Woolworths tries to be a part of culture, Anzacs and Australians fire back

According to reports from The Sydney Morning Herald, Carrspace, the Australian “interactive” agency behind the campaign announced its three-year appointment with Woolworths in March.

Woolworths approved the campaign that mentioned Anzac (which refers to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and the 25 April Anzac day honouring war veterans) and promptly got slammed on social media.

The agency built an interactive tool allowing individuals to insert their own pictures with a "Lest We Forget, ANZAC 1915-2015" title, the copy “Fresh in our memories” and the Woolworths logo. This tool was soon used for satirical purposes:

Memes popped up all over Australian social media

The association of the word ‘fresh’ and the tie to the Woolworths tagline, 'The fresh food people' proved too much for many members of the Australian public, who deemed the work exploitive and insensitive to the Anzac heritage and the soldiers who lost their lives.  

Carrspace has since shut down its Twitter account. On Wednesday morning, the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Michael Ronaldson, said that under the “Protection of the Word Anzac Act 1920, they could face fines of up to $50,000 for using the word 'Anzac' in a commercial context without permission.”