Disinterested viewers, failed publicity stunts and bad press: Australia's Big Brother is a dying beast. So it is sweet irony that a young man managed to resuscitate the ratings by exploiting the reality TV show that made an art out of exploiting the young.

On Sunday, June 13, Merlin Luck was voted out of the hallowed Big Brother house. In full view of those that still bothered to tune in, the young male contestant – fashionable haircut intact – made his way down the plank towards the infamous studio sofa for the obligatory post-eviction grilling.

As he walked, Merlin began fumbling with something in his hands. He then covered his mouth with black gaffa tape and held up a handmade sign that read "FREE TH (sic) REFUGEES". Sign held high, he sat down, legs shaking furiously, next to Gretel Killeen, Australia's equally-botoxed version of presenter Davina McCall. Gretel looked dumbfounded. The camera wavered. The first reality TV protest was born.

Later, it materialised that Merlin planned his protest before he was even picked for Big Brother. He had waited patiently, sign hidden in the bottom of a drawer, until eviction night, when he sat in determined silence for the five-minute duration of the segment. As the audience booed, Gretel tried to frown as she lost her temper and reminded him of his "obligations". Meanwhile, the television network scrambled behind the scenes before cutting to an ad break. The reason for his protest? To put Australia's policy of mandatory detention of illegal immigrants on the coming federal election agenda.

With a bit of political awareness, some cunning and a DIY sewing job, this 24-year-old brought the first bit of "reality" to peeping Tom TV and become the first fame-hungry member of the worldwide show to actually display a damn about current affairs. In an interview following the staged protest, Merlin said: "I hope I am remembered as someone who brought something very real to reality television. But more importantly, I hope that the issue itself is reignited in the mass media".

In that respect, at least, Merlin's action achieved its aim. Ten Networks Holdings Ltd revealed that its Big Brother show, on the day following the protest, won the 7pm timeslot with more than 1.36 million people, or 41.5 per cent of viewers, tuning in to watch the repercussions of his rebellion. Cynics may argue – and many have – that Merlin's actions were neither appropriate nor effective. But you cannot argue with those figures, or the fact that Merlin became a leading news story on most Australian TV channels that night and earned immediate public responses from senior politicians.

Could Merlin's protest, then, signal the beginning of a new wave of DIY activists, media-savvy enough to exploit the reality TV format for their own political or social ends?

Picture it. Contestants ambush Changing Rooms when, on each newly redecorated wall, they write "BUSH THE BABY KILLER" in neon-pink paint. Survivor ratings reach an all-time high when everyone on the island refuses to eat in protest against fox hunting. Pop Idol has to be taken off the air when the only song each wannabe will sing is Selfish Cunt's anti-war tirade 'Britain Is Shit'.

DIY protesting is cheap. Merlin made the sign himself on the eve of his entry to the Big Brother house – although the "e" fell of his "the", Merlin took it as "the will of the gods that the words "Free" and "Refugees" held strong". Media commentators believe the gaffa tape came from one of the activities set for the housemates' diversion. DIY protesting is also easy: Merlin simply smuggled the sign into the house by sewing it behind a patch on his T-shirt. And, most importantly, it reaches a huge audience, either directly through the staggering proportion of the population who actually watch reality TV, or indirectly through the massive amount of media such a subversive stance garners.

The issue of mandatory detention in Australia, for example, recently fell into the media spotlight after a report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission into children in immigration detention from 1999 to 2002 was tabled in the Australian Parliament in May this year. The scathing report found that Australia's immigration detention policy had failed to protect the mental health of children, failed to provide adequate health care and education, and failed to protect unaccompanied children and those with disabilities.

At the time, the government responded by rejecting the major findings and recommendations in the report and calling it "very disappointing", "unbalanced" and "backward looking". And, in response to Merlin's mute protest on Big Brother, the Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone told Channel 10 news "[Merlin's] obviously not very well informed. There are no refugees in Australian detention centres". A statement that is, well, simply absurd.

It is doubtful, however, that the topical issue of mandatory detention received as much coverage and debate in May as it has in the past few weeks, especially among the youth of Australia. As a result of the protest, they now have a young spokesperson that voices political concerns in forums they can understand – the reality TV show and the online web chat.

The relative ease with which Merlin staged his DIY protest is also an inspiration for other young activists to get out there and do something about the stuff that matters to them. As a result of his efforts, countless media outlets interviewed Merlin, he will auction his protest sign on Ebay, organisers have asked him to give a speech at the World Refugee Day gathering in Sydney's Hyde Park – oh, and those friendly folk at Big Brother gave him a car, a holiday, two mobile phones and an elegant timepiece.

If other contestants follow suit, there is nothing stopping a reality TV revolution, and more. As Merlin said: "If national television is not the place for debate about an issue about this magnitude, then that's a sad reflection on our nation's priorities". Let the grumbling media executives, MPs and the shocked parents that condemned Merlin's "aggressive" televised protest respond to that challenge.

As Rod Cameron, chief executive of Australian polling organization ANOP, told The Sydney Morning Herald: "Understand, those who think about issues, read the newspapers, discuss events, make up only about 10 per cent of voters". So if Merlin interrupted a few Aussie barbecues, surfing competitions or cricket matches to prompt debate about the harsh treatment of refugees, then that has to be a good thing.

"I'm not going to sit here and say that I know the answers and that I have the solutions," said Merlin in an online interview with Big Brother. "But I know that the current system is not one that we can sustain with a clear conscience, and something has to be done about it. And that's my point – let's start a debate, let's get talking and let's start working out some real solutions."

We witnessed the Australian public's apathy in the face of their government's alleged human rights failings after they were willing to again vote in John Howard as the Liberal Prime Minister, in spite of grave concerns surrounding his handling and honesty about 2001's "children overboard" affair.

But now a 24-year-old – whose family allegedly came to Australia from Germany when he was four years old and, after their tourist visa ran out, remained in the country illegally for seven years before obtaining residency – has outsmarted the mass media machine and made a government red-faced about a policy it hoped to sweep under the political-agenda carpet. And all for the price of a needle and thread.