Tag Archives: Irn Bru

Irn Bru Advert – Anti English?

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You might know that I’m a bit of a fan of Irn Bru adverts, they’ve had some crackers over the years. What do you think of the one below? Apparently there have been 60 complaints about it to the authorities, which is quite a lot I suppose. But have they all had a sense of humour bypass?

I don’t think the ‘crazy Yanks’ advert got any complaints at all, and that could be taken as being derogatory to Scots in that it implies that you might be head-butted in Scotland!

Some English people are complaining that the ‘English boyfriend’ advert is anti English. I suspect that the type of people who have complained are the ones who never leave England, unless it’s to scorch themselves on a Spanish beach.

If they did bother to visit Scotland they would discover an awful lot of English people who have chosen to live in Scotland, a far higher percentage of the population than Scots living in England, but it’s always English people who compain about Scots living in England.

Having lived in England myself, I experienced quite a lot of anti Scots behaviour of the ‘what are you doing here, taking OUR jobs’ variety. I’m not a fan of my local M.P. who happens to be Gordon Brown, but the amount of vitriol that he had to put up with from the tabloids was just ridiculous, and nothing was ever done about it – and it was all blatantly aimed at him because he was Scottish. I suggest that that IS something far more serious than adverts.

By the way, I belive that Irn Bru can be found in some parts of the USA now.

Irn Bru – Scotland’s other national drink

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A blogpal (you know who you are) has recently been imbibing that stuff which some people call golden nectar, in other words whisky, and I was asked for some advice on the matter. As I said I’m not a great one for the booze but I would plump for a hot toddy any day or night as my favourite way of drinking whisky but really for me it is honestly just medicinal. I’m sure that just breathing in the fumes kills off germs.

Otherwise I’m with the younger generation and I would mix whisky with Coke or Irn Bru, I did think of ginger beer but on second thoughts that would be piling fire on fire! I must admit though that I do enjoy a wee Baileys from time to time, definitely neat.

Anyway, I decided to have a look and see if Irn Bru has reached the other side of the pond yet and the answer seems to be that it is sometimes available at Highland Games in the US. As it isn’t all that long since it managed to make it into English supermarkets I imagine it’ll be a long time before it’s generally available in the US – shame. It’s our other national drink!

I thought you might like to see a couple of old Irn Bru adverts. My favourite is still the parody of ‘The Snowman’ one, but that’s obviously only shown at New Year.

The Crazy Yanks advert is a parody of the Coca Cola ones.

Then there’s the High School Musical parody, I never watched that programme and I don’t think it’s a great ad but it has its moments.

So what does Irn Bru taste like? It’s difficult to describe, it’s a bit fruity, some people say bubble gum-ish, slightly (pleasantly) metallic and my Dutch sister-in-law almost choked when she first tried it. I say first, but she only ever tried it once so I suppose it might be one of those things that you have to grow up with otherwise you think it’s disgusting.

Happy New Year

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We’ll probably be having a quiet Hogmanay this year. We’re not going out ‘first footing’. But if anyone comes to our door after ‘the bells’ – this is the sort of welcome that they’ll be given. Whisky, Irn Bru, cherry cake and shortbread. Maybe not the kilt, that’s just for ceilidhs and weddings. Note the seasonal snowman on the Irn Bru bottle.

Women of my mother’s generation used to cook a huge meal and serve it up about an hour before midnight. Steak pie was the traditional fare, the idea was that if people (men) ate a good meal then they wouldn’t get so drunk and hungover. Women of course didn’t drink anything, well perhaps a very wee sherry at midnight!

I’m hoping that 2011 is going to be a good and peaceful year and things aren’t going to be as horrendous as all the politicians are promising us they will be.

Happy New Year to anyone visiting ‘Pining’ and big hugs and kisses to the lovely people who take the time to leave comments.

If you missed the Irn Bru advert which I posted a few weeks ago you might like to have a look at it now. I shouldn’t need any Irn Bru for hangover purposes as I’ll just be having one wee drinkie, I’m not mad keen on alcohol but I am quite partial to our other national drink.
The advert contains well known Scottish landmarks.

Sláinthe – as they say in the Highlands. It’s pronounced like “flange” only with an “s” instead of “f” at the beginning.