At first I put it down to my intoxicated state as I looked at the ad on the TV screen over the bar. Also, the sound was turned off. But I saw the ad again in a friend’s house and it really does go like this: a well-dressed man gets into a taxi where he […]
The (TV) media in Poland has been getting very exercised about the A1HN1 flu lately. It’s running wild in Ukraine. The government here hasn’t bought enough vaccination shots. Somebody died in Poznań but we’re not exactly sure of what. The human rights ombudsman is threatening to take the government to court if jabs are not […]
You know you’re getting old when something like this not only fails to move you but leaves you baffled, wondering why on earth anyone would want to subject themselves to it. Today’s Gazeta Wyborcza carries an ad for a night of advertisements in the cinema. That’s right: you go to the cinema and watch ads […]
Some years ago the EU prevented tobbacco advertisers from claiming their cigarettes were “mild” or “low tar” but now it turns out that people are so stupid they even think fags in a light coloured pack are easier on the lungs than fags in a dark pack. You just can’t legislate away stupidity but I […]
It’s old news now but still worth quoting: Greece passed in January 2005 a ‘media transparency law’ that would have prevented 1% owners of media companies from participating in public sector contracts. In April 2005, the European Commission told Greece that the law violated EU law and threatened to freeze funds for Greek public works […]
One of the banks was kind enough to post a flyer to me advertising their credit card. On one side is written the benefits of using a credit card. Life is too short to read that but the other side has three pictures that say a great deal about the contempt we are to have […]
A good thing about the internet is it allows you to check if that vague feeling you had about the lie of the media land is correct. The vague feeling I had – vague because I don’t monitor newspapers – was that there has been a rash of articles about how this recession is not […]
A danger with living abroad too long – and one I have failed to avoid – is to start thinking the second country, in my case Poland, is uniquely rubbish. A return to the mothership reassures you that it’s not just Poland – everything is shit
Flicking around the TV channels in a friend’s house last night
Watching a God-awful soap the other night I saw somebody pay for two or three items in a supermarket. The cost was exactly four zloties, which aroused my suspicions. Those suspicions were confirmed when the money was simply received. If you can’t be bothered faithfully reproducing simple things like the fact that everything costs 3.69, […]
