Of Dog Turds, Calves and Urinals
17th March, 2011 - Posted by Wolf Paul - 1 Comment
Wherever you look in Vienna, there are advertising posters, and they are getting increasingly bizarre …
This morning, driving to work (or rather being driven by my learner son, Benjamin) I noticed a poster where I only caught the picture but not the text (which is unusual for me). So I really do not know yet what is being advertised by this picture of a snow globe with a dog turd inside it.
Update: The snow globe seems to be part of a city cleaning department campain. I’ve seen at least one other snow globe, this one with cigarette butts in it.
Update 2: I have finally got hold of both pictures. The text is the same on both posters, first a line from a popular song, “Vienna, Vienna, you alone …” (which continues, “shall always be the city of my dreams!”), and then the reminder, “It is in your hands.” ORF Online reports today that members of the city council are divided as to whether these posters are funny or disgusting …
To stick with this subject of body functions:
The last few decades of his life my father was severely handicapped (he had both legs amputated below the knee) and thus had difficulty getting to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Consequently he used a urine bottle. He passed on quite a few years ago so I was surprised at being strongly reminded of his bottle by a poster a few days ago: the content of a bottle of Vöslauer Bio-Limonade (an Austrian soda pop) looks remarkably similar to the content of my Dad’s bottle every morning — at least on the poster. And the poster advertising Almdudler Limonade is not much better …
Can we change the subject, please?
Sure.
There’s a poster advertising Wiener Zucker (Vienna Sugar) with the slogan “Not everything sweet is as natural as Vienna Sugar” and a picture of two ladies. But the way these two look — if that’s how sweet Vienna Sugar is, I’ll stick with my aspartame tablets or I’ll puke — oops, we were supposed to change the subject.
Finally there’s the posters of Austrian supermarket chain BILLA advertising their “Heumilch” — milk from cattle fed exclusively on grass and hay, without any additives. The poster proclaims,
“Common Sense says, “Calves would buy Hay Milk!”
Not so, Mr. Common Sense1. Calves would say, “What are you doing, groping my mother and my aunties and selling their milk? That’s mine, keep your paws off their boobs!” And calves wouldn’t buy organically grown beef steaks, or hay milk cheese, etc.
1. Mr. “Common Sense” is the main character in Billa’s current advertising campaign.↑
Posted on: 17th March, 2011
Filed under: Blog English, Humor & Fun
Maureen
March 17th, 2011 at 16:17
Mr. Common Sense vs. Merkur’s Ano Nym? Who’d win that contest (OK I know they must be kin, if Billa and Merkur are owned by the same conglomerate). Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Wolf!
Leave a reply