Adman behind BHP’s ‘Big Australian’ campaign casts doubt on new effort

campaign. The $10 million campaign, which has seen BHP drop Billiton from its name, includes the miner’s first stand-alone TV commercials in more than three decades.

“I’m not sure what they are trying to say … it’s a little soft,” Mr Wilson said after viewing the ads.

“Do they want to make life easier for themselves in terms of pressure groups? That is always part of the deal. It’s always good for big companies to have good public opinion.”

Mr Wilson wrote the Big Australian scripts memorably delivered by Hunter although it was another adman, Peter Clarke from Mullins, Clarke & Ralph, who came up with BHP’s best known moniker.

“They were good for the time,” Mr Wilson said of the Big Australian campaign.

“It was the 1980s – Australia was on the move and taking on the rest of the world. They were very proud ads.”

BHP will launch its latest campaign with two TV ads but a broader series is planned addressing hot-button issues including jobs, local procurement, climate change and indigenous affairs.

Chief external affairs officer Geoff Healy said the campaign aimed to raise awareness around BHP’s contribution to Australia at a time when trust in multinational corporations was at a low.

“People want to know more about us and what we are doing to deal with some of the big problems Australia is facing,” he said ahead of the campaign launch. “We’re not perfect but we try hard to be a good company.”

The advertising blitz comes as BHP fends off an aggressive push by a US activist investor to shift its primary stock market listing to London and wrangles with the tax office over a disputed $1 billion bill linked to its controversial marketing hub in Singapore.

“First and foremost it’s a social licence campaign,” Spinach media director Ben Willee said. “On a second level it’s aimed at staff members and shareholders who are probably getting a hard time about mining companies and issue such as the environment.”