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International: Up Down Under

2 minute read
TIME

On the theory that Australians ought to take more pride in their country, a government and private-industry group early this month launched a $4.2 million campaign that is supposed to whip Aussies into a chauvinistic frenzy. Bumper stickers and ballpoint pens bearing the slogan LET’S ADVANCE AUSTRALIA are being distributed, and the air waves will soon be flooded with television commercials citing assorted contributions that Australians have made to world progress, such as the invention of a sugar cane harvesting machine. A theme song composed by a Melbourne advertising executive exhorts citizens:

There’s a million things that you can do To help head off the crunch, From hit your nail right on the head To skip your business lunch, Suggest a better way at work, Write the press a note; Remember when we disagree that We ‘re all in the same boat.

While the campaign is supposed to run for three years, the early returns have not been especially positive. Reflecting the feeling of many Aussies, a Sydney Morning Herald columnist groaned that the “half-witted” promotion seemed “calculated to appeal to a backward rural electorate in India.” Worse still, critics quickly noted that Project Australia, as it is called, has some imported features: the new pep song is borrowed from the old American folk favorite Big Rock Candy Mountain, and the promotional pens being handed out are stamped MADE IN U.S.A. So far the drive has succeeded mostly in inspiring derisive parodies, including one mock slogan that concludes: “Project Australia is a failia.”

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