So.
Ummmmm.
Is anyone else going to mention that creepy ANZAC Day TV advert?
No one?
Groan.
Ok, I’ll do it then.
Ok, so the advert opens quite nice, quite warm.
It’s any one of the millions of mid range small Kiwi owned franchise service station with a voice over talking about the growing number of Veterans.
A chap strolls in and he’s unremarkable except for the fact he has a giant head.
Like a massive giant block of head in a Herman Munster kinda way, now, you don’t want to focus on it or comment on it because that’s not kind, and we want to be kind in Aotearoa NZ, so we refuse to engage or judge him for having a huge Herman Munster head, EXCPET FOR THE FACT that shit suddenly takes a chilling turn and his huge Herman Munster head is about to terrify the bejesus out of us all because as he opens the Freezer door for any number of well known branded drinks in a mid range small Kiwi owned franchise service station, a kid who is running around in the background accidentally knocks over a can and it hits the floor.
Now I know what you are thinking, you would immediately turn around and chastise the child for running around in a store and would ask the young tyke to pick up the can and place it back on the shelf and to be careful in future while glaring at the parent for allowing their child to run amok in the mid range small Kiwi owned franchise service station in the first place right?
It takes a village to discipline a child.
As you turn to the block with the huge head for support in your righteous telling off of that little brat for running around inside while their parent was doing what? Resting? Reading their phone? Doing anything other than controlling THEIR children – as you turn to Blocky for a bit of public support in this matter, you realise he’s frozen in flash back as he is reliving some horrific war crime he’s committed while participating in America’s latest corporate war.
MY GOD, LOOK AT THE HORROR IN HIS FUCKING EYES BRO!
WHAT DID WE MAKE HIM DO?
Was he butchering indigenous peoples for an American Oil refinery?
Now you can’t see anything other than his huge terrifying Herman Munster Head, he’s a metaphorical monster!
His huge monstrous head is a helmet of doom! A block of woe! A chunk of carnage! A drum of death!
WHY GET SOMEONE WIOTH SUCH A HUGE HEAD TO BURN THEMSELVES INTO OUR NIGHTMARES!
WHY GOD?
WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN US?
I had no idea so many former military personal were wandering around NZs mid range small Kiwi owned franchise service station industry ready to snap and go on a killing spree!
All it took for Herman Munster to go troppo was a bloody kid knocking over a can FFS!
Where’s the public health warning advertising to demand parents stop triggering veterans into killing sprees?
Why isn’t that on the Spin-off?
Look, I’m no advertising guru, but if your advert ends up inadvertently terrifying the civilian population against your membership, I’m not sure that’s a win.
It’s a bit like this image…
…now I’m certain the Green Party Comms Team believes this is a strong powerful empowering hashtag feminism hashtag workers rights PR victory, while others may take a very different view.
Like the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority would take a different view.
Like fucking very vast.
So yeah. Please give generously to the Poppy Day fund raising because it’s far preferable to have these men explode at the RSA than your local pub.
Cheers.
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I stopped wearing the Poppy as soon as the RSA decided to cancel the contract for the disability groups to made them, and gave the contract to China…to save 10 cents per poppy…
neihana, The poppy is a symbol of honoring our Fathers and Grandfathers heroic fight for british imperialism. My father fought in Egypt in 1941 under the 28th Maori battalion banner. He didn’t really fight for our freedoms which get banded around like a porn star doing agangbang scene, he unknowingly fought for the zionist regime paving the way to ethnically cleanse the Indigenous Palestine from Palestine in 1948.
When my father arrived back in NZ/AO he wasn’t treated as a war hero instead was racially profiled by predominately pakeha society and wasn’t allowed to attend the local RSA in Murupara because he was Maori.
My reasons for not wearing a poppy has a historic connection to the way Maori were and are treated today.
Tipene – I have heard that many RSA refused to allow Maori servicemen inside their establishments…bloody disgraceful
Lieutenant-Colonel James Hēnare, commander of the 28th Maori Battalion, supported the formation of Israel – he saw the Jewish Death camps of Nazi Germany.
good grief stephen must be tiring walking around with that huge chip on your shoulder
Says the guy with a chip on his shoulder over vaccines
Wow. You whinge about things like lockdowns, but minimise getting shot at for your country, only for your country to treat like a second class citizen.
Not cool, Straight Edge. Not cool at all.
Kia ora. WW1 was a colonial/imperialist war.
Kia ora. WW1 was a colonial/imperialist war.
The Poppies are made in Christchurch by a team of volunteers…
Veteran – Really? Great to know…
Veteran – I doubled check this…SOME of the Poppies are made in Christchurch, the rest made in China still
never thought I’d say this but thanks nate
gagarin – Nice one
I brainwashed my kid over 20 years ago to never EVER be a soldier in any war. There’s fuck all PTSD soldiers of war in NZ. Poppy day is a scam.
His head is fine. He’s got PTSD, but he took a moment and didn’t kill anyone so that’s great.
What grabs me is RSA implies that we’re all ignorant children who should just shovel money at them.. because why, people have PTSD? And they’re doing what about it? And what about everyone else?
Oh and by the way what ever happened to that chapter that collapsed amid infighting and possibly financial crime?
Broadcast TV? Is that still a thing?
Hah! True dat!
that advert was made for the US market? A sign of things to come?
It is just a crap ad, that contributes to the ongoing NZ Defence propaganda rebranding of ANZAC day for new generations.
ANZAC Day since the last of the actual veterans died in 2002…
https://www.centenaryofanzac.tas.gov.au/history/shared_stories/alec_campbell
…has just been a faux sentimental exercise in jingoism and justifying a whole bunch of US imperialist wars such as Korea, Vietnam, “the attack on Iraq” and Afghanistan. All wars have their specific conditions, they should not be lumped together. WWI was an inter imperialist war, WWII was an anti fascist war.
Generations were misled about the casualty rates of NZ vs Australia at Gallipoli too, twice as many NZers served. The research, by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the Defence Force, shows more than 16,000 soldiers served at Gallipoli, rather than 8556 previously cited in 1919 documents. This brings the casualty rate down similar to the Australian 53%.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/299592/nz's-true-gallipoli-numbers-revealed
Many Turkish people do not really enjoy NZers turning up to sink piss in commemoration of Gallipoli as part of their overseas travel experience. There are many myths associated with the ANZACs.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2016/04/anzac-myths-busted.html
Remember the fallen, and campaign for no more wars too while we are at it.
China a civilizational society promotes peace and has an inclusive policy for trade unlike the collective west that has an exclusion policy and promotes war and destruction for countries that want to remain independent.
Can’t wait to see an article by TDB writers on China peace arrangement in the M.E that will bring lasting peace to their region which the west has only stoked war since the 1917 Balfour declaration and the Sykes-Picot fiasco.
The everlasting war and the propaganda perpetrated by the collective west dividing religious sects in the M.E is coming to an end. The birth place of the monotheistic religion will once again return this semitic region to it peaceful status as the US influence in the M.E is waning significantly also ousting them from Syria which they are illegally occupying their oil and wheat fields since ISIS was defeated by the Iranians and Russians intervention.
More peace NO WAR.
China inclusive lmao
tried for years to get a white poppy over here, it commemarates ALL soldiers killed including those nasty commie ones, not just ‘our boys’ no luck
I must admit finding NZ poppies are made in china did piss me well off
The poppies are made in Christchurch by a team of volunteers…
not the common story but I stand corrected
see nate above vet
Tipene – I have heard that many RSA refused to allow Maori servicemen inside their establishments…bloody disgraceful
Lieutenant-Colonel James Hēnare, commander of the 28th Maori Battalion, supported the formation of Israel – he saw the Jewish Death camps of Nazi Germany.
actual checkable references if you please nate
War Is A Racket
https://bit.ly/WAR-IS-A-RACKET–General-Smedley-Butler
War Is A Racket – YouTube Book Reading
https://bit.ly/War-Is-A-Racket-Chapter1
https://bit.ly/War-Is-A-Racket-Chapter2
https://bit.ly/War-Is-A-Racket-Chapter3
https://bit.ly/War-Is-A-Racket-Chapter4
https://bit.ly/War-Is-A-Racket-Chapter5
LOL, I can always rely on you Martyn to bring a smile to my face. Yep, it gave me a WTF moment when I saw it too.
That ad hit me on youtube when I was trying to watch Tim Minchin, as if I as a pacifist modern male might be the target for a weird visual representation of PTSD. Not something that anybody should be exposed to, let alone those who know nothing of war and should never know.