The Internet Tried To Track Down The Liberals’ #FakeTradie…And Got it Horribly Wrong
Will the 'real' #FakeTradie please stand up?
The Liberal Party’s new ad featuring an incredibly awkward “tradie” is the gift that keeps on giving. The internet has been having a whole lot of fun ripping into #FakeTradie for his bad jewellery, inexplicable coffee mug and sheer bloody weirdness.
he just wants a fair go dinki di VB cricket shannon noll BBQ crack at negatively gearing his 5th home #faketradie pic.twitter.com/vHRTRlOEkS
— The AMWU (@theamwu) June 19, 2016
Junkee even asked some real tradies to weigh in…
People were so convinced the #FakeTradie was fake, they tried to track down the actor that played him. The problem is there was only one clue: the authorisation at the end of the ad.
The only clue to tracking down #FakeTradie
So the internet went to work trying to uncover who the elusive A. MacRae was. When the Campaign Director for the Australian Council of Trade Unions posted this on Twitter, it looked like the mystery was solved:
#faketradie is from Hunters Hill & director of a media company https://t.co/yYxvRo5Wsd – total #faketradie North Shore gun 4 hire #ausvotes
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) June 19, 2016
A. MacRae was outed as none other than… Andrew MacRae, voiceover artist.
Everyone went to town on the poor bloke by analysing in great detail his back catalogue of voice overs, which included a very bizarre ode to Triple M’s breakfast hosts.
There was just one problem. Voiceover artist Andrew MacRae was not the A. MacRae featured in the #FakeTradie ad.
Poor old Andy took to Twitter to clarify the situation.
Dear all,
It's not me. I'm not in the ad. I didn't voice the ad. I had nothing to do with the ad.#faketradie— Andrew MacRae (@MedinaVoice) June 20, 2016
Turns out we all took the piss out of the wrong bloke. On the plus side, he probably got more hits on his showreel than at any other time in his life. Hopefully he gets some work out of it.
The Liberal Party issued a statement to clarify that the #FakeTradie in their ad was, in fact, a real tradie and his name was A. MacRae.
So what’s the wash up of all this? Twitter sleuths may have pinged the wrong A. MacRae but none of that should detract from the real issue: The #FakeTradie ad is incredibly bad and deserves to be ridiculed. Keep at it, internet.