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Part 2 - US Footy Ads

 

ESPN footy commercial: Paul Hogan promoting tourism of Australia - I got my Aussie Holiday book ... did you?

The marketing strategy was as clear as the waters of the Great Barrier Reef - promote Australian tourism and other products with an Australian identity attached to them.  By slipping these advertisements in the commercials slots during the Australian Rules Football show on ESPN, footy viewers in the United States were presented with many opportunities to broaden their Australian horizons past the footy pitch.   Conceivably, the American footy fan could book an Australian holiday vacation, reserve a flight on "The Airline of Australia," sip a Foster's on the flight over while wearing that fan's footy colors - all courtesy of the commercials between the footy on ESPN!  Although I was a little too young at the time to follow through on that scenario, I am most certain that I would have just described my first ever visit to Australia had I been older and able to afford such an excursion in the mid 1980s.  For those of you out there who were passionate viewers of Aussie Rules on ESPN, here then is a small refresher on some of those ads shown in between the action.  

 

ESPN footy commercial: "Sydney" the koala bear in the 1980s - "I hate QANTAS!"

The one angle the marketing groups thought they could successfully manipulate was Australian travel and tourism.  This made perfect sense if you consider what many of us footy fans in the United States wouldn't give to catch a live glimpse of the sport we've come to love.  So why not have an Australian figure most Americans knew promote "The Land of Wonder - The Land Down Under?"  After Crocodile Dundee became a smash hit in the theaters, it made perfect sense to recruit none other than Paul Hogan himself to be the official spokesperson of Australian Travel and Tourism.  Throw in his catchy phrase "Come and say g'day - I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you" and now something was brewing!  Once you've booked your "Aussie Holiday," you now needed to find a way to get there - enter "The Official Airline of Australia" - QANTAS!  Everyone here in the United States came to love Sydney the koala bear and his "I hate QANTAS" slogan.  Those commercials were part of the whole Australian experience for us American footy fans and I'm sure many still remember them clearly to this day.

 

ESPN footy commercial: Footy Gear Catalog from Downunder Direct and the famous slogan "The only padding you need is your own!"

Now that the travel and tourism angle had been completely covered, a void still existed in the VFL team gear department.  There was no easy way for the American footy fan to purchase jerseys, hats, scarves and any other team memorabilia.  From time to time, the Seven Network provided viewers with an address to the VFL Properties Division (Active Marketing Party, Ltd) where we could order our favorite team's VFL guernsey.  As a matter of fact, that's exactly how I acquired my Collingwood guernsey back in 1984.  Still, there was no means of purchasing footy gear in the United States.  In 1986, however, a group from Chatsworth, California named Downunder Direct began advertising on ESPN the sale of VFL club guernseys, shorts and socks.  Just call the toll free number for a copy of their catalog and order your favorite team's gear.  Those who remember the commercial might recall their catchy slogan "The only padding you need is your own!"  Although I already had my Collingwood guernsey, I made a request for the catalog.  In their catalog, I discovered that they also sold Faulkner brand Australian footballs.  I recall the excitement I had when I attempted to place an order for a real Australian football that I dreamed of kicking since first tuning in to footy on ESPN.  Sadly, they replied by informing me they had none in stock and weren't planning on taking any new orders for footballs.  Needless to say I was extremely disappointed.  I had pretty much accepted the fact that I would probably never see, much less kick, a real live footy.  I would continue to have to make due with either kicking rugby footballs or old American footballs that I had kicked out of shape so bad that they looked like Australian footballs!  Little did I know that my dream of kicking a real footy would come true some 12 years later, but I will save that for later on in My Footy Story.  As for the Downunder Direct Pty Ltd, they must have only had a short run in the VFL footy gear business because they were never heard from again after 1986.  Perhaps it was nothing more than a limited promotional ordeal to test the market for footy gear in the United States, but the idea was certainly commendable.  If you attempt to look for Downunder Direct on the internet today, you will find an Australian Travel and Tourism site which I am rather certain are not the same folks from Chatsworth, California.

 

TV Guide blurb from August 1984 - ESPN's coverage of Australian Rules Football receives national attention.

The promotion of Australian Rules Football in the United States was not limited to just ESPN.  In 1984, TV Guide magazine published two references to Aussie Rules on ESPN - the first was a half-page blurb (see figure at right) and the second a four-page in-depth article about not only the sport, but the effect it was beginning to have on Americans.  For the complete transcript of this article, select TV Guide Article above left in the Other Links section.

One might get the impression that all this advertising resulted in attracting Americans to Aussie Rules - this could not be further from the truth.  The simple fact was that the Seven Network and the format of their show on ESPN was indeed the cornerstone for drawing the attention of the American sports fan.  Where the commercials helped broaden the interest of Australia itself, Seven actually cultivated the American sports fan into a footy fan.

Part 3: Seven Network