Loud&Clear calls for an industry-wide boycott of Australia Day with #changethedate campaign
Loud&Clear calls for an industry-wide boycott of Australia Day. The agency will be open for business on January 26 and invites other agencies to play a leading role in the #changethedate movement.
The objective of this campaign is simple – it is a boycott. The idea: that until Australia Day is held on a date for all Australians, it is not a day that should be celebrated.
Says Ben Beath, managing director at Loud&Clear: “As a digital agency, we are influencers. As an independent, we can do what’s right rather than what is merely profitable. And because of who we are, we are collectively less frightened about “what comes next” and able to challenge the status quo. This is a status quo that must be challenged. The day on which we celebrate this country is a day of discord. It was not intended to be, but it is.
“Our industry is all about making change; changing ideas, changing mindset, changing behaviour. We are calling on our colleagues in the industry to join us and make a stand. If we mean Australia Day to be a celebration, we need to do much better than holding it on a date that commemorates an invasion.”
“This country’s relationship with our First People is a gaping wound that has festered for far too long. Changing the date won’t fix this alone, but it will start a process that promotes healing and understanding.”
There is no commercial benefit to Loud&Clear in this campaign. Taking the lead from Floate Design Partners, the agency will be open for business as usual on the January 26 and staff who choose to work this day will receive two days off in return.
In the words of Erik Jensen, editor of The Saturday Paper: “Australia is not its white settlement. Australia is its First Peoples and their thousands of years of history and present; it is its convicts and squatters, its migrants, its refugees; it is its shared history and its contemporary harmony.”
We ask other agencies around Australia to join us in this movement. Pretend nothing is happening on January 26, and stop celebrating Australia Day until it is a day for all Australians.
#changethedate
Visit changedate.com.au.
Loud&Clear acknowledges Ross Floate for bringing this idea to life: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2016/12/10/the-date-changing/14812884004068
12 Comments
Congratulations guys. Great stance.
This is something we should all get behind
Narcissism and left wing politics in full swing.
Be against something. Point out it’s problems. Champion an alternative. But don’t describe what that alternative is. Because you’ve already accomplished what you’ve set out to achieve—climaxing from your moral virtue signaling.
Australia Day is a symbolic day of reconciling two completely different worlds. There are lots of bad aspects to the 26th Jan (dispossession of lands, violent conflicts, cultural misunderstandings, etc) but there are also good aspects, and quite frankly, a hell of a lot more good aspects (democracy, western liberal values, the common law, scientific and technological understanding, a written language, etc).
Australia Day requires people to hold these two opposing aspects of the 26th of Jan in their heads, at the same time, and be comfortable with it—something Loud&Clear and many other SJWs are yet to achieve. In other words, it is a day of reconciliation.
Australia Day should and must be celebrated by all. Celebrated with humility, understanding, appreciation and overwhelming optimism for all Australians.
Happy Australia Day!
Good luck getting your staff to go to work on that day.
For the majority of Australians, Australia Day just means..’Day off’.
By adding this line of copy to your site it will turn people off. Should’ve left it off.
For the record, I don’t agree we should be celebrating a day that when we ‘invaded’, but hey, that’s life, and history. And as @Happy Australia Day has said, the 26th of Jan holds many positives for others too.
You can try to change a date, but you can’t change history.
Tried to sign up several times today. The site is still not working. (Tried from iPhone mobile)
Work on the holiday for two days off?? Negotiating for principle, doesn’t hold much integrity. What happened to sacrifice for strongly held beliefs?
Great way to create division in your own company, who takes the day off to be with their family isn’t subscribing to the management political view.
Dogmatic and unintelligent. Don’t you work in communication?
Something about this just rubs me the wrong way. I’m all for reconciliation and recognition, but this movement (and thus the campaign) sanctimoniously implies that everyone who’s ever enjoyed or tried to imbue Jan 26th with inclusive meaning is tarred. Hmm.
@Dom, thanks for your comment. The shareholders of Loud&Clear are “sacrificing for the principle” by offering an extra day off. Changing behaviours isn’t easy, so we’re offering an incentive to acknowledge that it’s going to feel weird being at work while the rest of the country BBQs.
There is no division. Maybe it’s just us, but we have robust discussions and passionate debates every day about the work we do — so we embrace difference of opinion, not hide from it.
@Menatwork, I think most people don’t realise quite how traumatic this particular date is for indigenous Australians. Our argument is not to kill Australia Day … just to change the date to one that represents reconciliation rather than invasion.
@H.A.D, you should watch the TED talk “James Flynn: Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents”, particularly at the 16:02 mark. Keen to know if you still feel the same way after watching that.
FFS H.A.D. have you ever met an Aborigine? Can you comprehend what it means to have your kids taken away? Bit more than a cultural misunderstanding mate. But hey, look at all the liberal values and common law they got in return… are you farking kidding me? I suppose it’s understandable – tragically unloved and uneducated kids like H.A.D. get some new buzzwords and a little wood from the election result – and suddenly we have a rash of trumped-up little fascists boldly sprouting Alex Jones. Well, go ahead H.A.D., sport your bogan flag down at the ‘nulla this invasion day. Just make sure you share pics so we all know who not to ever hire, or speak to, again.
I hear you!!!! I’m ashamed as a white Australian for the heinous crimes against our indigenous people, past present and future. And anyone who believes we live in a democracy? Well sorry to say that too is all part of our brainwashing by those in control. I Stand with Our Indigenous People’s. They are our last hope. I boycotted Australia Day years ago. What an embarrassment to aware humans.
For those who want to support this initiative but don’t know how. We made this site to help.
http://www.changeitourselves.com.au
This is no different than raising a bunch of likes on Facebook to end hunger, it gives the privileged another opportunity to pretend to themselves that they’re making a difference. There are dire issues within our indigenous communities which need real intervention and I assure you that philosophy does nothing to advance these communities, the majority of indigenous Australians are more concerned about their collective health and well-being than a date for a holiday which doesn’t effect them anyway.
Are any of these business donating money to indigenous causes? Or are they creating employment or training opportunities for indigenous Australians? Doubt it. Pragmatism is expensive, it’s far easier to have ineffective discussions amongst a small, privileged audience- whatever helps you sleep at night I guess