CONSUMER AFFAIRS:

A new cross-media advertising campaign is being labelled as un-Australian for trying to induce struggling families to buy cuts of meat they simply can’t afford.

That’s the claim from the nation’s major charity groups as soup kitchens around the country swell with people who now sadly don’t know where their next meal is going to come from after blowing their weekly food budgets (above).

“Just in the past two days, we’re struggling to feed countless families who were already below the poverty line but who are now in a really bad shape because they thought eating lamb was the Australian thing to do,” a Salvation Army major who asked not to be named told The Bug.

“It broke my heart to see one man sobbing openly in front of his family after he hastily arranged a barbecue and had a whole heap of his mates around hoeing into scrawny lamb cutlets at almost $4 a piece. One so-called mate scoffed down six of them and still wasn’t full. He could have been fed three whole chooks for that!

“Another family that came in early this morning blew their entire food budget for a week because this new ad made them feel guilty and un-Australian if they don’t do the right thing by their children and have a $48 lamb leg roast for dinner.”

The advertisement the charity groups are pointing the finger at is the latest, annual, iteration plugging lamb from Meat and Livestock Australia. It premiered on Channel 7 on Thursday during the SCG Test and social media has lit up with it.

While the expensive and elaborate ad seems harmless enough – pointing at things that might be un-Australian such as not knowing the words to Khe Sanh, changing the TV channel when the Test cricket is on or eating a pie with a knife and fork – the throughline is clear: it’s un-Australian not to feed your family and friends lamb!

The Bug believes the charity groups have a valid case. A check online showed that Woolworths is currently selling lamb cutlets at $43 a kilo, making it a minimum of $38.70 for 10 pieces. A lamb leg roast at $15 a kilo costs $42.

What The Bug saw instore late yesterday was even more heartbreaking.

At a Coles in inner-northern Brisbane, we witnessed an elderly lady being knocked off her walking frame as she fought with another hungry shopper to get the last two packets of 600 gram pork sausages for $12 to save two dollars.

Over near the delicatessen area, a crowd waited patiently to see if the remaining whole roast chickens – they looked more like quails – might be further discounted to $8 as the day’s trading neared its end.

As a spokesperson for The Smith Family explained: “These are the meat cuts most Australian families are now relying on to survive. It’s their only way of showing how Australian they still are through their love of meat – but even then it’s only a couple of times a week at most!”

Meat and Livestock Australia had not responded to our request for an interview but their ad has been given the thumbs up by Russel Howcroft (pictured) from the ABC’s Gruen show.

“I think it’s a very good ad, yeah, and should do very well as long as they spend a motza with ad agencies on the campaign, yeah?” he said.

“That’s always the key to any successful ad campaign … a massive ad agency spend, yeah?”

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