The weblog of Matthew Walker: MatthewWalker.net.nz, Otautahi, Aotearoa / Christchurch, New Zealand  
  • Saturday, 12 November 2005

    • Bridges are symbols

      Grace tells me that bridges are all over euros as symbols of unification and also, presumably, design by committee.

      So I'm reading a Richard Brautigan book at the moment that makes a big deal of bridges too, but I don't understand the symbolism. There are bridges everywhere because there are rivers everywhere: outside, inside, in the hallway, wide ar narrow — some less than an inch. Almost everything is made of wood, stone, or watermelon sugar, and there are statues of vegetables everywhere. I just know I'm going to reach the end and still not get it.

    • Pathetic advertising

      There's a lame habit amongst New Zealand businesses (particularly in tourism) to work the initials "NZ" into their branding. I just saw the most pathetic example of this yet: "Amazing tours" with the "z" and half the "m" highlit in red on the back of a bus. That is cheating at a game that isn't even worth playing.

      Back in the 1980s, Australia played a notorious cricket game where in order to win they bowled underarm. This caused great scandal in a sports-obsessed nation, but hopefully we've moved on by now. Well, marketers don't think so. Near the "Amazing tours" was an airline billboard announcing something like: "Beware of our Aussie rivals — they fly underarm". And that just goes to show that lame marketing crosses the entire budget spectrum from small business to big.

      I just wonder how stupid advertisers think we are.

Recent photographs

Smallness
Ocelot
Black
Stina and square
Royal spoonbills
Bachelor's button
Mimulus repens
Sea primrose
Saltmarsh ribbonwood
Eelgrass
Mudsnail
Selliera and glasswort