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Robyn M
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Kiwi Icon You know, you can mess with an icon only so much before someone has to stand up and demand to be heard. Today is such a day! My fellow New Zealanders will know who Ches and Dale are, for we have grown up watching the Chesdale Cheese advertisements and we have grown up eating Chesdale Cheese. It is a part of our childhood, it is a part of who we are. Allow me to introduce Ches and Dale and their song:
(That's Dale on the right.) Ches and Dale were drawn for static advertisements by Don Couldrey in the early 1960s. They went singing and dancing across our black and white television screens in 1968. (www.folksong.org.nz/chesdale). The immortal words were written by Robert Jenkins. But, now that I live in Singapore I see that icon of New Zealand being treated without any understanding at all! It is bad enough that they pronounce it 'cheeez dale cheese' instead of the correct 'chezz dale cheese' but now they have gone too far! I bought a twin pack of Chesdale Cheese slices from the supermarket and attached to the package was a free gift, a small coin purse. I was shocked, horrified, mortified. There, on the coin pouch was a 'figure' claiming to be Dale! This is an image of that coin purse:
"Hi! I am Dale." ????!!!!! IDENTITY THEFT! Or is that identity falsification? Both Dale and I feel utterly affronted. The icons of every country MUST be respected and preserved. I am left wondering who gave permission for this imposter to claim to be Dale and on behalf of New Zealanders everywhere, and of Ches and Dale, I demand that this imposter stop masquerading as Dale. Next thing you know the New Zealand kiwi will be drawn as a sparrow, and the American eagle will be a duck, the Australian kangaroo will be roadkill, and the Chinese dim sum will all be meat pies! Where will it end?
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© Robyn M Speed |
