Learning to say g’day to the world: The development of Australia’s marketable image in the 1980s

Abstract

Twenty years after they were first broadcast, Australia’s tourism advertisements of the 1980s featuring Paul Hogan remain the measuring stick to which subsequent Australian tourism campaigns have been compared. This article contends that such comparisons are flawed, as they fail to pay adequate attention to the context surrounding this campaign. In order to understand the reasons for Hogan’s success, it is necessary to explore the ways in which commercials affected the construction of Australian images from the 1960s through to the early 1990s. By examining the activities of Paul Hogan and the Mojo advertising agency in relation to their broader social and cultural context occurring at both national and international levels, this article will illustrate Australian advertising’s “golden age” whilst demonstrating the commercial dangers of nostalgic interpretations of the past.

Keywords:

• Australia
• advertising
• bicentenary
• Mojo (agency)
• Paul Hogan
• tourism

Acknowledgements

The research undertaken in this article was made possible by way of a visiting fellowship to the National Museum of Australia. The author would like to thank the staff at the NMA’s Historical Research Centre for their support.

Notes

1. The Macquarie Dictionary defines a larrikin as an “uncultivated, rowdy, but good‐hearted person.”

2. The Macquarie Dictionary defines an ocker as “a boorish, uncouth, chauvinistic Australian.”

3. Personal interview conducted with Allan Johnston, 4 June 2004, Sydney.

4. Personal interview conducted with Allan Johnston, 4 June 2004, Sydney.

5. Personal interview conducted with Alan Morris, 29 April 2004, Sydney.

6. Alan Bond and Christopher Skase were entrepreneurs whose media empires grew rapidly during the 1980s. By the end of the decade their respective empires had collapsed in dramatic circumstances.