Tourism Victoria promoted the Yarra Valley in 2004 with a catchy television advertisement, “Hide And Seek” using the song, “Run Rabbit Run”. The ad has been brought out of storage to be played during the Commonwealth Games being held in Melbourne.
A young holidaying couple hear a knock on their door. It’s their host coming with the suitcases in preparation for their imminent departure. But they’re not ready to go. They must hide before he finds them. As they search for places to hide they discover other couples playing the same game. They run out of the building, past cars, through lavender, past hay bales, through a vineyard and into a wine cellar. The host pursues with obvious delight. The ad finishes with an invitation to visit Victoria. The web site: www.visitvictoria.com
Credits
The Tourism Victoria campaign was created by Publicis Mojo Melbourne, with creative director Darren Spiller, copywriter Steve Jackson, art director Christy Peacock, and agency producer Corey Esse.
Filming was done in Yarra Valley by the Revolver Film team including director Steve Rogers, producer Michael Ritchie, and director of photography Mandy Walker.
Editor was Bernard Garry at Karl Marks, now at The Editors.
Post production was done at Iloura.
Run Rabbit Run
Music was mixed at Gusto Music. ‘Run Rabbit Run’, used in the soundtrack, was sung by duo Flanagan & Allen (Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen), who became popular for their comedic work in Britain during World War II.
The words and music for ‘Run Rabbit Run’ were written by Noel Gay & Ralph Butler for Noel’s show, “The Little Dog Laughed”. Flanagan and Allen made the song popular by adding lyrics referring to Adolf Hitler.
On the farm, every Friday
On the farm, its rabbit pie day.
So, every Friday that ever comes along,
I get up early and sing this little song:
Run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!
Run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Goes the farmer’s gun.
Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run.
Run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!
Don’t give the farmer his fun! Fun! Fun!
He’ll get by without his rabbit pie
So run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!
Run, run rabbit run
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don’t sit down it’s time to start another one
For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race toward an early grave.
Cast
The actor playing the host/farmer is Rod Mullinar. Rod moved to Australia after a career in England. He has appeared in feature films Curse of the Tailsman, Dead Calm and Breaker Morant. His television work has included The Sullivans, Cop Shop, Homicide, The Flying Doctors, Hallifax, All Saints and Stingers.
Awards
The ad won five awards at Melbourne Art Directors Club 2004 , for best soundtrack, best 45 second + television commercial, best cinema commercial, best in show, best client.
The best ad I have seen in yonks!
Classy, intesting, funny, quirky!
Graet stuff
omg that is the best ad ever.. ahahah. i get the song stuck in my head it just so funny! endup skipping around everywhere singing it. awesome
Not much can be said besides … absolutely fantastic.
Just saw this during the oening ceremony for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Best ad in years, and I can’t get the tune out of my head either…
Now I’ve read the explanation I understand the ad-I didn’t have a clue what was happening before although I love the music and the farmer. I remember the farmer’s face but can’t remember the actor’s name
Would love to know the actor’s name ( farmer/host) it’s driving me nuts! Magnificent ad
+1 Would love to know the actors name.
Love the ad. Makes us homesick for lovely Victoria. Very clever and well done. Best ad ever, Look forward to seeing it again & again
Its the song, then the host. Great selections and direction.
The last 8 lines of the song are identical to the last 2 verses of Pink Floyd’s “Breathe” from Dark Side Of The Moon.
http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/breathe-dark-lyrics.html
This ad is incredible…I’m a Film and TV student, and seeing this ad was like someone had ripped the images out of my brain and made the same kind of film that I would have made…beautiful cinematography. I’d love to meet the DOP – we share a very similar style 😛
This little piece is pure ad pleasure. Quirky and visually appealing it drives my wife mad after I am forced to continue singing for days afterward.
Would love to know where to get a copy of this song. It is my childrens favourite.
i want to get a copy of this song i cant even download it off the net
Hi,
A related sort of question: there was a tourism victoria ad a few years back; it had a big band, jazz sort of soundtrack, prominent clarinet; does anyone know the name of the piece of music?
Chris
Yuck! I hated it. Have you people read the words to the song???? How can it be your children’s favourite??? I remember this ad & hated it to the point of changing the channel. Of course it’s not as bad as the recent 2006 Telstra ad (eeeeek!) and the scenery was lovely but really, don’t use it again as I’m sick of negative remarks about rabbits!
I actually liked this so much I’ve downloaded the song and searched out various sites on lyrics. Granted, pretty hard on the poor rabbit but there’s some pretty horrible lyrics out these days. Cute ad too.
Sorry, but can I bring Chris’ question regarding the other tourism Victoria ad back to the top? I have been trying to find it for so long too, can someone fill us in on what the piece of music is please?
This ad has a history for me.
I first saw it in 2004. Our daughter would visit with her mother and while they were nattering in the other room, or out shopping I got to sit with our grand daughter who was 4 at the time. She would play with her toys at my feet while I watched the cricket. During the breaks between overs they would play advertisements.
Two of them especially caused her to snap onto her feet, look at the TV and rock on with them. One was the Target ad with that catchy tune, and this was the other. Every time without fail. At a later date when I was taping another program, I saw this ad when we were watching it later, I learned the words from the ad. We later moved to where our daughter lived in Central Queensland and I got to see our grand daughter every day in the main. I would croon the song to her at times and she would often ask for me to ‘sing the song Poppy.’
I later traced the full version to Flanagan and Allan who rewrote the words and made it a smash.
Those last 2 verses you see above are not the Flanagan and Allen verses, dropped for their smash hit from 1939.
These are the original lyrics by Ralph Butler to go with the melody by Noel Gay (real name Reg Armitage) The Flanagan and Allen lyrics are used for the TV ad here except for the bang bang bang part so as not to offend some listeners.
The song can be found on YouTube.
The actor in question is Rod Mullinar, renowned character actor from Australian TV, from the last series of Hunter, and then starring as Ryan in the series of the same name with his secretary Pamela Stephenson (Mrs Billy Connolly)
This will probably never be read, but I just had to comment.
Tony.
One of my most fav ads ever.. This has a unique character to it, very beautiful, romantic, colourful, cheery and reminscing at the same time.. sounds like I am describing my ex girl friend.. but unlike her, I still love this ad.
Run rabbit… run rabbit.. run…..
best ad commercial eva!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My friend tells me there is a longer version of this add. Does anyone have a link to it.
Loved this ad so much at the time and the tune so catchy that I sing it when I take my dog to the park, words changed slightly to ” Run Puppy, run Puppy, run run run; down at the park we have fun, fun, fun” etc.
The entire ad is still my favourite after all these years, I have just played it 3 times on You Tube and love to watch Rod Mullinar’s fabulous eye movements and smile. I enjoy watching his joy and pleasure while he was dancing through the vineyards; spreading it to all who watched his wonderful antics. A fabulous ad. that can’t help but make you smile and feel happy, if all ads did this there’d be a lot more sales out there.
Hope it comes back again soon. Congratulations to all those who had a part in its production, especially Rod – just love that funny face.
I love it and I deliberately seek it out every now and again to cheer myself up.
If they ever did a remake, I would put my hand up in an instant for the lead role,and I’d happily do it for free.
There’s something endearing about letting an eccentric loose in
the countryside. Love it.