Australia’s Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said she was delighted the British advertising regulators have decided to lift their ban on the advertising tagline Where the bloody hell are you?.
The announcement follows meetings between the Minister, the BACC, the UK Minister for Tourism and Creative Industries and the Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority.

“I am pleased that common sense prevailed and the regulators realised the campaign was intended to be cheeky, friendly and very Australian,” Fran Bailey said.

There were already two commercials previously run on British television using the word bloody and UK research had shown those ads were not seen as offensive by consumers.

Fran Bailey officially launched the campaign in the UK on 13 March with initial feedback from British people very positive, with many people enjoying the ad and stunned by its controversy.

Over 50,000 Brits have accessed the ad via the Australia.com website and the campaign has been viewed worldwide courtesy of the BBC.

My faith in British sense of humour has been restored. It was well worth the fight, especially given the half a million jobs that tourism already creates and with the potential for many more.

Now its time to get on with the campaign and get more British tourists to visit Australia! Fran Bailey said.

The ad campaign will now be run in its entirety on television, as well as in cinemas, in print and on the internet.
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