In the Culture of Service: Australian Content in TV Advertising

'The role of advertising in the service of popular culture has been recognised, researched and debated in Media and Cultural Studies for many decades. "National Flagship" advertising continues to evolve as an important space in which civic expectations about Australianness are represented, articulated and negotiated as part of the popular cultural life of the nation. It has been somewhat harder for this productive capacity of advertising to be captured in cultural policy settings and mobilised in the service of national culture. The Australian case is an important exception to this more general experience. But for how much longer? Recent developments in policy thinking about the Australian content requirements for Television Commercials (TVCs) suggest that the transnational culture of service is poised to claim another victory here.'