TOURISM chiefs in Australia have ditched the country’s highbrow sales pitch to attract foreign visitors in exchange for a more rustic approach: swearing. “So where the bloody hell are you?” is the new slogan, which was announced yesterday as part of a £76 million campaign that will appeal to people in Britain, Europe, the United States and Asia.

The “bloody hell” advertisement replaces the “Australia — a different light” campaign of 2004, which featured Australian artists and British celebrities such as Michael Parkinson. It was artistically acclaimed but was a marketing flop.

The latest advertisement marks a return to the use of rustic Australian idioms made famous by the actor Paul Hogan’s “Throw another shrimp on the barbie” campaign of the 1980s. It begins in an Outback pub with a man saying, “We’ve poured you a beer”. Then follows a sequence of idyllic images including a boy at the seaside saying, “We’ve got the sharks out of the pool”, and partygoers watching Sydney harbour fireworks saying, “We turned on the lights”. A traditional Aboriginal dancer says, “And we’ve been rehearsing for more than 40,000 years”. The advert ends with a bikini-clad young woman stepping out of the sea asking: “So where the bloody hell are you?”

But, if the initial reaction in Australia is any guide, the adverts could prompt a spell of national navel-gazing akin to that which followed the Paul Hogan campaign. That campaign provoked criticism for portraying Australia as a nation of happy simpletons.

The new advertisement has already provoked controversy, drawing in John Howard, the Prime Minister, who said that the word “bloody” should not be considered offensive. Fran Bailey, the Tourism Minister, welcomed the emphasis on the word bloody. “It’s the great Australian adjective. We all say it — it’s part of our language.

We’re presenting ourselves to the world in a very friendly ‘as we are’ people,” she said.

“Harry Potter says it. Everyone says it.”

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