whether it worked and attracted more people to be interested in discovering Australia - it is a pretty cool place!