Wednesday, August 19, 2009

farmdoc's blog post number 486

Isabel Lucas. I’d never heard of her. Didn’t know she existed. Until a few days ago. Now I know more: She’s a 24-year-old Australian actress who appeared in Home and Away (2003-6), went on to appear in a Transformers film, and is an environmental activist. And as the photograph shows, she’s pretty pretty. Likely due to her public and facial profiles, last Monday she was announced as the star of a A$7.3M tourism campaign showcasing Victoria as the nation’s premium indulgence and wellbeing destination. In the Daylesford – Lead a Double Life TV ad (here), Lucas explores the Daylesford and Macedon Ranges region by frolicking at a decadent soiree by night, and recovering the next day with a stroll in the countryside and a dip in the natural mineral springs. The ad first ran last Monday. The same day, the media publicised the results of a University of South Australia study: that though retail outlets often hire beautiful young women to boost sales, regardless of the product, women are less likely to buy it if they think the saleswoman’s more attractive than them. So, seemingly counter-intuitively, the strategy may actually be bad for business. Probably Lucas is fronting the Daylesford – Lead a Double Life campaign because tourism destinations tend to be decided by men. But I’ve no idea why they imported the Hollywood-based Lucas for the job when they could, and should, have used local beauties – to several of whom I’m related.

1 comment:

Meg said...

If you are referring to me as one of the local beauties to whom you are related - I was actually in the ad, and you can just make out the swish of my red hair in the background of 2 of the scenes, which is sure to get the phones running hot in all the accommodation booking services in town.