I’ve seen many political ads, but this Farnsey belter is up there with the best
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“Why should the devil have all the best tunes?” asked General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, in explaining his organisation’s use in the late-19th century of popular music to popularise its Christian mission. Not that I am in any way comparing Peter Dutton to Beelzebub, but this pearl of wisdom came to mind when the Yes campaign unveiled John Farnham’s iconic power ballad You’re the Voice, which it hopes will drown out the chorus of negativity that has dominated so much of the referendum campaign.
The newly unveiled advertisement, for which it provides the stirring sound-bed, features history on fast-forward. The 1967 referendum, supported by almost 91 per cent of the Australian people. The Mabo decision. Cathy Freeman’s “400 metres of reconciliation”. Kevin Rudd’s national apology to the stolen generations, a day of solemn atonement that was so joyfully received. Spliced into the video are other high points of the national story, carefully curated to give it broad cross-party appeal. There’s prime minister John Howard’s gun reforms in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre, and victory for Australia II in the 1983 America’s Cup.
Broadcast through television sets that are upgraded over time, the ad shows all this history being watched from the sofa of a suburban lounge room – the spiritual home of post-war Australia – by a family that we see mature and multiply as the decades unfold. In a country often resistant to reform – as the national stockpile of failed referendums can attest – the aim presumably is to show that change is not just possible for First Nations peoples but ultimately historically inevitable. The ad invites us to get on the right side of history by voting yes.
Usually, of course, this is a genre famed for its cynicism and negativity. Perhaps the most infamous ad was aired in 1964, when the Lyndon Johnson campaign sought to highlight the extremism of the Republican presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, by portraying a young girl plucking the petals off a daisy while a mission-control-style countdown continued ominously in the background which ended in an atomic explosion.
Here, though, the positivity of the Yes campaign recalls the upbeat framing of Ronald Reagan’s celebrated “Morning in America” ad, which crystallised perfectly the country’s newfound optimism in the mid-80s after the long national nightmare of Vietnam, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis. Climaxing with a smiling tableau of Americans peering skyward, as the Stars and Stripes was run up a flagpole, it looked like a Norman Rockwell painting and felt like a Frank Capra movie. So hard did it pluck at the patriotic heartstrings that it was said to have reduced members of Reagan’s Secret Service detail to tears.
What makes the Voice advertisement so politically compelling is its harnessing of nostalgic nationalism. Over the past decade, this kind of sentimentalism has been the great cudgel of the right. Donald Trump demonstrated its vote-winning effectiveness in 2016 with his “Make America Great Again” slogan. So, too, did the Brexit campaign, with its promise of the restoration of British greatness. The Voice ad, by contrast, is a statement of progressive patriotism. It counters the notion that the Yes campaign is driven by a loathing of Australia and feelings of elite white guilt. Voting yes, it suggests, is an expression of national pride. “Morning in Australia” rather than “Mourning in Australia.”
Enlisting Farnham as a balladeer is obviously a great boon. Already a darling of the masses, his recent battle with cancer makes him even more of an Aussie battler. And You’re the Voice is hardly some aria of the inner-city elites. It is the anthem of Middle Australia. It takes a brave politician to take on Farnham. Even Trump has been reluctant to attack Bruce Springsteen.
By seizing on the lyrics of the song, Dutton thinks the Yes Campaign has scored an own goal. The line “You’re the Voice, try to understand it” highlights, he reckons, the lack of specificity. But every time the No camp resorts to its go-to slogan, “If you don’t know, vote no”, it also seems to be endorsing political illiteracy and giving voters a pass for not learning more.
If all that was needed for success were feelgood television ads that capitalised on Australian sentimentalism, then the national carrier Qantas would not be in such reputational trouble. Not even Peter Allen, and I Still Call Australia Home, can rescue tarnished brands.
But the Yes campaign has long believed that three factors would help as the referendum approaches. First, the scale of its ground campaign involving tens of thousands of volunteers. Second, the fearmongering and mean-spiritedness of its more outspoken opponents. And third, the sophistication of its air campaign: the advertisements broadcast on television and streamed online. Maybe Farnham is singing solely to the choir, but in the midst of an ugly campaign, a stunningly beautiful advertisement has just taken flight.
Nick Bryant is the author of The Rise and Fall of Australia: How a Great Nation Lost its Way.
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