Hard News: The Honours
265 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 … 11 Newer→ Last
-
Thanks, Fran. I'd still be comfortable describing those contributions as services to business rather than community, and he deserves recognition for that.
Oh, just re-read. The scholarship stuff sounds more community than business. As you were.
-
Hilary
If you feel you know people who should be recognised don't worry about the Feb deadline just fill in the form. The nomination gets rolled over for at least a year
You and your nominee might be suprised with the results -
I have written one column where I remarked (2007) on the fact that Myers did not have a knighthood
And a lovely piece of sycophancy it was too.
-
Email
Well Sacha and Recordi - Would you have rather seen NZ corporates not get behind Am Cup, World Cup etc? Of course they use such events for branding - but I would suspect the commercial return is only one part of it. Getting to see NZ succeed on the world stage is another - and Blake and Kirk did just that with the Am Cup and World Rugby Cup. Lion wasn't the only corporate involved in such endeavours - but it did play a leading part.
Idiot - Get over it. I've written plenty of hard-hitting commercial stuff over the years - but that does not stop me admiring the fact that Lion did succeed in Aust in a big way and believing that the honour shd have been accorded years ago. Sir Roger Bhatnagar? FFS!
Fran
-
-
Email Twitter
Thanks Raymond, useful information.
-
Fran, I have no problem with corporates backslapping each other with shareholders' cash - just not remotely what I'd call "community" as explored upthread. Agree to disagree?
-
I have written one column where I remarked (2007) on the fact that Myers did not have a knighthood - hardly contrues a "keeps reminding us" claim.
Fair enough -- I stand corrected. Perhaps I read that one column more than once :-)
I wasn't meaning to have a go at you Fran, but I I do have views on Myers and and one or two others of his ilk. I don't like being lectured on competitiveness by someone whose behaviour I think has been corrosive of the very kind of market democracy he claims to champion.
Myers' infantile conduct on Radio NZ yesterday -- referring to Helen Clark, just elevated to the Order of New Zealand, as "she who must be obeyed", while he revelled in his own honour -- showed a pretty stark lack of class too. I do not respect Mr Myers.
-
Oh, and I fully support recognition of philanthropy like Julian Robertson's massive donation of artwork to a public gallery. Steven, I think you may be confusing him with another American billionaire in the news several years earlier.
-
Email
Would you have rather seen NZ corporates not get behind Am Cup, World Cup etc?
I was warned about sarcasm. My apologies.
Of course our national sporting heroes need sponsorship and support from successful New Zealand companies, and it wasn't done in any underhand way, as far as I know. However, in spite of a possible 'community spin-off', I suspect the company, and it's leading shareholders, put profit well ahead of 'the public good'. But that, you could argue, was their job. Is that laudable? Others clearly think so.
Whether I'm convinced 'Big Alcohol' is a better source of sponsorship money in sport than 'Big Tobacco' is another matter.
-
Email
My own experiences managing sponsorships (in distance past) for an NZ corp - taught me that a very good deal are driven by the private passion of a CEO, or key players on the board, or an influential sponsorship manager who weighs approaches and decides which are worthwhile, will assist local/national interest perspectives and have am upbeat rub-off factor for the company and its people.
And that there is a strong element of public good involved.
Quite often company personnel will get involved with the donation recipients - eg Graeme Dingle's Project K. Good companies recognise they have a broader role than simply stacking the shareholders' shelves.
But what you often find it that "Marketing" usually has to find some way to dress it up so that a "commercial value" can be ascribed to justify the spend.
If you look across the entire NZ spectrum - State energy company sponsoring Opera, NZ Herald owner the Auck Phil - to name just two. Are more power or newspapers sold from these?
Did the NZ Apple & Pear Board sell more apples from its Am Cup sponsorship? I doubt it.
The fundamental point is that very few such initiatives get off the ground - or continue to survive - without corporate backing.
Fran -
I find myself contrasting relative efforts: that of Myers, whose contribution to New Zealand is tinged with self interest and gets a knighthood and that of Heather May and James Tuhoro who have fostered some 380 at risk children and receive a Queens Service Medal.
Perhaps, if Heather May and James Tuhoro had donated money instead of time, effort, love etc etc and then to a political Party...
-
Email
But you and your posters surely can't take from the man - the Lion's sponsorships of Peter Blake's Steinlarger, America's Cup, first Rugby World Cup etc.
Like other posters here I am appalled at any promotion of sporting events by either tobacco or alcohol companies. Promoting drugs by associating their brand to some physical or healthy activity should be against the law. And may be against the law soon.
Global Strategy to Reduce Harmful Use of Alcohol - WHO
I look forward to seeing alcohol companies barred from sponsoring sporting events as tobacco has been banned.
If you look across the entire NZ spectrum - State energy company sponsoring Opera, NZ Herald owner the Auck Phil - to name just two. Are more power or newspapers sold from these?
Did the NZ Apple & Pear Board sell more apples from its Am Cup sponsorship? I doubt it.Fran, the commercial advantages that corporations gain by sponsorship of sporting, artistic, cultural events or charitable ventures are enormous .
The sole purpose of this association and branding is a financial bottom line, achieved by the branding or the resulting tax break. Usually the sort of exposure that goes with branding is many, many times more valuable and economical than running an advertising campaign.
NZ Tax Structure and Corporate Giving
Sponsorship is an effective way for a company to provide support while generating good public exposure. The event does not necessarily need to be directly connected to the company's business to be beneficial, as any funding provided will assist in creating a favourable public perception.
In addition, if the corporate sponsor can show a connection between the costs incurred and the business, a tax deduction is available for those costs. This connection could be as simple as the sponsored event helps to provide advertising for the company in an attempt to increase the level of sales.
The profit gained by the exposure and resulting good will any company gets from sponsorship deals is and always will be what motivates companies to make and maintian sponsorship deals. When that association stops being profitable for the company, that association stops. Just ask Tiger Woods's sponsors.
-
Email Twitter
Julian Robertson made a small appearance in The Hollow Men. It is very good of him to donate art to us, but services to the National Party are probably part of the story too.
-
Lest any doubt our even-handed cynicism about honours and favours, there's always Owen Glenn.
So last decade. -
One of the few investments that has withstood all this is precious metals, and while I can't quite get my head around the god-like inherent value in a shiny piece of metal, that may only be because I don't have any.
No need to have the actual shiny metal if you want to invest in this bubble.
Due to pressure on the supply side people are now buying "paper" gold - just a written promise that one owns the gold.
Prices have been spiking for some time now and it no longer has much connection with its worth as a raw material.
When the 1981/82 gold bubble burst a lot of investors were hit. -
Email
I was a bit soft. Thanks Dyan and Steven.
The attributes of those on the list that made me think, 'yeah, that's cool' had very little to do with the official criteria for national honours;
"for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits."
I'm more impressed by examples of the following, in contrast to attributes covered in some measure above.
Confidence, not arrogance.
Humility, not pride.
Compassion, not calculation.
Mana, not entitlement.Lesley Max and the Tamahere fire-fighters seemed to score pretty well on these fronts. Others too, but it's a long list.
-
Email
So last decade.
Damn you're quick.
-
3410,
Email
Thanks very much for last night, R&F. It was a pretty excellent night for me, all up; three parties back-to-back over the course of 10 hours, and home by 6 full of beer, lamb, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, chocolate cake and whiskeys.
Here's that tune, of which we spoke. The original has been a massive hit, but this live performance of the re-version slays me:
[Nov.17, NYC] -
So last decade.
Except it's not really until 1/1/2011 is it..
-
Email Web
This takes me back exactly ten years. If it wasn't for the discussion back then about whether the year 2000 was the actual beginning of the new millennium* I think the Internet might have just fizzed out.
*It wasn't. -
Email Twitter
The honours list is always political as the office is part of the PM's department and the list has to be approved by Cabinet. This might indicate why Margaret Wilson and Michael Cullen weren't on it, even though retired speakers and senior cabinet ministers traditionally get something.
-
Email
This takes me back exactly ten years. If it wasn't for the discussion back then about whether the year 2000 was the actual beginning of the new millennium* I think the Internet might have just fizzed out.
*It wasn't.That's so last century ;-)
-
a very good deal are driven by the private passion of a CEO, or key players on the board, or an influential sponsorship manager who weighs approaches and decides which are worthwhile, will assist local/national interest perspectives and have am upbeat rub-off factor for the company and its people.
If you look across the entire NZ spectrum - State energy company sponsoring Opera, NZ Herald owner the Auck Phil
fuck opera and the auck phil, fuck the am cup and pro sports sponsorship altogether. isn't it all about the rub off factor...just a big ego wank for the cracka ass knobs to get a corporate box ?
business by law should have a percentage of socially responsible donations made available from profits but then again, i reckon executive salaries should be capped at less than 250k a year, performance bonuses should be abolished and one day a month all execs should swap jobs with some lowly employee for a day:)
-
Thanks very much for last night
Ae, it were lovely. Good people all round. I love how the sky-lanterns we saw from the first party were released aloft from the second. And the moon.
The original has been a massive hit
Soaring, beautiful. Which local anthems do you reckon do that?
Post your response…
You may also create an account or retrieve your password.