{"id":19,"date":"2019-12-26T04:11:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T04:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/172.31.41.253\/2019\/12\/26\/kylie-invites-politics-weary-brits\/"},"modified":"2019-12-26T15:53:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T15:53:17","slug":"kylie-invites-politics-weary-brits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/2019\/12\/26\/kylie-invites-politics-weary-brits\/","title":{"rendered":"Kylie invites politics-weary Brits to ‘call on your friends in Australia’"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Will Ziebell<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian popstar Kylie Minogue has invited weary Britons to forget politics and “call on your friends in Australia” in a tourism campaign launched in Britain on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n
Britain, which is responsible for the fourth largest number of tourists to Australia, has had a tumultuous political year with deep rancor over Brexit and its first December election in almost a century.<\/p>\n
“We can turn off the news, you can kick off your shoes,” Minogue sings in the advertisement.<\/p>\n
It first aired just ahead of the Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas address and is part of a new A$15 million ($10 million) Tourism Australia campaign – the largest investment the organization has made in Britain in more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Minogue is joined in the campaign, called “Matesong”, by several fellow Australian celebrities who are well known in Britain, including comedian Adam Hills and former cricketer Shane Warne.<\/p>\n
While not referring directly to Brexit, the advertisement mentions a “tough and confusing” year, with Hills saying “negotiating tricky trade deals is a shocker”, and Minogue suggesting a cute quokka is good distraction.<\/p>\n
Quokkas are a small marsupial found in only a few parts of Australia that are known for their friendly and inquisitive nature.<\/p>\n
The ad shows beautiful Australian beaches and stunning scenery, a sharp contrast to pictures appearing in news bulletins around the world this month of ferocious bushfires sweeping parts of Australia.<\/p>\n
The country has been gripped by severe drought and a bushfire season that has been both earlier and more intense then usual. <\/p>\n
There is no immediate data available on whether the fires, which have devastated wildlife in some areas, have been putting off tourists.<\/p>\n
\n(Reporting by Will Ziebell; Editing by Robert Birsel)<\/p>\n