National Survey of Young Australians 2010

Mission Australia’s annual survey of young Australians aged 11 to 24 continued to draw plenty of attention a week after its official launch - including from readers of The Daily Telegraph online.

To help promote this year’s National Survey of Young Australians 2010, Mission Australia and Leo Burnett Sydney developed a clever online advertising campaign that challenged widely held perceptions of young people.

Titled ‘You're Probably Wrong’, the online ad consisted of a short multiple-choice test on an interactive microsite that highlight some of the more surprising finds about the values and issues of the Australian youth. You can take the test at youreprobablywrong.com.au

The survey was also covered across Australian media, including...

• Sarrah Le Marquand, Daily Telegraph:  'Aussie teens stressed about stress'
• Jacqui Jones, Newcastle Herald: 'Survey highlights what young Australians want'
• Tory Maguire, The Punch: 'Which comes first, a problem or its definition' 
• Steve Lillebuen, SMH: 'Youth body image concerns worsen: study'
• MA VIC State Director Paul Bird, The Punch:
  'Fear of violence is killing Victorian culture'.
• Mia Freedman, MammaMia:
  'The #1 concern for young people is body image. And stress'. 
• ABC TV, News: View at this link. 
• ABC Radio, The World Today: 'Young Australians feeling more stressed'
• Mission Australia news: Read on at this link

Mission Australia's new 'butterfly' ad showing during Antiques Roadshow

A new ad depicting how Mission Australia transforms lives has hit the airwaves during Channel Nine’s popular Antiques Roadshow, which is screened at 5pm from Monday to Saturday.

Tune in to Antiques Roadshow at 5pm on Channel Nine, Monday to Saturday, to see the new ad.



In the commercial, a young man in well-worn jeans, sneakers and an army jacket wades across an urban creek, holding a boxy old PC monitor above the water. Next, he’s kicking in a heavily graffitied warehouse door. Once inside, he rummages through a mound of garbage formed over decades of neglect and picks up a twisted metal pipe.

It’s now night and the young man is foraging through an inner-city bin. He picks up a crushed green softdrink can and inspects, then stows it in his pocket. Back in the warehouse we see the young man perched on a ledge many metres above the littered floor. Gathering all his strength, the young man hurls the monitor, smashing it to the ground.

A voice-over announces that over 44,000 young Australians under 25 are homeless.

Up to this point, the viewer may assume that the young man is a vandal or a vagrant – that’s until we see him welding a metal scrap and using the crushed can to complete a design. The final shot reveals the real reason for his frenzied wandering – gleaming green butterfly wings he has created from the copper wiring, aluminium cans and PC circuit board collected at night.

As the young man walks away from his artwork, the suspended wings angelically frame his body as if a part of him. These brilliant wings made from discarded objects represent the potential that this young man – and thousands like him – has, and the fact he can transform his life with Mission Australia’s help.

The voice-over then announces: “We help people to transform their lives”. Finally, Mission Australia’s website appears on the screen.

This visually arresting TV ad was created by Leo Burnett Sydney, the agency responsible for Mission Australia’s previous two ‘transform’ print campaigns that also feature lovingly crafted butterfly wings.

Mission Australia launches new 'butterfly' campaign television commercial

Mission Australia's 2010 'butterfly' campaign TV advert has been released by Leo Burnett Sydney, the agency responsible for the previous ‘transform’ campaigns that also feature lovingly crafted butterfly wings.

The video will air in late September, but you can view it early at www.youtube/missionaust or here:



Picture a young man in well-worn jeans, sneakers and an army jacket wading across an urban creek, struggling to hold a boxy old PC monitor above the water. Next, we see him kicking-in a heavily graffitied warehouse door. Once inside the abandoned warehouse, he rummages through a mound of garbage formed over decades of neglect and picks up a twisted metal pipe.

It’s now night-time and the young man is foraging through a bin in an inner-city laneway. He inspects a crushed green soft drink can, before stowing it in his pocket. Next, at the abandoned warehouse, he perches on a high ledge then hurls the monitor to the littered ground.

A voice-over announces that over 44,000 young Australians under 25 are homeless.

Up to this point, the viewer may assume that the young man is a vandal or a vagrant until it becomes obvious that he is welding the metal scraps to complete a design. The final shot reveals the reason for his frenzied wandering – gleaming green butterfly wings he has created from the collected copper wiring, aluminium cans and PC. As the young man turns and walks away from his artwork, he is framed angelically by the wings.

The newfound brilliance of the wings represents the inherent potential of the young man (and the thousands like him) and that lives can be transformed with some help from Mission Australia.