{"id":60118,"date":"2014-03-13T21:28:46","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T11:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=60118"},"modified":"2020-12-04T15:55:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T05:55:47","slug":"tv-campaign-draws-national-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/03\/13\/tv-campaign-draws-national-praise\/","title":{"rendered":"TV Campaign Draws National Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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March 13, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

A TV campaign featuring South Burnett schoolchildren promoting the advantages of regular school attendance has drawn nationwide praise.<\/p>\n

The two TV ads used so far in the campaign were shot in the South Burnett late last year.<\/p>\n

They feature indigenous students from Cherbourg, Murgon, Wondai and Kingaroy speaking about their future careers.<\/p>\n

However the voices of the children are supplied by indigenous actor Leah Purcell and football legend Steve Renouf, who both donated their services to the project free of charge.<\/p>\n

The ads are the brainchild of Cherbourg Shire Council’s Barambah PaCE officer Marcus Priaulx.<\/p>\n

They were shot by award-winning creative director John Lyons and cinematographer Wayne Aistrope, then colourised by Chris Reynolds, all of whom also donated their services.<\/p>\n

The ads began screening on south-east Queensland TV stations in late January using a small amount of government seed funding.<\/p>\n

They have since been picked up by the national NITV indigenous network and SBS, who have screened them as community service announcements.<\/p>\n

Since the ads first appeared, praise has flown thick and fast.<\/p>\n

The Australian Education Union (AEU) featured the ads on their website soon after they were released.<\/p>\n

AEU Federal Aboriginal Education Officer Nicole Major said feedback from AEU members since then has been “overwhelmingly positive”.<\/p>\n

And Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion has written to Mr Priaulx saying his department has used the ads to support its Remote Schools Strategy.<\/p>\n

According to a report in The Australian newspaper on February 27, this already appears to have had some effect.<\/p>\n

“Attendances at 40 remote schools across the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland are up an average of 14 per cent over the same period last year,” Mr Priaulx said.<\/p>\n

“Schools which did not have the Remote Schools Strategy in place but were in the same TV viewing areas have also had a rise in attendance.<\/p>\n

“There is no other explanation apart from the ads.<\/p>\n

“And from all accounts they’ve also had a major impact on our local area as well.”<\/p>\n

This week the Education Dreams project – which is collecting public donations to keep the ads showing on TV screens – released a third ad in the series (shown above<\/i>).<\/p>\n