Moncton Forum

Lord Denning wrote:

Red_Spice wrote:

This has nothing to do with French, English, Bilingualism or Acadians.  It is a NEw Brunswick commercial with no New Brunswick Flag.  It is a pride in where you live type of thing.  I am proud when I see a Canadian Flag and Proud when I see a New Brunswick Flag.. I could give a rats ass if there was an Acadien Flag or not...But if New Brunswick i being respresented, then our flag should be present

It has nothing to do with pride.  The ad is not targeted at you.  It is not meant to boost your pride.  Those who created the flag don't give a "rat's ass" that you don't give a "rat's ass".

T-O-U-R-I-S-M

That's all it's about.  Drawing non New Brunswickers to New Brunswick.  What is there in New Brunswick that there isn't anywhere else?

There are Acadians in all other parts of the world, but I'll bet that no other government in the other parts of the world would produce a commercial like this, and not have their own flag in it. Only in New Brunswick.

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"all your money won't another minute buy"

proud anglophone wrote:

...would all cultures not have the same right to be promoted? Why is it only the Acadian culture we ever hear about?

But it's not only Acadian Culture we hear about. In my near three years here I've been aware of  promotion of Highland Games, Irish events, Francophone festival, Seafood festival, Arts and craft, various music festivals, Bikers events, Balloon fiesta, that annual car event on Main St etc etc

I'm reminded of when kids say "we have a father's day and a mother's day, why don't we have children's day?" The parents say "Every day is children's day."

Well, every day in NB is New Brunswick Day. We all live it every day here.

I do think you are overreacting about the one second appearance of a flag on a boat. It's not flying over City Hall at the exclusion of other flags after all.

Look at tourism ads for the UK. They tend to feature the royal family or Big Ben. That doesn't mean the population of England fawns over royalty and walks around gazing up at the clocktower.

BristolUK wrote:

proud anglophone wrote:

...would all cultures not have the same right to be promoted? Why is it only the Acadian culture we ever hear about?

But it's not only Acadian Culture we hear about. In my near three years here I've been aware of  promotion of Highland Games, Irish events, Francophone festival, Seafood festival, Arts and craft, various music festivals, Bikers events, Balloon fiesta, that annual car event on Main St etc etc

I'm reminded of when kids say "we have a father's day and a mother's day, why don't we have children's day?" The parents say "Every day is children's day."

Well, every day in NB is New Brunswick Day. We all live it every day here.

I do think you are overreacting about the one second appearance of a flag on a boat. It's not flying over City Hall at the exclusion of other flags after all.

Look at tourism ads for the UK. They tend to feature the royal family or Big Ben. That doesn't mean the population of England fawns over royalty and walks around gazing up at the clocktower.

The other cultures/events you are referencing are promoted by the culture or event itself, not the government.

Even though the flag is not literally flying over city hall (which if I'm not mistaken it does here anyway), it is in the figurative sense, by virtue of the fact that it is a governmental commercial.

I don't have any problem with the Acadian flag or the Acadian culture. I'll even go as far as saying I admire the Acadian people for their intense patriotism (if you can be patriotic to a culture). Even though they may account for 25% of the population in New Brunswick, the Acadian flag probably accounts for 75% of the flags you see flying around the province.

Again, it's not what's there that's my issue, it's what's not there. In my opinion, our government should not be in the business of promoting a specific culture unless they can do so equally to every culture, which they can't. New Brunswick is rich in so many other ways.

I may be overreacting in your opinion, but this is and always will be a hot topic and strongly debated by both English and French people. As you can see, the French people in this forum are as passionate in their feelings as I am in mine. These feelings come from a lifetime of our government driving a wedge between French and English people, which you can't even come close to understanding by having only been here for three years. This commercial is just one more example of that.

By the way, I always associate England with fish and chips, not big ben.......or is that Benny Hill?

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"all your money won't another minute buy"

proud anglophone wrote:

The other cultures/events you are referencing are promoted by the culture or event itself, not the government.

Even though the flag is not literally flying over city hall (which if I'm not mistaken it does here anyway), it is in the figurative sense, by virtue of the fact that it is a governmental commercial.

I don't have any problem with the Acadian flag or the Acadian culture. I'll even go as far as saying I admire the Acadian people for their intense patriotism (if you can be patriotic to a culture). Even though they may account for 25% of the population in New Brunswick, the Acadian flag probably accounts for 75% of the flags you see flying around the province.

Again, it's not what's there that's my issue, it's what's not there. In my opinion, our government should not be in the business of promoting a specific culture unless they can do so equally to every culture, which they can't. New Brunswick is rich in so many other ways.

I may be overreacting in your opinion, but this is and always will be a hot topic and strongly debated by both English and French people. As you can see, the French people in this forum are as passionate in their feelings as I am in mine. These feelings come from a lifetime of our government driving a wedge between French and English people, which you can't even come close to understanding by having only been here for three years. This commercial is just one more example of that.

By the way, I always associate England with fish and chips, not big ben.......or is that Benny Hill?

Whoa

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

WHOA

I'll be the first to say the Governments (Federal, provincial and even municipal) dropped the ball on Official Bilingualism so hard that there is a crater big enough to hide all the WMD that Bush thought Saddam had.

Bristol has a very good grasp on the situation he/she/it (sorry I've forgotten and I haven't the foggiest where to look to right now, going forward in this post I am using "he" as a gender neutralish term less offensive than it) He is coming from a different cultural point of view. We claim Billingualism like it's some huge deal, there are european countries where you speak in 6 or 7 different languages on your way to the store.

The ad promotes tourism and will do a fine job enticing visitors.

I would have loved a Newbrunswick flag in the ad too, but what would you have them do ? Tell the owner of the boat what flag to fly ? Wait for another boat sporting an NB flag to pass by ? Use boring stock footage ?

Please don't go look at the NB tourism page if you haven't already, almost every word on the opening flash is a frenglish word spelled the french way. (magnifique instead of magnificent as an example)

I mentioned earlier that Acadians exist outside New Brunswick (and while I still maintain that the person I was replying to used wording that was too specific) but a fairly compelling point can be made that the people we want to come here, those targetted by the ad in question, can see emasculated, uncultred, white anglo saxon protestants by looking in the mirror. If the "quaint" "small town acadian culture" gets them here because it is different than the Ad does it's job and gets more people employed.

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You walk around like you're oh so debonair
You pull 'em down and there's really nothing there
I wish you would just be real with me

proud anglophone wrote:

The other cultures/events you are referencing are promoted by the culture or event itself, not the government.

I have no doubt some of the organisers do get public money from the government though, so in reality there is little difference.

Even though the flag is not literally flying over city hall (which if I'm not mistaken it does here anyway...though not to the exclusion of the NB flag, so there's a case of both flags as you want. 

Again, it's not what's there that's my issue, it's what's not there. In my opinion, our government should not be in the business of promoting a specific culture unless they can do so equally to every culture, which they can't.

And that would be a shame...so better to show some surely? The idea is to attract tourism, so it has to be something out of the ordinary...otherwise it doesn't stand out as being different. If there's nothing different, where's the attraction?

As you can see, the French people in this forum are as passionate in their feelings as I am in mine. These feelings come from a lifetime of our government driving a wedge between French and English people, which you can't even come close to understanding by having only been here for three years.

Don't run away with the idea that these things only happen in NB or Canada. In Europe there's intense rivalry in many countries as well as separatist movements. Within the UK there are Welsh and Scottish Nationalists and there are constant arguments over languages. Even within England there is a separatist movement seeking independence for the county of Cornwall. Then there is a widespread feeling that certain immigrants are wanting and getting things their own way at the expense of Brits.

What we're discussing here, I have experienced all the same stuff back in England and also in Quebec prior to my move to NB. I would say the language/anti-English issue IS a problem there but not here. 

By the way, I always associate England with fish and chips, not big ben.......or is that Benny Hill?

You can't beat a good fish and chips....but they're few and far between in England these days. Benny Hill had his moments too. But Big Ben and The Changinging of the Guard, Red Double Decker buses, red telephone boxes....they are all tourist attractions or featured as British staples...but most buses in England are probably yellow and small, while telephone boxes are in a tiny minority of payphones..

You guys can beat me up all you want. I was just trying to express MY displeasure with the ad, no one elses.

I have been to the website. I thought I'd wait on that until the forum got quiet again.

I have a strong opinion on this subject. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but I know there are some that do. There are some that are way more extreme in their opinions than I am. If you find the ad to be acceptable, then don't write a letter to the minister of tourism.

If the camera panned down, to show the boat, and it was full of acadians, on their way out of the Bay of Fundy, with Colonel Lawrence and his troops standing their with their rifles, would that be acceptable? That's a part of our heritage. I think there is a whole group of people who would have something to say about that.

If you think I'm being over reactive about a flag on a boat in an ad, then so be it. That's the wonderful thing about opinions. You can't truly be wrong. Maybe your opinion differs from others, but it's not wrong.

Bristol, I wasn't trying to be disrespectful when I commented on you having only been here three years. If it came across that way (looking back it may have), then I'm sorry. I was only trying to say that for us here in New Brunswick our whole lives, that's all we've ever heard.

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"all your money won't another minute buy"

You come across like a english "notme"

But what puzzles me is why in hell does this bother you soooo much. Why is this causing you to react this way? Isn't there much more biggger badder things to be upset about other than a small flag in teh background of a commercial?

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Just waiting till it's all over.

aprilwine wrote:

I've seen that advertisement a few times now and wondered how the anti-French would take it.

I think it's a beautiful add.  The pictures beautiful, fiddle playing beautiful (French Tune haha) and the singer sings beautifully.

It's a bilingual add  and one I'm quite proud of actually.  I think New Brunswick is unique being bilingual and rich in culture.

To me the ad is no worse than Nova Scotia's or PEI's ads. We have lots of Acadians running around playing fiddles everywhere in New Brunswick just as Nova Scotia has lots of people in kilts dancing around all over the place playing bagpipes while PEI is full of red headed braided hair girls who head to endless beaches. To me it's just something the tourists can use to identify with an area they might want to visit. I've definately seen worse commercials. The one that gets my toots in an uproar is the woman who can't stand doing the dishes and has to keep running outside for breaths of fresh air.

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Remember yesterday, respect tomorrow, live for today.

It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

Haha I agree willie, each time I see that commercial (and for some odd reason it's only the part that she runs outside for air that I really see) it makes me want to gag too lol. But have you seen the new pedigree commercial. You see a dog eating on one of those bones. I don't mind that part so much but it's teh sound that drives me nuts. I first saw teh commercial while eating supper. When my son eats like that I tell him to stop eating like a cow or risk getting a slap for it cause it's gross. Here we are watching TV with this dog just munching away at this stupid bone to clean it's teeth and it goes one for like 2 mins. Totally discusting.

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Just waiting till it's all over.

The commercial was probably made by some big city advertising company by people who never even set foot in New Brunswick. Luckilly they don't do a commercial about Moncton or it will probably contain lots of Timmy's shops and gay parades.

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"I wanna see some wrasslin."

Cautiouslizard wrote:

Haha I agree willie, each time I see that commercial (and for some odd reason it's only the part that she runs outside for air that I really see) it makes me want to gag too lol. But have you seen the new pedigree commercial. You see a dog eating on one of those bones. I don't mind that part so much but it's teh sound that drives me nuts. I first saw teh commercial while eating supper. When my son eats like that I tell him to stop eating like a cow or risk getting a slap for it cause it's gross. Here we are watching TV with this dog just munching away at this stupid bone to clean it's teeth and it goes one for like 2 mins. Totally discusting.

Are we thinking of the same commercial? The one that gets me going is the Canadian Tire commercial for scented dish cleaners.

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Remember yesterday, respect tomorrow, live for today.

It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

Yeah we are talking about the same one but there is a new one that is out for "Pedigree" and that one is totally gross as they have like full sound effects and to me hearing a dog eat on a damn bone is gross lol.

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Just waiting till it's all over.

Sounds tasty.

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Remember yesterday, respect tomorrow, live for today.

It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

Cautiouslizard wrote:

You come across like a english "notme"

But what puzzles me is why in hell does this bother you soooo much. Why is this causing you to react this way? Isn't there much more biggger badder things to be upset about other than a small flag in teh background of a commercial?

It's not just a matter of "a small flag in the background of a commercial". It's not just this one thing, this one event. It's likely something that being French (no disrespect intended), you'll never understand (no disrespect intended).

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"all your money won't another minute buy"

Being french I'll never understand. Damn it, I walk around and I see it all over. I can say the same to you, Being english you'll never understand and see the full picture.

I'm not the one that decided to whine about this commercial. I see plenty of NB commercials that have no french, and no acadian reference to it. Do you see me going on here and start a big thing about it. Most people on here are trying to make you see that IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL and MOVE ON. I swear to god you are the english version of notme.

I asked you why does it bother you soooo much. What has it cause you in your life to make you feel this way. I don't feel bad when I see only english commercials (I can't even get a french channel on my TV that is from NB so count yourself lucky you get to have your english tv here in NB)

You do have a problem with other cultures other than your own, if not you wouldn't be taking small things like this and blow them out of proportion.

Did you end up losing finacially from this commercial, did your kids start asking you weird sex questions, drug questions etc... then the commercial itself has no bad effect on your daily living. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM again?

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Just waiting till it's all over.