Say What You See

I am firmly entrenched in Aussie culture now, and one of the great things I've noticed is the ability that the Australians have to describe things exactly as they see them, and not beat around the bush.

Some of the funnier ones have related to serious issues like Drink Driving. In the MCG, we noticed lots of signs encouraging people not to partake of the sauce and get behind the wheel; such as "Drink, Drive .. Bloody Idiot", a slogan I couldn't imagine seeing in England. Also, "Order a cab home, you bloody legend". Somebody is clearly having fun putting the campaign together too. There was a billboard, with the words "Drive Hammered, Get Nailed". To the point .. say what you see.

We've spent the last few days inside the SCG, watching the demise of English Cricket in painful installments. Sydney have an AFL team clled the Speed Blitz Blues, a name that confused us (we're used to things like Rhinos, Warriors, Bulls etc). Then we looked around the advertising hoardings, and everything related to reducing driving speeds in Australia. Of course the opportunity to put some cricket references was not overlooked. Some of the advice started from a billboard showing a policeman holding a speed camera with the words "Caught Out", to the more obvious "Beaten by Pace? .. slow down".

My favourite, and perhaps the bluntest of all was a slogan on the side of a bus advertising Life Assurance. It said simply .. "Prepare to Die". Genius.