Creating more engaging content is key to helping the public understand how Labor’s federal budget affects their lives, according to Australian creatives.
The budget, positioned for the coming national election, had little to help the advertising and media sector other than a potential lift in consumer confidence.
The pitch was aimed at the hip pocket nerve, a cost-of-living damper, with help for power bills, tax cuts and a freeze on draught beer.
AdNews asked creatives how they would sell the federal budget.
Sive Buckley, managing partner at Born Creators, said she would “build anticipation”, instead of presenting the information through a dry press conference.
“Imagine the federal budget isn’t just a government document or a boring press release that nobody understands - it’s a product drop,” she told AdNews.
“If we were selling it, we’d treat it like a new iPhone, a sneaker collab or a festival lineup. Hype first, details later.
“Nobody cares about ‘fiscal responsibility’ or ‘infrastructure allocations’. They care about what hits their wallet, rent, HECS debt and weekend plans.”
Buckley said she still feels like policy and budgets happen to her, not for her because no-one ever explains them creatively.
“So if I was selling the budget through creative channels - I’d actually translate it - not just into other languages, but into real-life impact for the everyday Australian,” she said.
“A TikTok series breaking it down in under 30 seconds. A calculator that spits out ‘Here’s how much you save (or lose)’. A group chat-style eDM: ‘Good news: Rent relief is coming. Bad news: Petrol’s going up’.”
Buckley said she would roll it out like an album release.
“A budget-themed Spotify playlist from the government - SIRI please play Dirty Cash/Money Talks,” she said.
“Finance creators explaining the fine print. A ‘this or that’ Instagram poll asking if people would rather see tax cuts or free transport - that actually tells them the result.
“Merch that turns government spending into culture - tote bags that say ‘I Survived the Budget Cuts 2025’.”
Buckley said the federal budget is more than just numbers.
“It’s whether your life gets easier or harder,” she said.
“We need to get more creative on how we connect with people and update them on what's happening in their lives via the channels they spend a lot of their lives on - regardless of what tax bracket they are in.”
Jazz Twemlow, senior creative copywriter and satirist at Paper Moose, would create visually striking, glossy close-ups of the budget, presenting it as a sleek, desirable product.
“I often find budgets are a bit like updates to Gillette’s razors,” he said.
“Yes there’s been an apparent improvement because now there’s a twelfth-blade-slash-moistening-strip that also takes photos of your fresh mug and sells them as ChinCoin, but doesn’t it still just shave your face?
“Every additional blade is heralded as a revolution in shaving, when actually it’s just a demonstration of counting.
“Budgets are the same: The ground-shaking Gillette razor announcement of Australia’s financial landscape. A tweak that might be novel for a bit but probably won’t change the overall vibe of our tortured, ephemeral existence.
“Many of the promises won’t even get drafted for years to come, by which point the next chap will undo it anyway.
“In any case, it seems to work for Gillette, so I’d just chuff out glossy, almost erotic close-ups of the printed-out budget on a lazy susan as if it’s an effin’ Apple spaceship or something, and just slap big text on screen ‘Now with added lower income tax cuts’ and hope that everyone thinks this is the beginning of a new era.”
Penny Buck, founder of Jane Doe Creation, would put women at the forefront.
“More women live in Australia than men. And yet, for decades, they’ve had to work harder for less,” she told AdNews.
“Labor’s 2025 Budget makes space for women - with investments in women’s health, continued support for domestic violence services, and steps toward workforce equality.
“We’ve heard ‘tax cuts for all’ before. Labor would do well to shift the focus away from simply handing out dollars and toward highlighting the things women have long gone without. While it’s not perfect, it is progress - progress toward an economy that puts care and fairness at its centre.
“When women do well, the whole economy does well.”
Adrian Elton, an independent creative, created ‘BUDGE IT’, a mock TVC script which intentionally omits detail but paints a bigger picture.
“We open on a super closeup of Australian Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, wearing a classic Akubra hat. He's sweating as his face contorts and his teeth clench with exertion,” he said.
“We pull back and see that he's pushing backwards against some huge beast.
“We pull back further again and see that the beast in question is a huge bull that is grunting angrily as it defiantly refuses to move.
Elton then described a series of shots.
“We cut to a shot of Jim addressing the camera,” he said.
“JIM: The last few years have been brutal and the cost of living just hasn't budged.
“As he's talking we see him reach down as he pulls a roller skate into shot as he continues to push back against the beast.
JIM: Which is why we’re putting the wheels in motion with a range of initiatives designed to make everyday life more liveable for Australians everywhere.
“He grunts as we cut to a series of closeups of him forcing some resistant bull hooves into the skates.
“JIM: From $8.5 billion more for Medicare, to wiping 20% off student debt. The skates are on.
“We cut to a mid shot of the bull now standing up with the skates on its feet. It's suddenly looks incredibly nervous, it's eyes dilated and nostrils flared.
“We then cut back to a super close up of Jim speaking earnestly to camera.
“JIM: It's the budget that dares to budge it.
“We cut back to the mid shot as Jim gives the bull a decisive shove as it rolls into the sunset with a guttural ‘moo’ that ricochets across the barren landscape.”
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