If you haven't come across GetUp! before, they are (in their own words):
... a new independent political movement to build a progressive Australia. GetUp brings together like-minded people who want to bring participation back into our democracy.
GetUp.org.au members use the latest online tools to act on important issues facing the country.
They have a membership of over 180,000 and have already run a number of successful campaigns on issues ranging from funding for the ABC, migration, RU486, the environment and more.
The governing Liberals hate them and consider them a Labor party front but the organisation board includes people from a wide section of the community with concerns about a number of issues that the government has bollocksed up in one way or another.
The competition - modelled on an American one last year called Bush in 30 seconds - calls on people to create their own political ad to be aired in the run up to upcoming federal election here.
It's not about endorsing one party in particular (but the bulk of them do seem to be about highlighting the myriad problems with the current government)
This is my third significant project in Flash and I will admit that it's still on the rough side (calling any FLS Flash gurus - the deadline for this has been extended to the 7th of July and help in making this more funky would be gratefully received) but it does the job.
I took the perhaps unusual approach of looking at something that is generally regarded as a strength for the government - the economy - and dared to ask the question: Is everything as good as it should be or is it a house of cards?
The Australian economy has been in a period of growth since 1993 (3 years before the Howard government), driven largely by a massive demand for resources by China.
Keeping things ticking over is a pretty easy job when the money is rushing in but there are a lot of areas where this country could be doing a lot better and if/when the money dries up (e.g. China gets a better offer).
A combination of massive household debt, poor infrastructure (roads, ports and particularly broadband internet), a lack of innovation, research and development in industry and an ideological neglect of education mean that this country is completely unprepared to stand on its own two feet in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.
Add this to some particularly repressive industrial relations laws which could see workers seriously exploited in an economic downturn and you have a country with a number of problems just beneath the surface.
Getting this all across in a 30 second ad of course is a tough task so I chose to just raise the question and hope that this is enough to spark debate in an area that is considered almost off limits in public debate in this country.
I toyed with the idea of having ships taking resources to China on the map but felt it made the image a little busy. I'm still thinking vaguely about replacing the ch-ching sounds with video game bleeps but have other projects to press on with for now.
I hope you like it.
