Sam Kekovich
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"Slammin'" Sam Kekovich (born March 11, 1950) is an Australian media personality and former Australian rules football player. He is well known for his controversial behaviour, both on and off the field, and his advocacy for the consumption of lamb.
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[edit] VFL Career
Kekovich started his career with the North Melbourne football club in 1968, and in the following year, won the club's best and fairest award, and was the club's top goalkicker, kicking 56 goals. From that point, his brilliance was displayed only in flashes as he seemed to put more effort into other non-football activities, including soccer, trampolining, and posing naked in the "Truth" newspaper. These began to grate with those in power at the Kangaroos. However, he did play a role in the club's breakthrough premiership win in 1975.
After playing 125 VFL games for the Kangaroos between 1968 and 1976, he moved to Collingwood in 1977, but only played four games, retiring that season.
[edit] Media Career
He has carried on his flamboyant style into the media sector, being most notable for his rants on the ABC show The Fat and a breakfast show on Melbourne radio station 3AK. He also appears on Triple M's pre-match AFL coverage and is on pti Australia on ESPN.
Kekovich's direct-to-camera TV monologues are done deadpan and use wide-ranging cultural references. They normally place in contrast many disparate or incongruous verbal images and ideas, ending with him saying his trademark, "You know it makes sense. I'm Sam Kekovich." He has performed these 'rants' on commercials for North Melbourne FC membership drives, Dan Murphy's bottle shops, and, perhaps most famously, encouraging people to act less 'unAustralian' on Australia Day by eating lamb.
In the lead-up to Australia Day 2005, Kekovich headed an advertising campaign encouraging people to eat more Australian lamb. In this particular ad campaign, he labeled vegetarians as being "un-Australian", provoking outrage from groups such as animal rights activists. The Australian Advertising Standards Board allowed the ads to remain on the air, as they were considered satirical, despite viewers' complaints. He did a similar ad in 2006, and although he did not target Vegetarians, he did claim that many of the tragedies befalling Australians in 2005, such as the 2005 Cronulla riots and a scandal at the 2005 Ashes series, may have panned out differently if Australians had more lamb.
[edit] 2005 Lamb advertising campaign
| There’s nothing worse than being unAustralian. I should know, I’ve been Australian all my life. And I’m sickened by the creeping tide of unAustralianism eroding our great traditions, like our custom of eating lamb on Australia Day.
UnAustralianism is everywhere. For example, people wearing those plastic, brightly-coloured flip-flop shoes with flowers on them. What’s wrong with rubber thongs in simple primary colours? And if I hear another person say “thong", when they mean those swimming costumes poncey Brazilian blokes wear up their bums, I’ll do my block. Sadly, the scourge of unAustralianism has even infected our national day. A balanced Australia Day diet should consist of a few nice, juicy lamb chops and beer. And perhaps a bit of pavlova for those with a sweet tooth. Yet your long-haired, dole-bludging types are indulging their pierced tastebuds in all manner of exotic, foreign, often vegetarian cuisine: Chicken burger value meals, pizzas, a number 42 with rice... It’s an absolute disgrace. And people ask why we need capital punishment. Do you think the diggers in the trenches were fighting for tofu sausages? No. They were thinking of grabbing a lamb chop off the barbie with their bare fingers, sustaining third degree burns, then sticking their hands into a relieving esky to fish out a cold one. Look at our national song, Waltzing Matilda. It’s about a bloke trying to get a nice bit of lamb into his tuckerbag, not spicy chicken wings. The soap-avoiding, pot-smoking, hippy vegetarians may disagree with me, but they can get stuffed. They know the way to the airport, and if they don’t I’ll show them. So the message is clear, even for you backpackers: roll out the barbie, ensure the gas bottle’s filled, stack the fridge full of lamb, and prepare the invitation list. So don’t be unAustralian. Serve lamb on Australia Day. You know it makes sense, I’m Sam Kekovich. |
[edit] 2006 Lamb advertising campaign
| My fellow Australians,
The incidents of unAustralian behaviour over the past year was enough to make me choke on my lamb chops. And it was all down to one thing, not enough lamb. For example, Australian models holidaying in Asia would get in a less trouble if they carried a couple of lamb chops in their handbags. Lamb could have prevented the boofheads perpetrating violence on our beaches. It’s bloody hard to bash someone with a cutlet. And we might not have lost The Ashes if our cricketers picked up lamb chops instead of mobile phones. Why on Earth did they dispatch lurid text messages to English trollops when plenty of Aussie sheilas would gladly target their middle stump? Yet as mishaps spread across the land like bird flu through a Chinese chicken coop, what were we doing about it? Bugger all. It's time to remind ourselves of what lies at the core of our national identity: a lamb chop on a barbie. Being Australian doesn’t mean you have to call the opposition captain a wanker even if he is. Or smother everything in tomato sauce ‘till it resembles an outpatient in a casualty ward. Or pull on a pair of budgie smugglers. I’d prefer you didn’t. And you don’t have to spend every Friday night on the piss ‘till your best friend looks like Elle Macpherson, throw up in the cab, then trip over the garden gnome before passing out on your front lawn. In fact, to be as Australian as I am, don your apron – mine says, "Chop Gun" – whack some nice juicy lamb chops on the barbie, invite everyone over – if you can’t pronounce their name, just call them "mate" – and celebrate living in the best bloody country on Earth. So don’t be unAustralian. Serve lamb on Australia Day. You know it makes sense, I’m Sam Kekovich. |
