THE South East’s favourite agricultural character George the Farmer is quickly turning into a celebrity with plans to appear on our television screens in the near future.
Along with his wife Ruby, the Penola-based fictional pair has played an instrumental role in transforming the way children think about their food and the farm.
With help of co-creators Penola’s Simone Kain and Mount Gambier’s Ben Hood, the characters, inspired by South East identities, could soon reach international fame.
Starting with an app and moving onto children’s books, the character has proven to be a hit with families from across the country and the education department with free useful tools also available online.
This month, the dynamic Hello Friday creative duo of Ms Kain and Mr Hood travelled to the Royal Adelaide Show where they shared their success story and plans for the future with people in the industry.
“George started off as an app and we thought we were being quite cutting edge with that, but about two weeks after it launched people were asking for books – we thought that was a step back, but the books outsell the app,” Mr Hood said.
“It has been very organic growth with George, we have just responded to what people want and what they are asking for.”
Now partnering with a production company in Sydney, they are working to produce an animated television show.
“The pitch documentary will be ready mid next month and then that will be taken over to France and pitched to international broadcasters at the main kids conference called MIPCOM,” Ms Kain said.
“We will try and pick up an international broadcaster to begin with and then come back to Australia and see what interest we can get here.
“There isn’t another kids character globally like George the Farmer – we want George and Ruby to be the next big hit from Australia.”
Aiming to encourage conversation about agriculture and food with both teachers and parents, Ms Kain said they want to make it cool, inspiring and fun.
“There is scope to do a lot more in our state with George, not just for the character, but in promoting the state,” she said.
“How cool would it be for kids around the world to be watching and learning about agriculture and when they think about clean, beautiful, safe food, they think about Australia and in particular South Australia because George comes from Penola.
“Our region in particular is so diverse with primary industries and George is such a great platform – we have got the opportunity to tell the world what we produce in South Australia.”
