Toni Lodge, the co-host of the Spotify-exclusive Toni & Ryan podcast, received rave reviews from Australia’s national air carrier Qantas after she shared her recreation of the I Still Call Australia Home ad.
The iconic commercial sees a group of children singing Peter Allen’s hit from 1980 I Still Call Australia Home at stunning locations around the country – from the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Twelve Apostles and South Australia.
For Lodge, she always dreamed of being part of the Australian Children’s Choir and appearing in an iconic Qantas television commercial, dressed in a white button-up shirt with black trousers.
Toni Lodge on location
Lodge auditioning for the National Girls Youth Choir
Lodge’s late mother assured her “they don’t recruit kids from Western Australia”. But through a bit of research, the podcast hosts have since learned through a mutual friend from Perth that her mother lied about this for fifteen years.
On the podcast, co-host Ryan Jon helped to make part of Lodge’s dream come true by getting her an audition for the National Girls Youth Choir.
While her performance was angelic, it was her age – 29 – that the choir director noted was outside of the recruitment criteria of 10-16-year-olds.
Lodge was disappointed at not making the cut, but she had a light bulb moment and announced that she would film the Qantas ad herself. “I’ll just take a GoPro around Australia and I’ll record on my own.”
“I’ll just take a GoPro around Australia and I’ll record on my own”
Lodge at the Sydney Opera House with Toni and Ryan podcast listeners
And so Lodge and Jon travelled to the same iconic landmarks across Australia to film their version of the commercial.
The end result is a viral video that will have you laughing out loud and wiping away tears of joy, watched over a million times across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
The official Qantas account responded to the video, saying: “This is everything.”
Even the official Hamilton Island TikTok has chimed in and said: “We know an island on the Great Barrier Reef that wants to be in part two!”
Last year, Qantas unveiled its contemporary twist to the iconic I Still Call Australia Home campaign, created by agency The Monkeys, Part of Accenture Song.
The advertisement struck a chord and garnered plenty of attention with the public for the emotion it hit home, notably as domestic and international borders opened and travel resumed following lockdowns.
The Peter Allen anthem was sung by the Australian Girls, National Boys Choir, and the Gondwana Choir, along with Kylie Minogue, Hugh Jackman and Troye Sivan.
The ad also featured Adam Goodes, Bangarra Dance Theatre performers, Bronte Campbell, Ellie Cole and Aboriginal Elder Rene Kulitja at the base of Uluru and showed off this country’s incredible natural landmarks.
CEO Mark Green told Mediaweek he was incredibly proud of the work they had produced that created a conversation.
“For us, it has always been about that rather than vanity industry awards, that’s when you know your parents know what you do and they’re proud of your work. You have something that is a campaign, but even our parents are proud of it. That’s a very cool highlight.”
The CEO noted that the timing of the ad added plenty of dimension to it as Australian travellers had not been on a plane over the last two years.
“We’re a nation of people that come from somewhere else. I think everyone’s happy that the world’s opened up again, and they can get back out there and connect.
“I think all those emotions associated with the Flying Kangaroo and I Still Call Australia Home was ready to be unleashed. It was a great moment when we launched it to the staff at Qantas and the team internally.
“I think it’s just the strength of that brand, and our job was just to help it on its way and re-interpret what is a classic and give it a modern and contemporary feel,” Green added.
See also: The Monkeys CEO on the agency’s impactful campaigns after making Mediaweek’s Hot List
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Top image: Toni Lodge at the Sydney Harbour Bridge