So now we now. The Crocodile Dundee movie rumour is a rumour, well, not so much as a rumour as a carefully orchestrated promotion for Tourism Australia. The genius idea of Droga5 New York. The reveal ad ran at the Super Bowl.

Genius because Paul Hogan and Crocodile Dundee put Australia on the map over there in 1986 – albeit for a lot of wrong reasons.  There probably is a “Crocodile Dundee” in outback Australia, but not many Australians would have met one or be like one. The trailer did everything possible to keep the Aussie dream alive.

Genius, too, because tourism ads can be so blah. This one so isn’t.

The campaign includes a series of spots, directed by Australia’s Steve Rogers and produced by Revolver/Will O’Rourke. The trailer was teased to US viewers as an upcoming movie trailer, which did its job of creating a buzz that even spread to Aus.

Then the 60-second Super Bowl ad ran to an audience of about 110 million viewers, revealing the ruse.

The cost of the campaign came in at AU$36 million, making it the biggest single Tourism Australia advertising campaign since Paul Hogan fronted the Come Say G’Day ads more than thirty years ago.

The “movie” trailer, Dundee. The son of a legend returns home, stars Danny McBride, Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Russell Crowe, Isla Fisher, Ruby Rose, Liam Hemsworth, Jessica Mauboy and Luke Bracey.

Hemsworth, a Tourism Australia ambassador, will also feature in the campaign’s extensions – with actor, Danny McBride, who plays Mick Dundee’s long-lost son in the trailer.

The films were shot in November in Adels Grove in far north Queensland.