Bloody hell, it's Aussie calling

SYDNEY - It's not quite the shrimp on the barbie but the ocker Aussie is back, and he's teamed up with a common profanity to flog Australia to the world.

A A$180 million ($203 million) international advertising campaign launched yesterday hopes to sell Australia to potential visitors by asking them: "Where the bloody hell are you?"

The colourful question follows a sequence in which everyday Australians are shown saying: "We've poured you a beer, we've had the camel shampooed, we've got the 'roos off the green, we've got the sharks out of the pool."

A girl dressed in a bikini says, "We've saved you a spot on the beach", before posing the question that constitutes the punchline of the Tourism Australia promotion.

The use of "bloody hell" in the taxpayer-funded sales pitch comes barely three weeks after Prime Minister John Howard urged television networks to curb the use of vulgar language.

The new ads, which follow a series of flawed attempts to sell Australia, will be shown in key tourism markets including China, Japan, the US, UK, India and Germany.

Designed by agency M&C Saatchi, they revive natural Australian icons such as beaches, the Great Barrier Reef, the Outback, Sydney Harbour and Uluru.

Mr Howard defended the use of the word "bloody".

"I think it is a colloquialism. It's not a word that is seen quite in the same category as other words that nobody ought to use in public or on the media or in advertisements," he said.

"I think watching that young girl walking up the beach ... is a very attractive image and I don't think people will see that is in any way bad mannered. Quite the reverse."

Tourism Minister Fran Bailey rejected suggestions the term "bloody" could offend overseas audiences.

"It's the great Australian adjective," she said. "We all use it."

- NZPA