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Meat industry lamb ad poking fun at overuse of 'un-Australian' aims to boost sales amid high prices
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The latest annual lamb ad from Meat and Livestock Australia has been welcomed by farmers, as the industry experiences a drop from record high prices last year.
The campaign video shows people being banished to a desert for committing "un-Australian" offences such as using a knife and fork to eat a meat pie, changing the channel during the Test cricket and not knowing the words to Khe Sanh.
David Farley, who runs a sheep farm at Naracoorte in South Australia, said the ad helped to boost lamb sales over summer.
"I'm not very social media savvy but when I've got some spare time I usually go onto the MLA website, when I'm looking at prices and I'll see it there," he said.
Despite several challenges from higher rainfall, flystrike and shearer shortages, Mr Farley said demand for quality lamb remained strong.
"We're aimed at selling to more specialised markets and those don't seem to be as affected as much," he said.
"Whereas, our older sheep seem to be more affected by the market coming right back."
Riverland butcher Brett Gebhardt said he expected a spike in sales of lamb now that the ad had been released.
"They always get a bit of a smile on your face because it stimulates everybody's thoughts when it comes to barbecuing," he said.
Mr Gebhardt, who has been a butcher for about 35 years, said shoppers were turning to secondary cuts amid cost of living pressures and low and slow cooking trends.
"A lot of years ago, it was just a lamb roast on a Sunday and the by-products like lamb shanks were thrown out to the dogs outside and the lamb flaps.
"Now we wish lamb had 10 legs and instead of four, because there's just not enough lamb shanks to go around.
"So there's the shanks and the breast, and the flaps — it's a bit similar to what's happened with beef brisket.
"Even the cuts from the lamb's chest plate can be done so well that it almost becomes a gourmet product."
Meat and Livestock Australia's domestic market manager Graeme Yardy said this year's ad was a light-hearted take on a controversial word.
"Every year we we look for something topical but we also think about what are the things that are keeping people apart and what can lamb do to help break down those barriers," he said.
Mr Yardy said that more than half of people involved in research for the campaign said they believed that the term “un-Australian” was overused.
"So we decided to poke fun at the ridiculousness of that term … because actually we're all doing things that someone could call un-Australian."
Despite rises in the cost of buying lamb, Mr Yardy said he hoped people would see its value for money.
"If you do the math, the amount of meat you can get out of a cut like a lamb leg can last a few days and feed a big crowd," he said.
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