An advert depicting a tattooed skinhead urinating into a china teacup is being used to promote British tourism.
| I can remember when the Brits were considered the epitome of class. In this country, whenever advertisers want to sound high class they hire a spokesman with a Brit accent -- anything better than Cockney will do. Now I've got the image of tattooed skinhead toffs peeing into expensive china teacups on the playing fields of Eton, and I remind myself again that it was the Duke of Wellington who invented the phrase "scum of the earth" when discussing his own yeoman troops. |
The image is part of a new Eurostar campaign aimed solely at the Belgian market.
"Charles?"
"Yes, Percy?"
"Whom shall we target with this peeing skinhead ad campaign?"
"Let's try it on the Belgians. They're fascinated by such things."
"Really?" |
Posters have gone up on billboards in Antwerp, Brussels, Liege and Ghent to promote the new high-speed train connection to London. The company says the advert is great for British tourism. "It's fun, it's supposed to show how cosmopolitan London is. Yes, I really think it says London is cosmopolitan," insisted a spokeswoman for Eurostar.
| All the cosmopolitans I know pee in teacups. We've got an entire magazine in this country, y'know, named "Cosmopolitan." It's quite successful. It features articles on ladies' social and sex lives, like "What to Do with Whizz: 32 Things You Should Know About Teacups" |
Lesley Retallack added: "You could walk down Camden market and you can see someone like that."
| The implication being that we'd want to... |
"It just captures your imagination, stops you, makes you think."
| The implication being that normally you don't, that you spend your time mentally fogbound. |
"People get it."
"Look, Margarite! It is un tattooed skinhead peeing into a teacup!"
"Oh, Alois! I get it! Let us have sex!"
"Please, Margarite! We are Belgian!" |
The campaign, created by a Belgian ad agency, also features John Cleese and his Ministry of Silly Walks along with Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and John Major apparently bursting Union Flag balloons. Miss Retallack explained: "The whole idea is that London is just around the corner. Belgians absolutely love the British and follow them closely.
| As the Brits are wont to do with the Belgiques. They're fascinating people, y'know, much moreso than the Luxembourgeois or the shifty-eyed Dutchmen, always poking their fingers into dikes and such. |
"The adverts are meant to show how cutting edge London is, the amazing mix. It's all meant to be very humourous, very funny and to get across the message that London is just around the corner." She went on: "We wouldn't do something if it meant people were put off coming to London and they have been enormously effective."
| "Wow! Lookit dat guy urinate! I am off to see London!" |
Since the posters went up on November 14 only one member of the public has complained, said Ms Retallack.
| "Oy! 'At's my doinker! See the tattoo on the 'ead of it? They din't pay me f'r that pic! I wants me money, I doo!" |
Elliott Frisby of the British Tourist Authority, told Sky News: "Belgians think of themselves as closer to us than to France. They expect us to be quirky."
| "The British are a quirky lot, aren't they, Alois?" |
He said the adverts work well in Belgium and believes they are advertising Eurostar rather than Britain itself. "We do not think the images are derogatory or give off the wrong message about the destination," he said. "It is not what we would do but Eurostar is a commercial organisation." |