Cultural and social advisers in New Zealand do some decent work. They can be important in facilitating events and processes in companies or organisations that must be culturally cognisant in their undertakings.
However, as we have observed this week, they can also be ridiculous people who get upset at beer cans. Which is what has prompted the Advertising Standards Authority, for reasons I cannot even be bothered trying to understand, to uphold a whopping two complaints about Te Aro Breweries ‘Kupe’ beer – part of its ‘Age of Discovery’ range featuring prominent New Zealand explorers.
The Brewery has been asked to remove its beer from sale and take down all associated advertising for the product.
The complaints to the ASA were upheld on the grounds that ‘the use of Kupe on alcohol packaging breached the high standard of social responsibility and was likely to cause serious and widespread offence’.
They are yet to respond to my question to them, which pondered whether they had considered that the beer has been available for purchase for well over a month and has generated all of two complaints (in other words, it hasn’t caused any offence at all).
Māori ‘cultural advisor’ and tikanga expert, Dr Karaitiana Taiuru was the first to get annoyed early last month, describing it as “highly offensive.” Another complaint labelled the beer as ‘appalling cultural appropriation.”
“The way Kupe has been portrayed on the image promotes colonial misinformation and an idea of racial superiority that Māori were either underfed or skinny, we do know that Māori were quite large, muscular people, we had really good diets,” Taiuru said of the ice cold brewski’s label design.
I think – and I am sticking my neck out here – Dr. Taiuru might be reading a bit too much into this… It is just a beer mate. A brewski, a cold one – something it sounds like you could do with.
Our incessant quest for channels of expression for cultural and social outrage is becoming increasingly ridiculous and is now beginning to reduce the selection of beer that Kiwis have access to. This is unacceptable.
There are very few things I would stick my neck out for in life. Beer is one of them.
The outrage merchants and cultural advisors of the world can run around teaching bureaucrats how to be woke in board meetings, and assigning Māori names to people’s driveways all they like, but for god’s sake, leave beer out of it.
Beer eases tensions - it does not amplify them. What does amplify tensions and divide people, is when we assign these flaccid academic finger waggers to positions of moral authority and roll them out to lecture us about social responsibility when someone puts the wrong picture on a beer can.
Beer has always brought this country together - and the notion, peddled from the pillowed halls of Auckland University, that it is now dividing us is a fanciful one.
Let us for once push back against these finger waggers, who seek to profit from encouraging the idea that we are a divided nation and curtail our access to beer in the name of political correctness.
For that, my friends, is one battle from which no one will emerge victorious.
Ben Espiner produces the breakfast show on The Platform. He has a BA in Political Science and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
The Brewery has been asked to remove its beer from sale and take down all associated advertising for the product.
The complaints to the ASA were upheld on the grounds that ‘the use of Kupe on alcohol packaging breached the high standard of social responsibility and was likely to cause serious and widespread offence’.
They are yet to respond to my question to them, which pondered whether they had considered that the beer has been available for purchase for well over a month and has generated all of two complaints (in other words, it hasn’t caused any offence at all).
Māori ‘cultural advisor’ and tikanga expert, Dr Karaitiana Taiuru was the first to get annoyed early last month, describing it as “highly offensive.” Another complaint labelled the beer as ‘appalling cultural appropriation.”
“The way Kupe has been portrayed on the image promotes colonial misinformation and an idea of racial superiority that Māori were either underfed or skinny, we do know that Māori were quite large, muscular people, we had really good diets,” Taiuru said of the ice cold brewski’s label design.
I think – and I am sticking my neck out here – Dr. Taiuru might be reading a bit too much into this… It is just a beer mate. A brewski, a cold one – something it sounds like you could do with.
Our incessant quest for channels of expression for cultural and social outrage is becoming increasingly ridiculous and is now beginning to reduce the selection of beer that Kiwis have access to. This is unacceptable.
There are very few things I would stick my neck out for in life. Beer is one of them.
The outrage merchants and cultural advisors of the world can run around teaching bureaucrats how to be woke in board meetings, and assigning Māori names to people’s driveways all they like, but for god’s sake, leave beer out of it.
Beer eases tensions - it does not amplify them. What does amplify tensions and divide people, is when we assign these flaccid academic finger waggers to positions of moral authority and roll them out to lecture us about social responsibility when someone puts the wrong picture on a beer can.
Beer has always brought this country together - and the notion, peddled from the pillowed halls of Auckland University, that it is now dividing us is a fanciful one.
Let us for once push back against these finger waggers, who seek to profit from encouraging the idea that we are a divided nation and curtail our access to beer in the name of political correctness.
For that, my friends, is one battle from which no one will emerge victorious.
Ben Espiner produces the breakfast show on The Platform. He has a BA in Political Science and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
6 comments:
My understanding is the complaint was that naming the beer Kupe, "compared Kupe the navigator to men like Columbus and Magellan, whose actions contributed to the adverse effects of colonialism" and was thereby "exploiting, degrading, denigrating, and demeaning the mana of Kupe" and his descendants. The complaint also suggests it will encourage alcoholism amongst Maori, which is difficult to understand if they are so offended by it. The fact that such a complaint was upheld says more about the ASA than it does about the brewery.
Perhaps beers should be named after maori party mps, as being representative of the tendency to bring out irrational or violent behaviour.
If it was my Brewery I would simply tell the ASA to stuff off, and take the advantage of the old adage that " there is no such thing as bad advertising ". And then move on making beer as a real contributor to the economy!
Steve Ellis
There is doubt as to whether Kupe even existed. Some historians wonder whether several people carried out the actions attributed to him and in the course of telling tales these have melded into one person being easier to comprehend in the retelling and embellishment that accompanies oral history. Fiction creeps in with tales of "his" naming places and his family
attributes. I'll drink to that.
if kupe was not included, there would be cries of racism that only white explorers were celebrated.
if kupe was not shown as thin, there would be cries of body shaming that natives were shown as fat.
you can't win these battles. best option is to ignore the message from ASA and wait for a court action...
Already boycotting any brand that mentions Aotearoa on its label. Could be a race to the bottom but for now there's still plenty of choice!
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