In the weeks running up to the Super Bowl people have been seeing trailers for a new Crocodile Dundee movie. Some of Australia’s most famous faces appear in the trailer including Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman, and Isla Fisher. There have been so many remakes of classic films from the 1980s lately that it did not seem completely beyond the realm of possibilities. However, there were a few things about the trailer that made people suspicious that it may not be all that it seemed.
Even though there were so many Australian actors in the film, the role of Dundee’s son is played by Danny McBride, an American. The vast amount of Australian actors would also suggest that this would be a big budget movie but this did not really look the case from the trailer. These suspicions were proved correct during the Super Bowl when it was revealed that the trailer was actually just something to get people talking about the current campaign to get more Americans visiting Australia.
The trailer and teasers that have been appearing on the internet were a collaboration between Tourism Australia and advertising firm Droga 5. Tourism from the US is currently worth $3.7 billion to the Australian economy and the plan is to almost double this in the next two years so that it is worth $6 billion by 2020. The Crocodile Dundee trailer is part of a $27 million campaign to try and achieve this objective.
The research that Droga 5 carried out showed that the last big increase in US visitors to Australia occurred following the original release of Crocodile Dundee and the sequel. This gave the firm the idea that it may be possible to recreate this effect but without actually producing another film. This idea seemed even better given the current seeming obsession with remaking old movies. The first step was to approach Paul Hogan, the actor who played Crocodile Dundee in the original movies. He now owns all the rights to these movies and so his participation was critical to the campaign going ahead. Luckily, he was more than happy to get involved and even agreed to star in some of the teasers, which he filmed in some of Australia’s top tourist spots.
Chris Hemsworth is an ambassador for tourism in Australia and he appeared in the trailer for free, as did most of the other actors. Most of the filming took place in December which is one of the summer months in Australia. Danny McBride got involved when Chris Hemsworth recommended him to the director Steve Rogers.
There will be more than 150 pieces of content created for this campaign over the next few years and McBride will star in a lot of these. They will see him meeting other Australian celebrities and all will feature examples of the best that Australia has to offer. There was always a danger with this type of campaign that people would react angrily to being misled. However, most of the reaction has been positive and people are talking about the campaign which was the whole point all along.
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