I'm about to send this to the International Marketing and Economics Service of Meat & LIvestock Australia (marketinfo@mla.com.au)
Feedback is appreciated before I do so.
Critique away.


*

G'day,

I'm half Japanese but was born in Perth, Australia, and I'm concerned about Japan's current practices of culling whales for allegedly scientific research (which we know is for the purposes of re-establishing the whale-meat industry). I believe that given the charged economic and diplomatic atmosphere that this issue has generated between Japan and Australia, I believe that Meat & Livestock Australia is uniquely positioned to make a difference in the fight against whaling.

Based on the fact that Japan is an asian culture in which the concept of "face" and "shame" are particularly important, and given that in Japan, traditionally, whale-meat was regarded as poor man's beef, a way for Australia to stop Japan from whaling is with the following television ad:

[Music: an accoustic guitar slowly picks 'Waltzing Matilda']
[Camera rises over clean, beautiful cattle country, in the background it is dawn, cattle moves slowly across an open area of bush]
[Foreground: Macro zoomed a drop of crystal-clear water hanging from a leaf, glinting in the morning light]
[Zoom out: A cattle farmer on horseback or motor cycle whistles out to his dog as large cattle moves slowly past the leaf.]
[Cut back to panoramic view of cattle moving across landscape]
[Text fades in at the bottom of the screen in Japanese: "You deserve better than poor man's meat..."]
[Text fades out]
[Text fades in: "Aussie beef"]
[Text fades out]
[Text fades in, "Safe"]
[Text fades out]
[Text fades in, "Clean"]
[Text fades out]
[Text fades in, "The Best"]
[Text fades out]

This type of ad, combines many powerful foci already established in the Japanese consciousness:
*Admiration of Australia's wide beautiful countryside,
*Knowledge of a clean breeding and growing environment,
*Knowledge of the disease-free nature of Australian beef
*Feeling shame and losing face for eating whale meat when a much better alternative exists.
*Raising the community consciousness that Australian beef is special, that Japanese families will not be caught dead serving whale-meat to guests]

This will not only benefit Australian beef but also Australian tourism, in particular whale watching businesses along the coast. In terms of real effectiveness, it will undermine the demand in Japan for whale meat, and, I believe is far better than the tactics of protesting ships potentially breaking maritime law by boarding or ramming Japanese whaling vessels.

I hope you find my suggestion helpful, and I thank you for you time.

Regards,

Michael C.L. Masaru Lee