Why Brands Are Using Iconic Symbols to Challenge Tech Culture

Australian dairy brand Dairy Farmers, working with Melbourne agency The Royals, has temporarily transformed the city's iconic Skipping Girl neon sign into "Scrolling Girl," a public installation addressing youth screen addiction across Australia.

The campaign launched this week, replacing the 90-year-old Skipping Girl sign at 651 Victoria St, Abbotsford, with a 60-metre neon figure staring at a phone. The installation ran for a limited period before being removed.

A Heritage Brand Takes a Stand on Screen Time

The campaign was developed over 18 months. Its central message: school-aged children spend nearly three times longer on screens than exercising daily.

Dairy Farmers, a 126-year-old brand under the Bega Group, placed no brand logo on the installation itself. The decision was deliberate. Steve O'Farrell, Managing Partner at The Royals, described mindless scrolling as "the biggest barrier to vitality among children today" and skipping as "the solution."

Neon artist Jack Pullen, connected to the family lineage that built the original Skipping Girl sign, crafted the sculpture using traditional glass-bending techniques. O'Farrell called the handcrafted approach "the antithesis of the proliferation of AI and automation we're seeing in advertising."

Bega Group marketing leadership, including GM Marketing Matt Gray and Darryn Wallace, backed the campaign at the organizational level.

Zero Paid Media, Maximum Earned Coverage

The campaign carried no traditional media spend. Coverage appeared on The Today Show, The Herald Sun, Daily Mail Australia, and mainstream news channels.

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The approach mirrors the 2017 Fearless Girl campaign by State Street Global Advisors, which used a physical installation with no media buy to generate global coverage through cultural tension. The Royals modeled Scrolling Girl on the same principle.

The physical impermanence of the installation, removed within the same week it debuted, created urgency that drove media attention.

Community Activation Converts Awareness Into Action

Beyond the installation, Dairy Farmers partnered with TeamKids, Australia's largest after-school care provider, to distribute approximately 8,000 skipping ropes across 270 schools in a 10-week challenge. The program generated an estimated 450,000 to 500,000 skipping sessions.

UK-based skipping creator Lauren Jumps, who has 7.5 million social media followers, joined an Australian PR tour to support the campaign. The Royals also organized a skip-off event with Gold Coast Suns players on April 17. O'Farrell noted the brand "didn't want to be anti-technology," explaining the decision to use social media influencers despite the campaign's screen time message.

Daniel Pizzato, Acting Executive Creative Director at The Royals, described the campaign as "the perfect alignment between brand ethos and brand beliefs."

What Comes Next for the Campaign

The Scrolling Girl activation is positioned as the opening move in a multi-year cultural strategy around children's wellbeing. O'Farrell indicated future activations exploring physical activity and screen time are planned.

Dairy Farmers' identified growth market is 18-to-34-year-olds, particularly consumers of protein smoothies. That commercial reality shaped the campaign's balanced position: raising concern about mindless scrolling without rejecting digital platforms entirely.

The campaign offers a reference point for heritage food and beverage brands across Asia-Pacific, where youth screen time is a growing public concern in markets including Singapore, South Korea, and China.