"Happiness List"

5 January 2026

3 mins

Smile like you meat it.

Australian Lamb's carved out a niche for itself with a string of great commercials that mark the new year Down Under. Its 2026 effort retreats to go forward, you might say, back to that fateful moment in 2025 when the Leader of Merriment and Bliss learned that Australia was no longer one of the ten happiest countries on Earth. This, believe it or not, was not part of the LAMB plan.

Unless they want to get chucked on the barbie, his two subordinates must convince the International Happiness Auditors that Australia is one of the best—if not the—best places to live and work. It's not as straightforward a task as you might expect (sharks and dangerous currents complicate 50,000km of Australian coast), but the two employees share the gift of the gab.

Standout arguments include: "We've got world-class Summer Olympians and well-meaning Winter Olympians"; "All our animals come with pockets"; and "We get paid more than New Zealanders for doing exactly the same jobs". To the surprise of absolutely no one, however, it's lamb that gets Australia back in the IHA's good mood books.

Australia

Meat