Update on 'They Swear It's Australian'

Back on February 25 in a post entitled They Swear It's Australian, I introduced the Australian tourist board's slick new US$120 million TV ad campaign, which included bog standard Aussie stereotypes but had what I thought was a corker of a theme:

We've switched on the lights.
Turned up the Verdi.
And the champagne's on board . . .

So where the bloody hell are you?

I may have been amused, but others utterly devoid of a sense of humor are aghast at the use of the words "bloody" and "hell," let alone in combination.

Tim Blair has the details.

The timing of this kerfuffle could not be worse -- or better.

Tourist bookings to Down Under are down because of the bad publicity about the damage inflicted by Typhoon Larry to Queensland. This despite the fact that the damaged area is just a small portion of a big state in a corner of a very big country. Then again, perhaps the silly stink over the ad campaign will draw more attention to the TV ad and counterbalance that.