The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2025
Australian Lamb's 'The Comments Section' turns real online rows into the national ad
Australian Lamb scripts its 2025 ad from 100% real Aussie comments, then turns hostile comments on the ad into ads for the ad itself.
Australian Lamb · Meat & Livestock Australia
What it had to solve
Comment sections were fuelling division across an already divided Australia, yet in reality people around a lamb BBQ were not as divided as they seemed online. The annual Australian Lamb ad had to pull the country out of the comments and into the cutlets.
How it works
Meat & Livestock Australia's Australian Lamb faced a country that seemed permanently split — at least online, where comment sections were fuelling division in an already divided world. Yet in reality, around a lamb barbecue, Australians were not as divided as the internet suggested.
The campaign took that contrast literally. The film's script was made from 100% real Aussie comments, sourced from the most divisive topics of the year, and the result held a mirror up to the nation — showing Australians how ridiculous their online behaviour had become while bringing them back to the table, 'out of the comments and into the cutlets.'
The media plan completed the loop. To drive views, the team turned divisive comments posted on the ad itself into further ads, and hijacked divided comment sections with branded GIFs, so the very forums that seemed to split the country carried the campaign's message.
Why it lands
- Real comments on the year's most divisive topics made the script impossible to dismiss as invented.
- The ad held up a mirror: Australians saw their own online behaviour and could laugh at it.
- Backlash was built into the plan — hostile comments on the ad became ads for the ad.
- Seeding branded GIFs into divided comment sections put the campaign where the arguments actually happened.
What it did
The campaign became Meat & Livestock Australia's 2025 Summer Lamb ad, with hostile comments on the film recycled into further ads and GIFs, and the work is archived in D&AD's awards archive.
What you can take
Mirror the audience's own words back at them: real comments make a message impossible to dismiss, and the predictable backlash becomes raw material for the campaign's next round.
Since then
D&AD archives the campaign as the 2025 Summer Lamb push. Its durable mechanism is the self-feeding loop: an ad that invites the comment section to write its own sequel, with each hostile post becoming material for the next ad.
Sources
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