Men At Work - It's a Mistake

What this video is

Released in June 1983 at the height of Cold War nuclear anxiety — the same year as the broadcast of 'The Day After' and Reagan's 'Star Wars' SDI speech — 'It's a Mistake' channels widespread Western public fear of accidental nuclear war into darkly comic visual satire. The song peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Men at Work's fourth and final US top-10 hit, and was released as the third single from…

Why it matters

Represents a high-water mark of the early-MTV concept video tradition, in which Australian new wave acts used the music video format as a vehicle for sociopolitical commentary. The video's four-act narrative structure, stop-motion animation integration, and costume-transformation optical effects…

The director

Tony Stevens is an Australian music video director whose documented directorial output is primarily associated with Australian rock acts of the early-to-mid 1980s. His confirmed credits include music videos for Men at Work and Midnight Oil, placing him…