John Brown, who was the minister for tourism for much of the 1980s, thinks every Australian town should erect statues to the creative geniuses behind advertising agency MOJO.
Adman Russel Howcroft, currently chief creative officer at PwC, believes this is the most important statement in the documentary he fronts, How Australia Got Its Mojo, which premieres on Tuesday October 1 on the ABC.
The one-hour program tells the story of two of Australia's greatest admen, Alan (Mo) Morris and Allan (Jo) Johnston.
They were responsible for many now iconic ads made in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including:
Tooheys beer How Do Ya Feel;
Meadow Lea You Outta Be Congratulated;
Cricket anthem C'mon Aussie C'mon;
Paul Hogan Shrimp On The Barbie for Australian Tourism.
Howcroft says Brown’s statement proves the hypothesis that Morris and Johnston were culturally important.
But he says the process of putting the documentary together also reinforced to him the sheer commercial impact of MOJO on brands.
“I found out, for example, that not only did it Meadow Lea double its market share, but it doubled the size of the market for margarine,” Howcroft told AdNews.
“The marketing director at the time for Tooheys says it was like you opened up the door and tonnes of money came flooding in.
“Australia went from 70 on list of countries Americans might want to visit to number seven.
“World Series Cricket went from being a disaster that no one wanted to watch to stadiums being full.
“The commercial power of what they did is the big lesson. And hopefully there's a little reminder around the power of ideas to really move markets because we need a bit more of that.”
The ABC also allowed an examination of a cigarette ad, Anyhow Have A Winfield with Paul Hogan:
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