Australian advertising can be quite strange. At its best it can be devastatingly dry, and bracingly direct (see the billboards above, at suburban train stations urging gay men to get STD checks). When I was there a (minor) controversy was brewing over a new prime time television ad for tampons which used the word “vagina”. Not too shocking you might think given the nature of the product, but then you would never expect to hear it uttered on air in, say, the US or Southeast Asia.
At its worst though, Aussie advertising can be pretty crass. Its a fine line.
