Australia Invites Bloody Yanks
Thursday, March 23, 2006
(SNN Sydney) An Australian tourism campaign has caught the attention of the ultraconservative lobby group the American Family Association. The AFA has unleashed a protest campaign against a commercial with the tagline, "Where the bloody hell are you?"
The group did applaud the fact that the bikini clad model was barefoot.
The AFA, which campaigns against abortion, gay rights, and spontaneous fun, was upset with a bikini wearing model's use of the words "bloody" and "hell". They were also offended by seeing a woman in a bikini, seeing a woman speaking on television, and said that the use of the word bloody by a woman was an obvious reference to the immoral act of menstruation. However, the group did applaud the fact that the bikini clad model was barefoot.
"I just feel pretty sure the typical American family who is watching TV with their children and they're exposed to this ad are going to be upset," AFA director of special projects, Randy Sharp, said. "I don't want my children to hear that phrase."
"I don't want my children to hear that phrase."
AFA members are expected to boycott Australia as a destination, and Australia could not be happier. The ad's North American target market was well-educated, high-earning, widely traveled people from Canada and the US west coast, the Tourism Australia spokesman said. "And I think we have the right campaign to do the job," he said.
It is unlikely that many members of the AFA will vacation in Australia this year. Before the boycott it was unlikely that many members of the AFA would have been vacationing in Australia. In fact, it is unlikely that many members of the AFA will be leaving their state for their vacation this year, or their county, or their trailer park.
Let's face it. These are not people who like unfamiliar things. Or as AFA President Randy Sharp says about the Australian phrase, "It's a shocking phrase because we're not familiar with it."
