Abs, animals and Australian-ness: Inside Bonds' first US campaign

Creating Bonds’ first US campaign came with challenges – from coaxing a cold crocodile into action, to keeping wildlife warrior Robert Irwin’s chiselled abs away from the lenses of amateur paparazzi, AdNews can reveal. 

Made for Down Under, featuring Irwin and music star Tkay Maidza, invites Americans to be “as laid back as Australians” by wearing Bonds underwear. 

Special creative directors Joe Ranallo and Will Winter-Irving said the agency was tasked with creating a campaign to launch into the US market.

“In 2025, Bonds set their sights on global expansion launching into the USA,” the duo told AdNews. 

“The brief was simple at its core – launch the brand, stand out from the pack and get on the radar of American youth. 

“However, with zero brand awareness and no physical store to experience the product, the brief required some out of the box thinking.” 

Special ECD Ryan Fitzgerald said the idea was to embrace the provenance of Bonds and lean into Australian stereotypes. 

“It was just about how we own our ‘Australian-ness’ in a way that didn’t feel too Crocodile Dundee, but also didn’t feel too high brow, Aesop hand-soap/Melbourne flat white,” he said.  

“It felt right to lean into Aussie stereotypes, but play them out differently. Americans know two things about Australians: We’re laid back, and we’re surrounded by deadly wildlife.

“Those two things feel at odds with one another – surely if we’re living dangerously close to sudden death, we shouldn’t be relaxed.” 

From strategy through creative and into production took roughly 10 weeks. The work was brought to life by director Stefan Hunt and EXIT.

Fitzgerald said Maidza had previously worked with Bonds and brought the ‘I’m not afraid of spiders or snakes’ attitude the campaign needed. Finding her counterpart, however, took more deliberation.

“There was a lot of discussion in the early stages as to who it could be. Someone who had notoriety in the USA but hadn’t been assimilated as one of their own already,” he told AdNews. 

“At first, it felt like Robert could represent that Crocodile Dundee version of Australia we wanted to avoid… but the more we talked about it, the more it started to feel right. 

“We found some photos on Robert’s Instagram of him in a fashion magazine, and people were going crazy for it in the comments. That made it clear that we’d get a lot of traction by showing an unexpected side of him. That side of course being his abs.”

The Arc Factory’s Rose Pengelly, along with Bonds’ Kedda Ghazarian and Edwina Moller, were the driving force behind getting the talent for the campaign. Once they were secured, filming took place in the backyard of a home in Goulburn, in the NSW Southern Tablelands.

Ranallo and Winter-Irving said coordinating real animals was one of the biggest logistical challenges. 

“Spiders in particular don’t take direction too well, and you can’t have them out in the sun for very long,” the duo said. 

“Not to mention trying to coerce a 4.75-metre crocodile out of the water, when the air temperature was apparently too cold for him. 

“We also had to make sure the kids leaving the local high school didn’t see Rob in his Bonds and sell some unauthorised photos to (celebrity news network) TMZ.”

The campaign racked up more than nine billion media impressions in a day and was featured on every major local news network. 

Fitzgerald said the commercial resonated because of its simplicity. 

“We gave Australian stereotypes a makeover by showing our goofy, loveable animal conservationist in a new light,” he said. 

“Pair that with Sonar Music’s soundscape and you get transported to a quintessential Australian backyard for 30 seconds.

“Thousands of people made TikToks about it. A rural bakery owner even made a snake out of doughnuts, recreated our ad, and got on the Today show as well.”