We pretty much knew that the trailers for the Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home “movie” (here here, and here) were fake and actually ads for Australian tourism. And yet, we wanted to believe that somehow it would become a real film. And can you blame us? I mean, Danny McBride playing the estranged American son of the Australian legend, Crocodile Dundee. And in the trailers that have been released so far, we’ve seen Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Russell Crowe, Isla Fisher, Ruby Rose, Luke Hemsworth,, and more trick us in to believing that this was a real movie… or at least get us to want to visit Australia.

But now, comes the terribly sad news: There is no Dundee movie. But if you are thinking about going to Australia any time soon, well, then this ad might be just the thing to get you to buy a plane ticket. Check out the latest ad here below, which aired during last night’s Super Bowl.

McBride spoke to THR about the clever tourism ad campaign. He told them that the idea for a Dundee reboot “seemed silly enough that it’s something that Hollywood would do, and in this day and age, to get people’s attention by doing a fake movie trailer for a fake franchise seemed like a great idea.”

And it worked. The trailers received a lot of attention and got a lot of people wondering if this was an ad a real movie or an ad for a fake movie that is actually promoting Australian tourism. Of course, we were kinda spoiled when it was revealed that it was for the latter. However, that didn’t stop the ads from rolling in, and slowly it started to reveal that this wasn’t for a movie. And as disappointing as that sounded, it was still pretty incredible that it could carry on like that for so long and have people still hooked.

Tourism Australia teamed with ad firm Droga 5 to work on this two-year ad campaign to get more Americans to visit Australia. And they couldn’t have dropped these trailers and eventual ad at a more perfect time. The four trailers were spread throughout the month of January leading up to last night’s Super Bowl, but never really revealing that it would be dropped on that day. Instead, it stayed vague with the “coming soon” tag attached to the end of each trailer. Of course, that all changed when it was revealed that this was for a fake movie.

The entire campaign itself cost $27 million. “U.S. tourism is worth about $3.7 billion to the Australian economy annually, according to the agency, which has a goal to increase the spend to about $6 billion by the year 2020.”

Droga 5 noticed a spike in U.S. tourism to Australia after the release of both Dundee movies, so it only makes sense that they design the entire campaign to look like it was a reboot to a cult classic.

The entire campaign could not have happened without the approval of Paul Hogan, the original actor who played Dundee. The actor holds all the rights to the film and agreed to be a part of the ad campaign for free. The Australian actors who participated also worked on the campaign for free. And Thor actor Chris Hemsworth is the Australian Tourism Ambassador. So there’s that. But it was Hemsworth’s idea to bring in McBride.

All the ads were directed by Steve Rogers, with cinematography done by Russell Boyd, who was the director of photography on the original film in 1986. They shot on location all over Australia. And the video was shot in December, where it is the country’s summer. Cameos were then added in January.

“People were confused and wondering what it was,” McBride told THR. “They were talking and speculating. Ultimately that’s what a good ad is supposed to do.”

But one has to wonder, is there a dual purpose to these ads? Of course, it will get more people to travel to the Outback, but will it get enough people interested in making a Crocodile Dundee reboot? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Video

Tourism Australia Dundee Super Bowl Ad 2018 w/ Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride (Extended)

The greatest name in the outback is back in the outback! Only this time, Dundee isn’t a Hollywood movie. It’s a giant tourism ad for Australia.

[Source: THR]