ROFLMAO…
Unions must leave Labor
Dean Mighell
The Age
February 11, 2010
…Everyone will remember [Tracy], the highly stressed working mother who featured in the ACTU ”Your Rights at Work” TV ads. Well, [Tracy], if you still work in a workplace with fewer than 15 employees you can still be sacked unfairly and, worse, your basic award conditions have been reduced under Julia Gillard’s ”modernisation” program…
Note : Tracy’s friend made a full recovery. See also : Effectiveness of TAC ads questioned, Lara Sinclair, B&T Today, April 4, 2003. Peter Lewis, How unions brought the workers back to labor, Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History, No.96 (May 2009):
A second round of research was commissioned by the ACTU in August 2005 to develop the television advertisements that would drive these messages into the lounge rooms of Australia. It was here that the character that would become the poster girl of the campaign, ‘Tracy’, emerged. The construction was simple–a harried working mum was called into work at the last minute. She tells the boss she can’t, she’s got to look after the kids. The tension builds as she listens to the phone–“But you can’t do that? Really?”–then the tagline–“if you think the IR changes won’t affect you, think again.”
What was striking at the time was the resonance of this advertisement, particularly amongst women. It was realistic; they felt an emotional connection with ‘Tracy’. In filming the advertisement, film-maker Richard Keddie–a mainstream director who had assisted EMC for many years, consciously filmed the advertisement to reflect a ‘Neighbour’s style’ family drama. It worked.
Labor got re-elected. See also : “A dose of libertarianism would enhance our democracy” — and if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle. (October 20, 2009).
