Why Damien Fleming and Brad Hodge ad has been driving cricket fans mad all summer

It's the advertisement that has perfectionists and cricket nuffies united in mock outrage. The culprit is the Youi insurance ad, featuring former Australia players Damien Fleming and Brad Hodge and running ad nauseam during Channel 7's Test and BBL coverage over the past couple of summers.

In case you’re among the one per cent of the population to miss it, the ad shows Fleming wrapping all his valuables – including the family dog – in bubble wrap before a backyard game of cricket gets underway. The message is there is an easier way to secure your prized assets and that is, of course, through insuring them with Youi.

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It’s a clever enough promotion…except for two glaring errors eating away at those who are into detail and accuracy. In the cricket scene, the bowler throws the ball instead of bowling it (watch below):

And one of the fielders in close is facing the bowler – not the batter – as the chuck is delivered. The young actors aren't to blame - they're either operating to instructions or there were no set instructions – and it's hardly the most serious issue to cross our desk.

Cricket fans call out glaring editing fails

But fans, with tongues firmly in cheek, are talking nonetheless. One posted on X: "@youi_insurance Hello, I can’t believe you guys are still playing that ad with 'Flemo' featuring the kid whose attempt at bowling a cricket delivery is an obvious and illegal chuck! Doesn’t anyone there care about the traditions or even rules of the game?"

Another wrote: "This ad has been annoying me all BBL because the fielding of the girl on the right completely facing the wrong way then looks over her shoulder at the batsman. Bold strategy to field that way at silly mid-off. How didn’t those in charge pick that up."

Are advertsing standards slipping in Australia?

Advertising industry veteran Paul Carpenter doesn't know the specifics around the Youi campaign and didn't want to be drawn on it, but he has witnessed a general decline in quality control over the years. "When shooting an ad of any sporting nature or speciality nature there should always be someone on set that has a good understanding of the subject – that responsibility is not down to the actors," he told Yahoo Sport Australia.

"However, with budgets being as minimised and diversified as they are these days it often gets seen as a 'non-essential’. I had a friend who was part of a pitch process for a horse racing account in Adelaide and knew his horse racing.

"The agency was Sydney-based and all of the creative geniuses wrote these amazing ads and were due to present to the client after a pitch rehearsal. During the presentation my friend noticed the work showed all the horses running in a clockwise direction. Horses in South Australia all run in an anti-clockwise direction. This kind of knowledge can be critical in a pitch process let alone if the commercial had gone to air." Youi is either oblivious to the cricketing faux pas or happy to run with it and accept the extra attention.

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