For a variety of reasons I’ve recently been remembering a fellow called Len Potts, a man many consider the greatest creative mind in the history of New Zealand advertising.
I knew Len a bit because we played some golf together where I watched him smoke more cigarettes than I’ve ever seen anybody consume over 18 holes.
Len’s work is still fondly remembered nearly 10 years after he died because, among other campaigns, he was behind the Crumpy and Scotty ads for Toyota Hi-Lux and the “Sailing Away” song for the first America’s Cup challenge.
My favourite Len Potts work though is from 1990. They were actually ads for the Bank of New Zealand in the days before it was called the BNZ and owned by the Aussies.
But it was more than advertising, it was a philosophical reflection of the times. The series featured some archetypal kiwi themes – a beach, a bach, a boat, Saturday morning kids rugby, a Maori carving – and references throughout the series to Aotearoa.
The brilliance of the campaign comes through Potts own Benson and Hedges soaked vocal chords intoning “Who are you? You’re a New Zealander.” It actually goes on to say “.. and we are your bank” as the New Zealand flag flutters under Murray Grindlay’s music.
The bank was sold to the Aussies a couple of years later but that’s another story.
So that was 35 years ago, for me half a lifetime back. It’s a time that only about half of us will remember with any clarity yet the question that Len Potts asked and answered back then should be as relevant today as it was in 1990. Sadly it’s not.
In 2025 if you ask “who are you” how many would say “I’m a New Zealander.” Many might say ‘I’m a Maori,” others perhaps “I’m gay or queer or trans,” or “I have a disability.”
A combination of identity politics, indoctrination through education and a mainstream media lacking awareness of the need to reflect the entirety of New Zealand society means that we have a nation way more divided than it was thirty five years ago.
Maybe I’m being soppy and nostalgic in my pensioner years but wouldn’t it be a better place if the immediate response from all of us to Lens Potts’ question was still “I’m a New Zealander”?
So why are we such a disjointed and incohesive society?
Bizarrely for a series of television commercials, I felt a sense of national pride as I watched those bank advertisements , even if they didn’t convince me to change banks.
But remember this was a time before significant economic and technology change. It was five years before the first treaty settlement with Waikato Tainui, eight years before Google was developed and seventeen years before the iPhone changed our lives.
While few deny some form of reparation has been due for the misdeeds of early colonists, those settlements have evolved into a constant stream of entitlement by Maori leaders while economically underprivileged Maori are still no better off than they were before the cash and compensation wagon was unhitched.
Treaty settlements and internet technology were touted as forces for good when we first encountered them. But really haven’t they been the foundations for a time of self-absorption, of perceived victimhood and of a country wracked by intersectionality?
Len Potts asked a very relevant question all those years ago, the year we called the Sesquicentennial - 150 years from the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Who are you?
I’m proud to say I’m a New Zealander. I just wish everybody who lives in this great land would identify that way before anything else.
My favourite Len Potts work though is from 1990. They were actually ads for the Bank of New Zealand in the days before it was called the BNZ and owned by the Aussies.
But it was more than advertising, it was a philosophical reflection of the times. The series featured some archetypal kiwi themes – a beach, a bach, a boat, Saturday morning kids rugby, a Maori carving – and references throughout the series to Aotearoa.
The brilliance of the campaign comes through Potts own Benson and Hedges soaked vocal chords intoning “Who are you? You’re a New Zealander.” It actually goes on to say “.. and we are your bank” as the New Zealand flag flutters under Murray Grindlay’s music.
The bank was sold to the Aussies a couple of years later but that’s another story.
So that was 35 years ago, for me half a lifetime back. It’s a time that only about half of us will remember with any clarity yet the question that Len Potts asked and answered back then should be as relevant today as it was in 1990. Sadly it’s not.
In 2025 if you ask “who are you” how many would say “I’m a New Zealander.” Many might say ‘I’m a Maori,” others perhaps “I’m gay or queer or trans,” or “I have a disability.”
A combination of identity politics, indoctrination through education and a mainstream media lacking awareness of the need to reflect the entirety of New Zealand society means that we have a nation way more divided than it was thirty five years ago.
Maybe I’m being soppy and nostalgic in my pensioner years but wouldn’t it be a better place if the immediate response from all of us to Lens Potts’ question was still “I’m a New Zealander”?
So why are we such a disjointed and incohesive society?
Bizarrely for a series of television commercials, I felt a sense of national pride as I watched those bank advertisements , even if they didn’t convince me to change banks.
But remember this was a time before significant economic and technology change. It was five years before the first treaty settlement with Waikato Tainui, eight years before Google was developed and seventeen years before the iPhone changed our lives.
While few deny some form of reparation has been due for the misdeeds of early colonists, those settlements have evolved into a constant stream of entitlement by Maori leaders while economically underprivileged Maori are still no better off than they were before the cash and compensation wagon was unhitched.
Treaty settlements and internet technology were touted as forces for good when we first encountered them. But really haven’t they been the foundations for a time of self-absorption, of perceived victimhood and of a country wracked by intersectionality?
Len Potts asked a very relevant question all those years ago, the year we called the Sesquicentennial - 150 years from the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Who are you?
I’m proud to say I’m a New Zealander. I just wish everybody who lives in this great land would identify that way before anything else.
A video version of this essay was presented on Family First’s 100th episode of Straight Talk on November 3, 2025
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack - where this article was sourced.
9 comments:
The assault on the NZ identity over 4-5 decades has been deliberate and summed up by the changes in the 6 main domains of CRT. Results have been quite spectacular - but not for NZ's enduring progress as a first world nation. Soon citizens must choose between a tribal society and democracy.... their choice will determine the irreversible future of the country.
According to Labour, Greens, TPM, our judges and most of the media, you may be a NZer, but if you're not Maori or Polynesian then you're very much a second class one.
Maorification has divided NZ and that’s the long and short of it. Can we go back to being NZers?- It appears not! How sad for future generations.
Peter inadvertently exposes the one major issue ruining nz society, political corruption.
Luxon knows Labour ran "ghost projects", he said so. Funny then that Luxon isn't investigating the ghost projects to find out who got the billions the H Clark advised Ardern, Little, and Robertson spent on those ghost projects.
Luxon said Labour spent $66b (later revised up to $74b) on covid with no controls and no record available to the nz public to inform us where our tax money ended up, so why isn't Luxon investigating and why is Luxon allowing the "promoted way beyond her capability" Booke Van Velden make a mockery of the covid inquiry.?
Luxon knows it is ridiculous for a government to refuse to fund a $75m NZ based Americas cup campaign which brings vital nz promotion to the worlds wealthy, high tech industry / high paying jobs to NZ, and inbound tourism by people who can invest in nz; whilst the dumb and dishonest finance minister he promoted gifts $48m to Kapa Haka.
Luxon knows he will never tempt successful high tech industries to NZ to improve nzs productivity and provide opportunity to the quarter of a million people who left nz since National took power, for higher paying jobs in Australia, whilst the electricity, supermarket, grocery, and insurance industries are allowed to continue illegal price fixing and earn suspicious, world topping profit margins.
Luxon knows how ridiculous it is for Simon Watts to stand up in parliament and state "Our electricity market is not functioning as efficiently as it should be. New Zealanders need to have greater confidence that the electricity market has strong regulators and that there is competition sufficient to deliver the affordable prices we all need" after Watts implemented 2 out of 12 recommendations from the latest waste of time and money electricity market report. The 2022 report told the government everything they need to fix the illegal price colluding nz electricity gentailers which is bolster the electricity authority's ability to investigate and punish illegal cartel behaviour.
Watts' and Willis' corrupt protection of the price colluding NZ big business cartels is costing Kiwis a reasonable standard of living and hope for the future. For all his international public relations skills, Luxon knows he won't attract high earning, highly productive, and high paying companies to nz whilst energy prices remain suspiciously high.
Is this really what you entered politics to achieve Mr Luxon?
To right Peter. We were one people once and proud of our harmonious compatibility. Barry Crump brought the Kiwi character alive giving us much pleasure reading. We were a little country that punched above its weight on the world stage. We were very proud of our Maori heritage and its quiet influence.
However, that was yesterday. Today I hardly recognise my own country anymore. We are being force fed historical lies and Maori excesses to a point that angers us. It’s as though a secret society conjures up new ways to piss me off every single day.
Lovely article Peter. If we are not talking of unity, and voting for those who are talking of unity (and equality), we’ll be heading down an irreversible path to dark times.
Who are you? Indeed Peter. I used to be a proud NZer once. But now I am an Anglo-kiwi and increasingly anxious for the future of what once used to be a united, serious country, highly regarded in the world. Now of course we are increasingly an entirely insignificant Aotearoa somewhere in the South Pacific, steadily moving into impoverishment and internal conflict. Can the present chorus of political puppets save us? No show.
Amen to that.
Is that puppets or muppets? I am not sure!
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