How The Monkeys Put Beef Over Duty, and Life Itself, for MLA
Meat & Livestock Australia’s new campaign by The Monkeys spotlights Australians’ irresistible love for Aussie beef through cinematic stories of a ship’s captain and a chef making outrageous decisions to satisfy their cravings.
Showcased across TV, online, and out-of-home formats, the campaign emphasises the desirability and satisfaction of Aussie Beef with humour and high production value.
Breaking down the campaign spots for LBB, The Monkeys’ copywriter Jackson Best, art director Caitie Hall, and associate creative directors Danny Pattison and Max Rapley share what makes Aussie beef so special.
The creative team explained that they chose a ship's captain and a chef as characters to highlight the irresistible appeal of Aussie Beef, portraying it as the kind of meat worth making irrational choices for.
Director Damien Shatford’s comedic approach amplified the absurdity of the characters’ choices, balancing sophistication with humour and setting high-stakes scenes where characters choose beef over duty.
LBB> How did you arrive at the concept of using a ship’s captain and an executive chef to showcase the irresistibility of Aussie Beef?
Danny and Max> Aussie Beef isn’t like other meats. It’s the sort of meat you have dreams about. Nobody remembers chicken, but you remember that perfectly cooked steak, seared medium rare to a perfect crust that glistens with a rich, caramelised exterior. The smell, the flavour. It makes your mouth water just thinking about it. It’s the sort of thing you’d do irrational things for.
Caitie and Jackson> So, we started asking ourselves: How far would you go to get your hands on some delicious Aussie Beef? Who has the most to lose when tempted by the meat they love?
LBB> The campaign blends sophistication with humour. How did you strike that balance to keep the message entertaining and persuasive?
Danny and Max> The world we built was sophisticated; the world of fine dining restaurants and luxury cruise ships. But the situations the characters found themselves in were ridiculous. A chef sacrificing his career and reputation to taste the good stuff, a ship captain choosing beef over life itself. It’s over the top, but with beef, you believe it.
Caitie and Jackson> The ridiculousness and the sophistication worked hand in hand. We found that the more we dialled the classiness, the funnier it was when we pulled the rug at the end.
LBB> How does the campaign build on the existing ‘The Greatest’ platform, and what makes this iteration stand out from previous efforts?
Danny and Max> ‘The Greatest’ is all about the superiority of beef. In earlier campaigns, we made a song and danced about it, literally. Singing butchers extolled the virtues of beef. But this time, we wanted to let the beef speak for itself.
Caitie and Jackson> We’re also excited because these spots give Aussie Beef permission to play in a slightly more heightened space. It does justice to beef as a premium meat by pushing it into a more elevated world.
LBB> What insights about Aussie consumers informed the approach to this campaign? Given Australia’s strong connection with beef, how did you ensure the campaign tapped into this cultural identity while staying fresh and relevant?
Caitie and Jackson> Australians already love beef, so we didn’t feel we’d be saying anything new by showing stereotypical Aussies eating beef in stereotypical Aussie settings. Not being hamstrung by cultural tropes meant we could create spots that stand out for being a bit more cosmopolitan and visually interesting.
Danny and Max> For Aussie consumers, beef is premium in an everyday sort of way, not a luxury one. Beef’s superiority needed not to make us appear superior. Comedy was a big part of that. Aussies don’t take themselves, or their meat, too seriously. We had to walk the line between reigniting Aussies’ desire for beef and elevating it, but in a way that was accessible and relatable.
LBB> Can you share more about the decision to collaborate with director Damien Shatford and The Sweetshop? How did his direction enhance the storytelling?
Danny and Max> Damien Shatford is excellent at a cinematic sort of comedy, subverting those movie and TV tropes we know so well and undercutting it with silliness and surprise. We wanted a director who could bring our elevated world to life, sell it, and then have the comedy chops to undercut it all with something dumb enough to make you laugh out loud. Damien and Sweetshop were the obvious choice.
Caitie and Jackson> In the case of Ship, Damien had an incredible sense of restraint that made all the difference in terms of comedy. The temptation was there to have this chaotic scene where everything rocked back and forth, and things flew everywhere from the beginning. Still, Damien pared it right back to create this uncanny, tense atmosphere where the dialogue and the drama can shine as the situation becomes more absurd.
LBB> The visuals and settings in both spots are striking. What was the process like in crafting these “gorgeously crafted moments”, and were there any challenges in production?
Caitie and Jackson> For Ship, the crew built a replica dining room and then rigged the whole thing to a crane that tilted up to mimic the keening of a sinking ship. None of us anticipated how quickly the set would start sliding once it was tilted, so it took quite a few tries to find a level of tilt that didn’t send everything flying right from the get-go. Watching a five-star dining room collapse into total chaos over and over was great fun.
Danny and Max> For The Kitchen, we wanted to find a location where the kitchen and the dining room were spatially connected. It added to the jeopardy that he ate the meat in plain sight. We also used hot and cool lighting to separate these worlds to keep them distinct.
LBB> The press release mentions the “sensory experience” of eating beef. How did you aim to evoke this sensory appeal in a visual format, and what elements of the campaign speak to that experience?
Caitie and Jackson> Beyond making the beef look mouth-watering, we wanted to ensure the settings had an indulgent feel. These were places where you’d expect to eat the best steak of your life in five-star comfort. We were also lucky to have some great performers who truly looked like nothing could tear them away from their beef (it helped that the steaks on set were phenomenal).
Danny and Max> Totally. From the first smell of it, they can’t help themselves. And when they eat it, the actors savour it authentically. We made them eat a lot of beef, so their meat had to be appropriately delicious. It made the crew and the extras pretty jealous. And, of course, the sizzle on the end frames is a nice little sonic cue for delicious beef.
LBB> What are the key performance metrics you're looking at to gauge the success of this campaign, and how does it fit into Meat & Livestock Australia’s broader marketing strategy?
Danny and Max> It all boils down to more people buying beef; to grow both value and volume sales domestically. Strategically, success looks like Aussie Beef taking the emotional high ground in a hugely competitive protein market and continuing to justify its price premium over lower-priced proteins like chicken and pork. While there are other key marketing challenges for MLA around functional drivers like ease, convenience and health, reinforcing Australians’ love for red meat, especially beef, is critical to their broader marketing strategy.
Caitie and Jackson> Honestly, our first key performance metric is whether people like and laugh at the spots. In that regard, they are performing well.
LBB> How do you plan to evolve or build on this campaign in future iterations to keep the message fresh for audiences?
Caitie and Jackson> We’ll probably never run out of variations on that theme. Matter of fact, we’ve got a couple in the bottom drawer ready to go…
