LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
One long-acknowledged charm of regional Australia is the local TV commercials, usually featuring the business owner talking in a monotone droll or going the complete opposite direction and doing something that just wouldn’t fly in the city.
Every once in a while however, a regional TV viewer will stumble across a rare gem of a locally produced ad that has blown its whole budget on getting a former cricketer to stand in front of a screen and spruik Australian steel.
One such ad features former test cricketer Patrick Pooley who despite once being a household name, now requires a small subtitle to explain who he is as he played cricket back when you were allowed to smoke darts.
“Australia makes the best athletes and the best steel,” stated Pooley, clearly enjoying modern teleprompter technology for the first time.
When asked why he is so passionate about Australian steel Pooley stated it was a nice change from the workplace motivation gigs that dried up 20 years ago.
“When I played a cricket player made as much as a teacher so when the blokes at Aussie Steel called me to ask if I’d be the face of that campaign I said yes to anything that will get me off the baked bean diet for another month.”
