‘Paid actors’ furore hits Liberal Party over new ad
The Liberal Party’s new ‘whinging Wendy’ ad features a paid actor, who once appeared in a Thor movie, posing as a struggling nurse that simply can’t afford another three years of Anthony Albanese’s broken promises.
Highlighting the use of paid actors in ads by both sides of politics, a simple internet search reveals that the mum in the ad is an actor and acting coach Cassie Zorko. Her real-life husband also appears in the ad as a tradie.
In the couple’s other life, they run a successful wellness company that sells $20,000 saunas and manufactures the yoga mats that the Duchess of Sussex, who was once known as Meghan Markle, sat on when she visited Bondi Beach with Prince Harry.
The advertisement depicts a family of four, a mother, a nurse, and the father, a tradie, and their two children, sitting down for dinner together.
“All right, let’s dig in,’’ the tradie husband says in the Liberal ad.
The mother in the ad wearing a nurse’s uniform then disappears with the daughter asking “where’s mum?”
The father then explains that due to financial pressures she has to do another extra shift to cover costs. A voiceover then tells viewers they are “not imagining it” and they are “worse off under Labor.”
The actor playing the role of the nurse is Cassie Jane Zorko, an actress and acting coach who has appeared in Australian TV shows and movies including Thor: Ragnarok.
She is not a registered nurse according to a search of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency Register of practitioners.
There’s no suggestion of wrongdoing by the couple however, who are simply working in their day jobs as paid actors.
Contacted by news.com.au on Sunday, Ms Zorko confirmed the ad was filmed three weeks ago. When asked about the ad, she said she would have to check with her acting agent about how much she could say.
“I’ll have to check with my agent, because I don’t know what I can and can’t say,’’ she said.
The company the couple run boasts their yoga mats are being “used in Hollywood by A-listers, Olympians, Royals and everyday mums and dads” including Mindy Kaling and Meghan Markle …
The luxury yoga mats retail for $129 and the saunas are on sale at $19,999. The company is also selling ice baths for $9999.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the Liberals posed a risk to “real workers” wages.
“The only way the Liberal Party can get a worker to back them in is by paying an actor to play one,” she said.
“We know the Liberals proudly stand with the Big Business and not the workers.
“Our members, real workers, have been out there letting people know the risk that Peter Dutton poses to their wages.”
Labor’s actors
In response, the Liberal Party pointed out a range of ALP ads using paid actors in campaign ads.
For example, the worker who meets Albanese in an office during the ad where he talks about delivering workers higher wages is actually a Labor candidate who works for the ACT government.
In another Medicare ad, Labor uses a photograph of a doctor who charges $257-$400 for a long consultation.
‘Fake tradie’ furore
The discovery of the successful actor couple’s side hustle follows the furore in 2016 over tradie Andrew MacRae who some labelled a “fake tradie” after he appeared in a Liberal ad.
But Mr MacRae, who drove a ute in real life, insisted “I am the real deal.”
He hit the limelight as the star of the Liberal Party’s prime time commercial featuring him in a high-vis vest on a building site, alleging that the opposition has declared war on banks, mining and blue-collar workers.
“Bill Shorten even wants to go to war with me. Someone who just wants to get ahead through an investment property. I reckon we should just stick it through, and stick with the current mob for a while,’’ he says in the 30-second ad.
The ad was quickly ridiculed after it emerged the Liberals had hired an actor, questioning the tradie’s expensive-looking watch, the layout of his building site and even the ceramic cup he was holding.
Mr MacRae said critics were “foolish” and “crazy to push a lie”.
“My friends have been really concerned for my well being but I am not an actor and I am freaked out by all of this.
“I do property maintenance and one of my clients was an advertising agency and they got me involved.”
Mr MacRae said he has never been a member of the Liberal party and laughed off suggestions his clothes were too clean in the commercial.
The original ‘Whinging Wendy’ ad was the brainchild of ad man John Singleton who created it for Labor prime minister Bob Hawke during the 1987 campaign against John Howard.
Wendy Wood was a housewife who questioned Mr Howard from her kitchen about his $8-billion proposed tax cut.
The ad worked. Bob Hawke went on to win the 1987 election.