Oh god no
Remember when Wellington Airport, after the howls of protest and outright mockery, backed off on its cringe-inducing Wellywood sign idea and promised to go away and think of something better to celebrate our film industry?
Well, they’ve had a good, long think about it, and this morning’s paper announces that they’ve come up with a brilliant idea:
Maybe we can all move to New Plymouth. We hear it’s nice.
As a side note, it’s particularly distressing to see Celia Wade-Brown admitting her total powerlessness:
Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said yesterday that she did not support a sign of any kind. “There are much more important ways to promote the film industry, and creative digital, than with a sign. But the airport did do a good job to see if there were other phrases that were an improvement.”
We’re going to have to take your “Best Thing About Wellington” Honourable Mention away from you at this rate, Celia.
The Wellywood sign is surely a sign of the apocalypse.
From the article, it seems that no one in the film and TV industry and no branding experts actually support the idea. It seems like an outsider idea, like if I stuck a sign on my roof in praise of Wellington’s panel-beating industry.
Wellington Airport have just outed themselves as self-involved dicks for this.
Bring on the Hollywood-sign-owner’s lawsuit …
How long do you reckon it before somebody gets out a chainsaw or some tubs of dark paint and edits out the horizontal bars on the letter E.
Seldom has corporate arrogance been so blatantly thrown in the
face of the Wellington ratepayer. How many Wellingtonians will it take
to change your mind ?? How about a petition with 50,000 signatures
..ok , 100,000 – NO problem you arrogant bastards.
..and if you go ahead and build it anyway, it will surely be defaced, dismantled
and ultimately destroyed.
F*cking A!
I cannot believe they are going ahead with this with so much opposition.
Arrogance.
The very first comment from a “Geoff” on Stuff is exactly how I feel:
“It’s a light-hearted and fun idea, but let’s not do it.”
‘light-hearted’ and ‘fun’ are reach-for-my-gun words anyway. Nothing worthwhile to people over 7 is ever described thus.
Wellywood is so unbelievably embarrasing.
If you need something what about Wellington Film. State it as it is.
Come join our driving blockade protest of this abysmal sign! 6pm, Monday evening.
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=223316627680324
We need to hit them where it hurts, with protest! We are planning a slow-moving vehicle blockade that will seriously disrupt the Airport’s operations, legally. We will drive around in loops over the airport drop-off area with signs and music, to show that we don’t agree with this plan.
We need ANYONE in Wellington who owns a car (and even if you don’t, you can jump in someone else’s car) for this protest..
*PLEASE MAKE SIGNS AND DECORATE YOUR CAR IN PROTEST.
**We will be meeting up before the protest from 5:30pm on Lyall Bay, just next to the runway where the surfers go. Will advise closer to the time
The Facebook page for Wellington airport is an interesting read. It’s full of angry, annoyed people voicing their complaint against the sign. The person who looks after the Facebook page has been accused of deleting posts, and their comments seem really aggressive and defensive, with no attempt to win people over – I assume they’re not a communications professional.
I’m surprised Wellington Airport hasn’t made any attempt to win the public over. It seems more like “Ha ha! We’re going to put up the sign and there’s nothing you can do to stop us!!!!”
Regardless of what the good folks at Wellington Airport want to do, how could this visual eyesore and mockery possibly get a consent from the council? As a ratepayer, I’m appalled that the council could permit this to go ahead in the face of public opinion.
My new idea: if Wellington Airport really want to erect a “WELLYWOOD” sign, they can bolt it to the side of their brand new international terminal.
Yeah, that feels pretty bad, doesn’t it, Wellington International Airport Limited?
“We gave you the opportunity to submit ideas for something better, but no one came up with any better ideas.” Why do there need to be any ideas at all? It’s like saying I want to spray paint my cat florescent pink. Unless someone has a wackier/zanier/more sensible idea we’re going through with it. But like the sign, why the need to spray paint your cat in the first place? And why bring us into it?