OPINION
“Look at that tree! Classic Taika.”
Tourism New Zealand unveiled its collaboration with the film-auteur turned tourism ambassador Taika Waititi this week.
“New Zealand needs Taika Waititi!” was the log line of the 3-minute promo, but does Taika need New Zealand?
It was hard to tell if the glitzy $673,000 TV advert was in aid of promoting tourism in Aotearoa or for the Kiwi director’s film career.
During the 180-second ad, New Zealand is mentioned three times, compared to five utterances and one written credit for Taika, Taika Waititi and “T-Bone”.
The premise of the film is that Jackie van Beek is tasked with coaxing the Marvel movie producer and his ego back to the homeland. And he does a pretty half-arsed job of it, but with a smile.
At every opportunity there was a plug for Our Flag Means Death 2. (Oh, did he mention that his pirate epic is out today?) “I just can’t let the fans down.”
The national tourism body reportedly signed a valuable deal with the HBO TV series to advertise alongside it on screens in the US.
Eventually he is reluctantly coaxed into lending his body double - Jade Daniels - and voice to the tourism project. He did okay.
It was reminiscent of one of the prop posters made for the filmmaker’s 2007 TV series Flight of the Conchords: “New Zealand, don’t expect too much - you’ll love it”.
The globally recognisable Kiwi is dragged back from the soundstages of LA and London back to humble Aotearoa for a commercial.
“I think he’s forgotten about us,” is van Beek’s wry aside. That is of course part of the humour: Taika “T-Bone” Waititi is eventually dragged back from Hollywood by tugging on his heart strings - and his self-esteem. “New Zealand needs you!”
The ad is made for the international market, particularly North America, where Waititi is arguably one of the most recognisable names in the New Zealand diaspora. The production was reportedly affected by the SAAG filming strikes in the United States.
There’s a long history of TNZ making calls to contacts in film and TV. This includes a cameo from Canadian filmmaker James Cameron - while filming the Avatar movies in Wellington. Australian actress Megan Gale was signed up as a tourism Ambassador in 2016.
Getting the Raukokore-born movie maker for Tourism NZ’s biggest budget ad in years was a boon. Of course there’s a huge amount of behind the scenes work required as the face of NZ, and Taika is already hitting the press junkets promoting our beaches abroad.
But did we ever think about looking for a Kiwi celeb from outside LaLa land?
When in 2020 Tourism New Zealand was looking for its first domestic tourism ambassador, it turned to sport - naming All Black Richie McCaw as the face of the “Do Something New” adverts.
The dark arts of marketing and audience research - will have consulted their crystal balls on the casting, to work out which New Zealand celebrity has the greatest overseas star power… and who they can afford.
While Movies are an obvious place to look for Kiwis with international name appeal, are there other Great New Zealanders who are being overlooked?
When there's nothing as far as the eye can see, you may appreciate the company.