Catchphrases ride again!

Already it is time for another lot of catchphrases. Having written about these before (here), I continue to record those items I stumbled across since my last update.

Ah: the old NZI add. The Aussies are always stealing New Zealand icons, remember; so, to avoid people "stealing your stuff" we need to be insured (Phlashman, 2007, 0:23). This one has been used in various butchered forms in our family, but usually just "someone's always stealing your stuff".

Then,  from 1975 on, there is the Australian/New Zealand Telethon jingle, "Thank you very much for your kind donation" (Nostalgia Duck, 2018), and - as the first Telethon producer was shipped in from Perth (Perry, 1992; Tennant, 2013) - that was how the Aussie jingle was absorbed into New Zealand culture. Telethon TV ratings in Aotearoa sometimes "exceeded 70 per cent of the population" with per capita donations [in] 1978" reaching NZD$3m on a population of three million people, gaining entry into the Guinness Book of Records (Perry, 1992, p. 18). An accidental recent reminder when hearing a British Roses chocolates ad, where they had ...er ...repurposed the Telethon jingle which has become ubiquitous in the UK, with the Brits not realising its Antipodean roots (Business Education Resources, 2022, 9.46). 

Most Kiwis would be utterly sure that the KFC cartoon ad - "The cows and the sheep and the birds and the horses were mooing and baaing in and whistling and neighing; having lunch in the sun, while Hugo and I were having none, in the back seat, we sat: getting thinner..." (eat4freeatkfc, 2010) - was a Kiwi ad. But while we all knew the words to "Hugo Said You Go", it was in fact created by Aussie ad house, Zap Productions, and used in Australia (New Zealand on Screen, 2026a).

The New Zealand Milk Promotion Council, to the tune of Grieg's Morning Mood (Op 23, from Peer Gynt), advertised the white gold to us all, with "Morning girls!" "Where are we going?" "Milking. With Murray" (New Zealand on Screen, 2026b). And woe-betide any family friends called Murray. They were regaled with "Where are we going?" in a bovine voice to the refrain of "Milking. With Murray", which seemed to never get old... to us.

I have no idea why the Chef pet food ad refrain, "Snowy, Tiger, Jellimeat for dinner!" stuck in our collective family consciousness. But it did. And it is how we would announce mealtimes in our family. There is some confusion in general as to whether the names are "Snowy, Tiger", or "Joey, Tiger" (New Zealand 1980s memories, 2025); but in our family it was definitely assumed that this was "Snowy" and "Tiger". Hmm. And as Chef advertising tended to go for common pet names, white cats tend to be called "Snowy"; it seems more likely that the name was/is "Snowy".

Then there was "Well, I think we've done enough for a Mallowpuff" from the Griffin's biscuit ad (DigitaliseMe, 2022, 0:31). We often had done enough, we felt ;-)

Sam

References:

Business Education Resources. (2022, December 9). Secret World Of Christmas Chocolate S02E06 [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/QDa3QpxlFxQ?si=3f0QBRLIgVE-uKSl

DigitaliseMe. (2022, October 31). Mallowpuffs 1993 Nz Ad [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/PZ1yOguHLSs

eat4freeatkfc. (2010, June 17). Kentucky Fried Chicken Commercial - Hugo & Holly [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/0YtAVIGq1ko

New Zealand 1980s memories and 1990s Memories's post [sic]. (2025, January 29). Meeeoooow [Facebook]. https://www.facebook.com/nz80s/posts/meeeoooow/1037464791750870/

New Zealand On Screen. (2026a). Hugo and Holly - Kentucky Fried Chicken: Commercial (Full Length) – 1975. https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/kfc-hugo-and-holly

New Zealand On Screen. (2026b). Till the Cows Come Home: Commercial (Full Length) – 1981. https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/till-the-cows-come-home-1981

Nostalgia Duck (2018, March 29). Telethon NZ - Thank You Very Much For Your Kind Donation [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/SaWkfmmmjDQ

Perry, N. (1994). The Dominion of Signs: Television, advertising and other New Zealand fictions. Auckland University Press.

Phlashman. (2007, February 1). Someone always wants to steal your stuff!!! [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Pn_AfVS0IWY

Tennant, M. (2013). Fun and fundraising: the selling of charity in New Zealand's past. Social History, 38(1), 46-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2013.755390