In October 29, 2011 I wrote about Dick Smith. I had thought a dick smith is an artisan who forges and shapes those sorts of prosthesis with a hammer and anvil…..
Dick
Smith, AO (born Richard Harold Smith; 18 March 1944) is an Australian
entrepreneur, businessman, aviator, and political activist.
Dick
Smith is furious that a television advertisement he filmed for Australia Day,
which is saturated with "Dick" jokes and innuendo, has been deemed
too offensive to air during prime time television.
The
entrepreneur said he was considering taking legal action after his one-minute
advertisement, which is styled on Sam Kekovich's lamb ads and promotes Mr
Smith's range of Australian-made food products, was given a PG classification
and is therefore unsuitable to screen during 6pm news bulletins on Australia
Day.
I think
it's harmless, it's good fun and these people should reverse their decision and
on Australia Day let me run the damn thing. They're talking about beeping it
out and I said 'No'
The
tongue-in-cheek advertisement, created by Hungry Beast and Can of Worms
comedian Dan Ilic, opens with Mr Smith declaring that Kekovich's use of
jingoistic patriotism to sell his products was as "wrong as a dead dingo's
donger".
But, with
Waltzing Matilda playing in the background, Mr Smith then goes on to do exactly
that, throwing in his fair share of "Dick" jokes along the way.
Mr Smith
also urges the audience to "chow down on my OzEnuts [peanut butter]"
and "shake my OzEsauce [tomato sauce]."
A group
of asylum seekers are pictured coming ashore, as Mr Smith presents them with
some OzEmite and says: "The taste is a beauty, why else would thousands be
trying to get here?"
Mr Smith
told Fairfax Media he was contacting his solicitor on Wednesday after
Commercials Advice gave the advertisement a PG rating.
Mr Smith
had booked $100,000 worth of ad space during 6pm news bulletins on Australia
Day, but only advertisements rated G can be aired during that time slot.
"I
think it's harmless, it's good fun and these people should reverse their
decision and on Australia Day let me run the damn thing. They're talking about
beeping it out and I said, 'No'.
"The
ad is not politically correct. See, everything has to be politically correct
these days. What about the old larrikinism?"
Mr Smith
was in China yesterday when he heard about the classification problem, and cut
his trip short to return to Australia to sort it out.
He said
he had hired Ilic to write the advertisement on the advice of Andrew Denton,
and initially did not like the ad.
"I'm
not into dick jokes. I'm an old bloke, I'm 68," Mr Smith said.
"But
when I read it to all the workers here at Dick Smith Foods, and most of them
are in their 20s and 30s, they just loved it. Oh, they rolled around the floor
and they said, 'This is the best ad ever'."
Tim
Allerton, managing director of City Public Relations, said the ad appeared to
be a bit "clunky and rough", as many of Mr Smith's ads were. But the
decision to give it a higher classification rating was "completely
wrong", he said.
"They've
had a complete humour bypass at this organisation [Commercials Advice] and they
should be ashamed of themselves," he said.
"Dick
Smith and other major entrepreneurs around Australia have made their names with
this sort of advertising, and there has never been any problem with the use of
the word 'Dick' in any of Dick Smith's advertising, from what I understand, for
the past 30 years.
"If
[Commercials Advice] is being politically correct, it's actually had the
reverse effect because I believe, through the digital world, this ad will get a
lot more exposure than it would have through running some spots on news
programs."
Megan
Levy, The Age, January 23, 2013
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