New Zealand businesses and brands work hard to engage with current events, but is Anzac Day one they should leave well alone?
Fair Go spotted several adverts and Instagram posts from last year referencing Anzac Day and the term “Lest We Forget” and using them as hashtags to post opening hours or sales.
We took three examples to the streets and almost without exception the posts were met with disapproval.
One shopper said “it’s a serious thing to go to a dawn parade, it’s pretty emotional, and to turn it into blatant consumerism seems wrong”.
There have been several controversial Anzac Day references in the past, such as the one from Pizza Hut in 2015, which was heavily criticised by the RSA.
The company emailed an offer under the heading “Lest We Forget” informing customers of the chains’ opening hours.
The company faced no prosecution as it was unlikely to be in breach of the Flags, Emblems and Names Protection Act that prevents the use of the Anzac term for trade or business.
Restaurant Brands said: "The sentiment expressed in the Pizza Hut [email offer] was genuine and Restaurant Brands apologises to the RSA unreservedly for the incorrect use of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps”.
Another example, this time from across the ditch, was from the Woolworths chain. The brand launched a “fresh in our memories” social media campaign asking Australians to share a memory of someone affected by war. It was quickly pulled down after a request by the Minister for Veteran’s Affairs.
Fair Go spoke to two World War II veterans here and their opinions were blunt. Keith Boles, who lost two of his best friends in the war, described the Instagram references as “stupid”, saying he couldn’t see the point.
The President of the NZ Bomber Command, Ron Mayhill DFC, said ”it horrifies me a wee bit. It’s using the name to make money and I don’t like the Anzac term being cheapened like that”.
He added that “they’re using them in the wrong way, not remembering the wonderful people who died”.
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