
In 1976 ABBA lent their name, image and music to Keep Australia
Beautiful, a national anti-litter awareness campaign that continues to
this
day.
ABBA were photographed at Polar Music's offices in Stockholm, Sweden,
wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the 'Keep Australia Beautiful' logo -
Benny, Frida and Agnetha wearing the classic logo featuring the
Australian flag, while Björn wore the then-new logo featuring a cartoon
kangaroo dropping rubbish into her pouch.
The photograph was used for posters distributed to schools and
community organisations, in newspaper advertisements, and on
billboards.
A television commercial also featured the photograph, with ABBA's
'Tropical Loveland' playing underneath a voiceover encouraging viewers
to "keep Australia beautiful". A radio version also featured
'Tropical Loveland' playing under the voiceover.
Plastic litter bags were distributed with the message "A great
idea from ABBA - don't rubbish Australia".
The campaign was created by the Masius
Wynne Williams advertising agency for the Keep Australia Beautiful
Council.
In 1977 RCA used the photo on a
generic inner sleeve inserted into ABBA albums, advertising the
five albums then available. The photo also
appeared on the front cover of the first ABBA Annual (dated 1978) in the
UK.
© 2007 by Ian Cole,
Sydney Australia |