Beautiful weather and Slip, Slop, Slapping.

In the early 1980’s in Australia there was a rise in the incidence of skin cancers caused by exposure to the sun. The Anti-cancer council began a marketing campaign with the tagline Slip Slop Slap, starring the character Sid the Seagull.

Catbus*, slapped and wrapped.

Sid sings “Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat” and, thanks to the catchiness of the jingle (clip of the original ad below) I have absolutely no ability to hear any of those three words without hearing Sid’s lisp in my head.

This post was prompted by Sciencelens and his post about the perihelion (2nd of January 2013, the time when the earth is closest to the sun).

In it, he mentioned the risks of sun exposure, and this campaign.Very timely considering the wonderfully sunny weather we have been having of late.

It is thanks to him that since reading it I have been doing the housework and singing the slip slop slap song in Sid’s voice, driving the kids mad. Blame him, not me, if it infects you too. 😉 Who would have thought that campaign would be so enduring! It was more recently updated to slip slop slap wrap, when wrap around a pair of sunglasses was added.

Kalgoorlie Miner 22 Nov 1938 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87493244

Poor Clyde Collman could have really used the slip, slop, slap message back in 1938 couldn’t he? His death appeared to be caused by being badly sunburned. What an unfortunate end.

Being sun smart is such a part of everyday life here now, we put on sunblock, wear hats  drilled into them teachers have giant pump packs of sunblock in the classrooms for slathering the students in while on excursions.

The kids even have wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses as part of their school uniform. In the sunniest parts of the year, first and fourth terms, no hat, no going outside. No excuses.

My apologies to you Aussies/New Zealanders who lived through the first wave of advertising and may well have only recently purged this version of the jingle from your memory.

*Credit demanded by number 2 son for supplying Catbus, the star of this picture.

Cutest ways to die.

I never thought I would say this but brace yourself for a fantastically funny and wonderfully cute advert that Metro trains in Melbourne made to tell people to be safer. (ABC news)

Dumb ways to die is the name of the song and I can already tell you that the catchy little bugger (and the funny ways of inviting death) will stay with you for a while.

When I put it on the kids quickly gathered around to laugh, made me replay it, then went back to what they were doing with the occasional shout out regarding a new dumb way to die they had just thought of.

I’m not going to suggest people will be any safer because of this ad but at least idiocy now has a happy theme song 😀

Damn. I’ve fallen for advertising. Happy, happy advertising….

Not my normal kind of post but I had to share it with you anyway….

I haven’t felt the need to rush out to buy the product in this commercial, after all, they are selling free tv channels, but the happiness of the ad did make me buy the full song from itunes on request of the children so it is a partial win for the power of advertising.

What an infectiously happy tune it is too, The Best Things In Life Are Free by the Melbourne Ska Orchestra.

Whenever it is on telly the kids and I sing along loudly (the Man is not a sing-alonger unless he is suitably refreshed 😉 ) and then for the rest of the night one of us is likely to trot out “The moon belongs to everyone…” with the rest of us quickly following with “The best things in life are free…” They were still singing it when I put them to bed last night!

I almost hesitated to post the video, it is an advert after all, but I am sure after hearing this version of that famous song it will be sufficiently embedded in your brain that you will thank me. Or possibly hate me. It has been hours since I last saw it and I’m still humming it!

Get ready to tap your feet 😀

Driven to drink. 1908.

A very short post for now as my internet connection is indescribably bad tonight. I found this poetic advertising from 1908 that I thought was quite appropriate though….

Sunday Times 5 Apr 1908 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57579207

What an un-PC ad! Can you imagine ever seeing a bit of advertising that encourages the bad-tempered to drink malt whiskey to cure it?!

Yikes! I don’t think the demon drink has ever made a grumpy person feel better about the world, do you?

Anyway, I thought it was appropriate as my temper has been stretched thin by the intermittent internet connection and constant error messages.

If I was a drinker I probably would have been drowning my sorrows and plotting my revenge by now…. grrrrr…. Telstra, I’m talkin’ to you……

I dare you to try this beauty cream!

The Man and I have been watching ads for this beauty cream for the last few days and laughing each time they try to tell us how good it is. When it comes to advertising we are cynical people who will never be sucked in by any products dubious claims of instant youth, but I find it hard to believe anyone would ever buy this story.

I couldn’t believe it was a real product the first few times I saw it and then I wondered if anyone has ever bought it. If so, did they really listen to the ad?!

This is not the same as the commercial we have been watching, ours has had far less reference to the magic ingredient, but I liked the way this one is out and proud in explaining that snail gel is the thing that will give you beautiful skin.

In this ad all of the users are busy smearing on the cream out in the garden. I wondered if they could hear the crying all of the other bereaved snails hiding in the plants? Perhaps they were just squeezing out another hapless snail to fill the jar afresh for each shot….

As always, if there is someone out there who has used this cream and their facial shell has miraculously healed, just as the shell on the snail in the ad did, please let me know. Until then I will assume it works as well as snail slime normally does when I squish one of the little buggers who is eating my veggies. They are still just as busted the next morning, even when they have spent the night lying in a puddle of that miraculous slime.

Creepiest television advert ever. Ever…..

I was just watching the brilliant Gruen Planet and they showed this television advert for Little Baby’s Ice Cream. Some of you have probably seen it before so I apologise if I am behind the times. I just had to share inflict it on you as if I had found something so horrifying in the old newspapers I would have definitely shared it with you then.

I don’t think I have the words to describe how it made me feel, (those eyes, *shudder*) but it made me want to scrub my brain clean.

I can’t tell you how pleased I am that this product is not available over here, walking past it every day in the supermarket would totally destroy any remaining shreds of sanity I might have left.

If you haven’t already seen this just be warned, there are some things you can’t unsee, and you probably will want a shower afterwards…. ick….