‘Let’s rip the Brits to bits in London’ – this is the new slogan for the Australian Sports Commission’s (ASC) NTID program.

The program aims to sign on Australia’s next generation of sporting talent and prepare them for major sporting international competition by focusing on beating the Poms on their own turf.

Created by agency Bullseye, the ASC wants to get young people to sign up to the program in time for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The purpose of the campaign is to drive traffic to the online self-identification tool, which in turn directs prospective athletes to the Talent Assessment Centres.

Using light-hearted insults, ‘The Brit with a mouth as wide as the Thames’ gives young Aussies just enough English smugness to sign up and prove him wrong.

Kevin Ferry, creative director of Bullseye, says “What I really liked about this idea is it truly plays to the rivalry between the two countries in a way that the target audience will react.

“Hopefully we’ll have a raft of gold medals come 2012, and, even though I’m a Pom myself, I hope they’re Aussie ones”.

Rivalries between the two countries are legendary and have been used as marketing tools before – earlier this year a war of words erupted following the Beijing Olympic Games about the countries’ relative medal counts.