Not happy, Jan!
Encyclopedia
Deborah Kennedy
Deborah Kennedy is an Australian actress recognised for several television and film roles, and for her appearance in an advertisement.Kennedy began her acting career on the stage, with the Marian Street Theatre, Killara, appearing in The Trojan Woman and Macbeth...
in an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n television advertisement from the year 2000. Due to the ad's popularity in Australia, the line entered the cultural vernacular as a catch phrase used to express displeasure.
The television commercial from which the phrase was thought to have originated was created by advertising agency Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for Sensis (the directories arm of Telstra
Telstra
Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
), to promote the upcoming deadline for advertising in Australia's Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages refers to a telephone directory of businesses, organized by category, rather than alphabetically by business name and in which advertising is sold. As the name suggests, such directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings...
. In the commercial, a businesswoman (Kennedy) has just discovered that one of her staff has neglected to book an ad in the upcoming year's Yellow Pages. Realising they will have to wait another year, she calmly goes through some anger management
Anger management
The term anger management commonly refers to a system of psychological therapeutic techniques and exercises by which someone with excessive or uncontrollable anger & aggression can control or reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of an angered emotional state...
techniques. When Jan runs away from work, Kennedy's unnamed character talks to herself and counts to ten before opening the window and shouting "Not happy, Jan!" towards the fleeing figure of the eponymous Jan. The phrase was coined by Kennedy on the day of shooting. The ads ended up becoming lucrative for Australia's Yellow Pages, appearing on television from 2000 to 2003.
Since the advertisement, "Not happy, Jan" has entered the Australian vernacular to express displeasure, particularly at a problem caused by another's negligence or incompetence. In the time immediately following the advertisement, it was usually said in a manner which mimicked the advertisement, but today is usually spoken with a casual, slightly stern tone. Women named Jan were particularly targeted.
The phrase was co-opted by the unsuccessful 'Not happy, John!' campaign, opposing the re-election of Australian Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
in the Australian federal election, 2004. The title of the campaign also became the title of a book detailing the negative aspects of the Howard Government.
Both "Not happy, Jan," and "Not happy, John," are common noms de plume
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
used in short letters to newspaper editors.
The commercial was featured on the Australian TV series 20 to 1
20 to 1
20 to 1 is an Australian television series, currently hosted by Bert Newton that counts down an undefined "top 20" of elements or events of popular culture, such as films, songs, sporting scandals. Previously the show was hosted by Charles "Bud" Tingwell and narrated by David Reyne...
as one of the best Australian commercials of all time.
On 6 October 2009, the catch phrase "Not happy, Jan!" was rated as best catch phrase in Australia on the Australian TV series The Spearman Experiment
The Spearman Experiment
The Spearman Experiment was an Australian television series, hosted by Magda Szubanski that counts down Australian pop culture's most defining people and topics based on a public poll commented on by various Australian 'celebrities'...
.