oops, sorry, it should read "he" not "we" - ;_O

jjah, what the bloody hell, go'on and change your screen name! Of course bad has multiple meanings.
Which are you choosing, eh


A/D

AD - now don't go all feral on me. I thought you meant it in a funny way. Didn't you ???? or should I have been offended ???? :-))

jjah, in a funny way of course, but you didn't get it,eh!
A/D

Sorry I was being a bit thick. When I re read it after I posted I got it. Clearly I need more sleep. But I am off to NYC, San Juan and the Caribbean in a few days so I will return to being BAD JJAH when I come back.....

At last. After reading about this campaign for some time on these boards, I finally saw the ad today in the US in a Travel+Leisure golf magazine (while - or is that whilst? - waiting for the car to come out of the shop)

Hey, I'm just a dumb American but I thought the campaign was funny, and I like the spoof too.

Didn't impact whether I'd come and spend my tourist dollars though--it's already on the calendar to come back down in November 2007.

Just thought I'd bring this back up as the campaign has been deemed a bloody disaster

http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/a-bl...073233834.html

Geordie

You're not wrong Geordie, hate to say it but Peter Beattie, now ex-premier of Queensland mentioned in my OP was bloody right.

Note the about-face of our current Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who approved at the time when a opposition backbencher.

"Note the about-face of our current Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who approved at the time when a opposition backbencher."

- Pat, it is unusual to have a PM who's prepared to admit he was wrong - unlike one of recent memory who never revised his opinion, fearing he'd be labelled weak. Unfortunately, politicians are discouraged from changing their minds by the sensationalist media, who can be relied to start blathering on about "backflips".

I think the fact that the Aussie dollar is approaching par with the American dollar has a much greater effect than a 2 year old advertisement.

<<I think the fact that the Aussie dollar is approaching par with the American dollar has a much greater effect than a 2 year old advertisement.>>

I think thats probably true of the US market but the other currencies have basically stayed the same in relation to the Aussie, so no real impact.

For me, the worrying part was that we were discussing it two years ago, I thought it was probably sometime late last year.

Geordie

We live in Canada and we remember those ads. Got us to come to Australia 2006/2007. They were broadcast quite often here.

That's interesting, Traveljunkie28.

Could you expand on what it was about the advertisement that sparked your interest in Australia, and prompted you to come very soon after seeing it?

We've always wanted to travel to Australia as we have family that moved there. It seemed like every time we watched T.V the commercial for Australia tourism would come on. I started researching sites like the one advertised and the rest is history. I have to say the Australia commercial is one that stands out and I can't recall any other country promoting to us Canadian's like that.

Thanks Traveljunkie.
I guess it's a mix of the "something different" in the advertisement and the fact that we may have a wider coverage than some other countries. Or perhaps you just remembered it because it was different and stood out from what other countries were doing.

Either way - it worked and I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. You're allowed to come again, you know ;)

My god-daughter's married to a gorgeous Canadian guy & they live in Port Macquarie on the mid-north coast of NSW. He's been here about 15 years & loves it. His parents have been here a couple of times and a raft of family & friends came out for the wedding.

We're planning to return March 2009 after my cousin has her baby. This time we'll explore Melbourne and drive the Great Ocean Road. We want to return to the Whitsunday's and Magnetic Island(family has a holiday home there) as well. We can't wait!!

We will be very happy to give you any advice you want about Melbourne etc .

March is a lovely time with sunny autumn weather averaging about 23 degrees celsius although we had a freakish week of 35 plus this year .

Thanks, and I'll take you up on that!