Provocative Australian campaign to find star for 2012 olympicsIT IS a new film designed to stir the Australians to do battle against a long-standing foe. Is it Baz Luhrmann’s second world war epic Australia, starring Nicole Kidman?
No, it is an 80-second internet video and viral e-mail in which an actor plays a British hoodie taunting our Commonwealth cousins about their lack of medals at the Beijing Olympics.
Billed as “a posturing Pom” and “a Brit with a mouth as wide as the Thames”, the finger-jabbing yob wipes his nose with his hand as he tells young Australians: “You haven’t got what it takes . . . the only gold you will be picking up is from a chocolate wrapper.”
The film has been made by the Australian government, which denies that it is meant as an insult to the British.
The yob appears in front of a mantelpiece holding a sporting trophy and a photograph of the Queen. He signs off his diatribe waggling his fingers with a Russell Brand-style “oooooh” before the slogan “Let’s rip the Brits to bits in London 2012” appears on the screen.
TimesonIne
