“Get out of the comments section and get into lamb.” Sam Kekovich in the Australian lamb advertisement.
Meat & Livestock Australia’s latest Summer Lamb campaign, which has traditionally featured football icon Sam Kekovich, is back with a tilt at social media.
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Curiously, though, it has opted to avoid the Australia Day controversy, and simply labelled it as the ‘Summer Lamb’ campaign.
Last year’s theme was ‘UnAustralian’, the previous year was ‘Bridging the generation gap’ and in 2022, Australia rejoined the rest of the world after COVID-19.
The first of the Sam Kekovich lamb advertisements featured Sam spruiking in front of an Australian flag while exhorting Australians to eat lamb on Australia Day.
Who could forget former SBS presenter, Li Li Chin, introducing ‘Operation Boomerang’ when Australians were explosively extracted from overseas locations to bring them home for Australia Day in 2016?
And the ‘United states of Australia’ in 2021, which played on the post COVID-19 themes of a divided country, separated by walls. It includes one reference to ‘this day’.
This year’s ‘summer campaign’ approach is intended to focus on a whole season, rather than a day.
This year’s video focuses on the impact of the comments section on social media, where keyboard warriors are fighting over everything — from the ethics of dog grooming to how to make a cup of tea.
Australians, however, are united over lamb.
MLA marketing and insights general manager Nathan Low said the Summer Lamb campaign showcased lamb as the protein that brings Aussies together.
“When you delve into the world of online commentary, it would leave you thinking we’re all at each other’s throats, no matter how trivial the topic,” Mr Low said.
“But in real life, we don’t treat each other like that. The Summer Lamb campaign is an irreverent reminder that we’re at our best when we’re united, and there’s no better way to bring everyone together than an Aussie lamb barbecue.”
Former AFL player and official lamb ambassador Sam Kekovich cooks a barbecue of lamb chops to promote his idea for an Australia Week back in 2008. He’s in the spotlight again with the latest lamb advertising campaign. (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
The annual lamb ad comes off the back of another incredible year for lamb production in Australia.
For the year to September 2024, Australia produced 488,566 tonnes of lamb meat. This was almost as high as the number reached for the full year of 2023, which was the highest on record.
MLA’s Sheep Industry Projections update in September said 2024’s lamb slaughter was projected to beat the 2023 record, climbing to 27.7 million head.
This is due to 2024 having the highest national sheep flock since 2007, corresponding to increasingly high slaughter and production numbers.
Created by Droga5 ANZ, part of Accenture Song, and directed by Max Barden from The Sweetshop, the ad was created with 100 per cent real Australian comments sourced from online platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Facebook and YouTube.
The full-length ad premiered during the national evening news of Seven and Nine on January 7. This will be followed by a national rollout across free to air, catch-up and subscription TV, cinema, paid social and retail out of home (OOH) channels.
To view the full 2025 Summer Lamb campaign ad see the link below:
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