Tuesday, April 24, 2012

In which the legendary NZ ads reach new heights

New Zealand has some pretty awesome ads, including a long and storied history of innovative and amusing slash shocking and horrifying road-safety ads. The question is, why has no-one previously alerted me to this masterpiece?



You know I can't grab your ghost chips! Awesome.

(PS in the "watch next" screen that pops up at the end of the vid you may see one of a shirtless dude which is a video that somehow inexplicably launched a Kiwi meme - "Nek minnit". Watch and be confused...)

If you enjoyed that, or you're nostalgic for these classic Kiwi ads, the link below has a compilation of some of the best over the last 20 years (warning: a lot of them are much more shocking/graphic than the one embedded). It's one of those bits of shared NZ culture - say "It's the same day, David!" or "Good afterble constanoon!" to your nearest Kiwi and they're sure to get the reference while everyone else around looks at you like you're a bit mad (try it some time!)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/features/5128146/Driving-the-road-toll-down

13 comments:

  1. Everyone loves the 'ghost chips' one. Hadn't seen some of the ones in the compilation. Yes, we've certainly had some pretty gruesome ads! M x

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  2. P.S. I'll bet your non-Kiwi readers will hardly understand a word of the 'ghost chips' ad, ha ha! When I first arrived in NZ people used to comment about my English accent and if I would say, "But you have an accent," they would look astonished and say, "No I don't!" They actually thought Kiwis spoke 'normal' and everyone else had an accent, hee hee!

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  3. Nah, it's pretty clear I think. It is a Maori/Polynesian NZ accent rather than just a plain NZ accent though, I will point out for those who are unfamiliar. Definitely don't think that, I hate my accent (although I still don't think it's especially strong as NZ accents go)!

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  4. I came across this one months ago and I did have a little trouble understanding at first, but now I can get it. :)

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  5. Oh I suppose it isn't as easy as I thought then! Well you'll have some practice understanding Antipodean accents by this stage :)

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  6. Gwan, It's definitely not as easy to understand as you thought! Even though I have some Kiwi friends, I had to listen VERY carefully to get everything. The part I love, "It's puzzle time" - Snap!"

    Bossyi - If you're originally from England, you have an accent. It's the Americans who are accent free. Well, at least the Americans who aren't from Texas! ;)

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  7. MK - There you go, obviously I'm used to it :) I like the puzzle time bit too. Ha, no cross-Atlantic flame wars here please ;)

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  8. That was great!!! I watched it a few times!! So good..and great message. I like when they "hipstafy" social messages.

    You're mom is right, I had to watch it again to catch the ghost chips part, I didn't understand it at first. Now that I got it, it's amazeballs.

    Gwan, I need to meet you..I want to hear your cute accent and then you get to hear my obnoxious American drawl. Doesn't sound like a fair deal for you but that where Taittanger comes in! : )

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  9. Ha ha Taittinger helps with every situation ;) I think I told you already, I have a friend from Lawn Guyland so if you have that accent I'll probably be bothering you to say "dawg flavoured cawfee" like I do with her :D

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  10. Ahhh "YOUR mom is right". You know I had some psychotic photographic memory image of me misspelling this in the middle of the night and I came to your site to correct myself.


    #problems

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  11. Ha ha. I love that you know the correct form, Ella! You're in a bad way if it made you get up in the night, though! GM x

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  12. Phew #canstopjudgingnow ;)

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  13. Taittinger - that's the champagne! For some reason I had Veuve Clicquot on the brain.

    And I would never try to start a cross-Atlantic flame war! ;)

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