Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Erin Brockovich and New Zealand

"NZ has the 3rd highest level of personal debt, help us get to No. 1."
Bond and Bond, New Zealand electrical retailer advertisement.

Ummm, last year's effort: Bond and Bond was forced last year by American campaigner Erin Brockovich to withdraw an advertisement that said: "Government says fridges are better younger. Just like women really."

Sourced from the NZ Herald.

5 comments:

furiousBall said...

Ouch. Normally I don't hope someone lost their job over mistakes, but this time...

Di Mackey said...

It's hard to explain but it's part of our terrible sense of humour. We think we're quite amusing and Gert's used to it now but you've got to imagine this type of thing in the context of a kiwi tongue-in-cheek moment.

I've been known to quietly state with an convincingly honest face, 'You shouldn't educate women if you want them to be housewives and mothers' and I say it for no other reason than I find the 'lively' discussion that follows kind of amusing.

Kiwi humour is a very odd humour, very very odd.

Anonymous said...

That women denigrating thing happens in Australia as well, must be a typical feature of Down Under. Most of these jokes lost their place in a post-feminist Europe/America. Good thing that Aussies and Kiwis kept those feminist down and under. :D

Di Mackey said...

It's odd thing though... my brother, the big tough guy with abs is very into the whole male culture but he wouldn't dare say something sexist to his wife lol ... he would live maybe 5 seconds.

A lot of it is rough humour or just purely outrageous and that's where we find the humour.

Yeah ... difficult to explain actually.

I mean, the whole 'girl's blouse' insult is mostly directed at men, both sexes are equally mocked ;) Mmm and 'you're about much use as tits on a bull' is also directed more at blokes although anyone can find themselves in that line of fire.

Maybe I should invite Gert to do a guest post on 'things his kiwi has said to him'.

Di Mackey said...

Xena's a New Zealander ... I think she's a natural, eh wot Manic.