Every once in awhile, it’s good to be reminded that we American’s aren’t the only uptight, anal retentive, censor-happy modern culture on the planet. You can find people with ridiculous hang-ups anywhere. Take Canada for instance, where their government hates unapproved beer.
Reuters says the Canadian government has banned an Australian tourism ad from their airwaves for depicting “unbranded alcohol consumption”. Apparently they don’t mind if people are encouraged to get drunk off their ass, as long as we all know what they’re drinking.
The Aussie ad depicts a character encouraging people to visit the land of Koalas and Kangaroos by saying, “We've poured you a beer!” The beer sits in a part empty beer glass, and not a brightly labeled Bud or Bud Lite bottle. The beer manufacturers lobby in Canada must be nearly as powerful as Exxon is here in America. Beer: The new Canadian fossil fuel.
The ad has also been banned in Britain, but for completely different reasons. There it’s been banned for profanity, since the campaign uses the phrase “bloody hell”. To Americans and Canadians bloody hell is just something you say when you’re imitating British people, but over there it actually means something nasty.
Don’t feel bad for Australia, things are working out pretty well for them. Their ads may not be seen in either country, but the controversy over their campaign has resulted in massive traffic to their on-line website. Throw some banner ads on there and maybe they can forget about tourism altogether and focus entirely on their web presence. You can’t go wrong with Google Adsense.
