The new Australian Lamb advert for Australia Day has already become the most complained about commercial in Australian history.
According to the Advertising Standards Bureau, there had been over 500 complaints lodged by Thursday, 14 January, over the radio, television and online versions of the campaign. It eclipses the previous record of 418 set by an advertising campaign for the Ashley Madison dating website in 2014.
The Aussie Lamb adverts have become a fixture of the Australia Day media landscape, each year upping the anti with celebrity cameos, entertaining story lines and epic production.
The 2016 edition (above) features SBS news presenter Lee Lin Chin launching ‘Operation Boomerang’ to bring Aussies home in time for an Australia Day Barbecue… with lamb at the top of the menu, of course.
The advert has raised the ire of some non-meat lovers for its portrayal of special agents threatening a vegan with a blow-torch, saying it is promoting violence against vegans.
The advert has also come into criticism for the use of the term ‘boomerang’ in relation to a day that many Indigenous Australians prefer to call ‘Invasion Day’.