After a spate of shark attacks in Australia, the Week asked its readers to create that country’s next tourism slogan.  Here’s what they came up with:

“What happens off the coast of Australia, stays off the coast of Australia”

“We’ll throw another limb on the barbie”

“Australia: Disarmingly Beautiful”

“Our visitors: The other white meat”

“Not quite heaven, but you can get there from here”

We can’t help but poke a little fun.  After all, Tourism Australia seems to be pretty good at choosing, er, unpopular slogans.  Remember their 2006 choice, “where the bloody hell are you?”.

Trade Minister Simon Crean is determined to avoid making a mistake like that again and is spending $20 million on a new ad campaign, the first step of which is asking creatives to compete to come up with a slogan which accurately reflects Australia’s brand.

“What we’ve got to convince people about is it’s a great place to invest, it’s a great place to come and be educated, it’s a great place to live, it’s a great place to build your business base from.”  The brand should also embrace the friendly and relaxed nature of the country. “I don’t think we should be moving into the sophisticated, world-class scene, because we compete with cities and countries that are far ahead of us in that area,” he said.

The final result is set to be launched in February.  You know we’ll be waiting…with baited breath.

While we’re on the subject of tourism branding, what do you think of the Long Beach Penisula slogan, “Discovery Awaits!”

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