Vegans upset over ‘discriminatory’ Australia Day ad

THE latest Australia Day lamb ad has come under fire for racial insensitivity and promoting “violence” towards vegans.

Apparently it’s traditional in Australia to celebrate Australia Day by eating barbied lamb on the beach.

This year’s campaign, which brings together Lambassador Sam Kekovich and legendary SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin, is based around a mission to save Aussies overseas from having to go without a lamb barbecue on Australia Day.

In a controversial scene that has reportedly sparked more than 60 complaints to the advertising watchdog, a team of special agents break into an Australian man’s apartment in NY and ignite a blowtorch after he reveals he has become a vegan.

The commercial, by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), was released on Saturday and has since gone viral.

“But I’m a vegan now”, replies the Aussie expat.

“It’s in no way attended to be abusive or violent … what we are trying to do is increase lamb sales over the period”.

However, almost 300 complaints were sent to the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB), the majority claiming discrimination against vegans, an ASB spokeswoman told the Sydney newspaper.

MLA said in a statement to the BBC that while it was aware of the complaints the term had generated, it was not meant to cause offense and was “used to symbolize Australians returning home”.

The ASB board will review the ad.

Extracts of the complaints will be published on the Advertising Standards Bureau website after its next board meeting in about two weeks time, an ASB spokesperson said.

“We basically run our operations in January to be prepared for a barrage of complaints whenever Australia Day is approaching”, she said.

The MLA ad reportedly cost $1.2 million to make and has been viewed more than 400,000 times on YouTube.