Seriously…: you couldn't make this stuff up - Brief Article

New Internationalist, March, 2003

AD-ventures in AD-vertising

When it comes to getting grabs in the media on the effects of globalization, one of the NI's readers in Aotearoa/New Zealand reports that a good gag goes much further than a soapbox. Our reader and her husband produced and supplied cylinders of liquid petroleum gas... that is, until they went bankrupt after (amongst other things) the Warehouse Ltd chain of stores cancelled their contract. The Warehouse Ltd operates big red-bannered stores dotted all over the landscape. Developed in line with the Wal-Mart formula in the US, they provide cheap goods produced in countries like China where labour costs are low. Everyone gets a bargain.., except the local manufacturers and the people that they used to employ. The founder of The Warehouse Ltd -- Stephen Tindall -- has claimed the title of 'Mr Sustainable New Zealand'. He has earned years of favourable publicity with media, government and public by setting up the Tindall Foundation to aid communities -- the very communities that our reader believes Tindall's busines s has destroyed. Our reader's response?

'Enough was enough. So I -- the woman formerly known as Judith Kay Bell, 44-year-old mother of two, ex-schoolteacher and manufacturer -- took an extraordinary step and changed my name to his. For NZ$150 I became Stephen Tindall -- the woman. This received front-page news, TV coverage and profiles and stories in numerous publications. At the same time that I changed my name to Stephen Tindall -- the woman, I founded an incorporated society called MADENZ (www.MADENZ.co.nz) to promote and foster 'local production for the home market.'

Is it only a matter of time before George W -- the woman makes her debut?