jay: (data-gathering)
[personal profile] jay
While in Gibraltar two weeks ago, I was looking for examples of British culture... not Milton or Shakespeare, but the sort of ephemeral culture that one can buy in a convenience store. Digestive biscuits. Tabloids. Bovril. And a couple of yellow-foiled candy bars... "Yorkies", some kind of honeycomb bar. Their slogan, blazoned across the bottom: "It's Not For Girls!" accompanied by a red slash through a miniskirted figure with a purse. On the reverse, next to the nutritional information was a smaller no-females icon with the slogan "Don't Feed The Birds!".

The latter is mystifying... unless somehow bird = woman in Yorkshire slang. The candy was made by Nestle, at an address in York. For anyone reading from the UK... have you seen this? Is this kind of perceived anti-female sentiment commonplace in advertising there? Am I reading too much into a simple confectionery?

Date: 2003-10-25 09:25 pm (UTC)
ext_4917: (Default)
From: [identity profile] hobbitblue.livejournal.com
Bird is common British slang for a woman, Nestle are a big chocolate company here, selling Yorkie bars. Their ad range in the 80s featured a big hunky trucker, with the idea that a Yorkie bar was such a hunk of chocolate it was a man's thing. I've not seen the recent ads, but chocolate ads in the UK have been passing strange of late so I wouldn't be surprised. Its supposed to be ironic, I would imagine, or just the usual surreal stuff dreamt up by ad-men..

Date: 2003-10-26 08:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] brian1789.livejournal.com
A macho chocolate bar? Seems strange to me, too. (shakes head) And I'd never heard "bird" used in that context (poisoning pigeons in the park with Yorkie bars? Don't feed the birds?)

Date: 2003-10-26 09:46 am (UTC)
ext_4917: (Default)
From: [identity profile] hobbitblue.livejournal.com
Bird in that use is probably the *most* common alternative term for woman in many parts of the country - "'ere, you looking at my bird?" often being the precursor to some post-pub altercations between blokes.

Date: 2003-10-26 11:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] brian1789.livejournal.com
That's useful... if I ever travel to the (main islands) UK, I'll now have an idea why I'm getting in trouble before I'm clouted ;-).

Date: 2003-10-26 12:42 pm (UTC)
ext_4917: (Default)
From: [identity profile] hobbitblue.livejournal.com
::giggle::

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