In 1977 ABBA lent their name, image and music to Keep Australia Beautiful, a national anti-litter awareness campaign that continues to this day.
ABBA were photographed at Polar Music’s offices in Stockholm, Sweden, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the ‘Keep Australia Beautiful’ logo – Benny, Frida and Agnetha wearing the classic logo featuring the Australian flag, while Björn wore the then-new logo featuring a cartoon kangaroo dropping rubbish into her pouch.
The photograph was used for posters distributed to schools and community organisations, in newspaper advertisements, and on billboards.
A television commercial also featured the photograph, with ABBA’s ‘Tropical Loveland’ playing underneath a voiceover encouraging viewers to “keep Australia beautiful”. A radio version also featured ‘Tropical Loveland’ playing under the voiceover.
Plastic litter bags were distributed with the message “A great idea from ABBA – don’t rubbish Australia”.
The campaign was created by the Masius Wynne Williams advertising agency for the Keep Australia Beautiful Council. The TV and radio advertisements were created by Armstrong Audio Video. A copy of the radio spot is held by the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.
RCA used the photo on a generic inner sleeve inserted into ABBA albums in 1977, advertising the five albums then available. An updated version of the sleeve appeared circa 1981.
The photo also appeared on the front cover of the first ABBA Annual (dated 1978) in the UK, published in Australia as ABBA Gift Book.
© 2010, 2023 by Ian Cole, Sydney Australia
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The ABBA Phenomenon in Australia 
