The background to the Hakarena

When will this Rugby World Cup start again?  This build-up seems to have been more tortued than most.  Reports of All Blacks shifting hotels, those dreadful commercial promotions, and trash-talking from all sides seem to have been going on for months.

Then yesterday, England brought out the hakarena and segments of New Zealand were outraged.  Outrage, offence, the English are so arrogant, and don’t they know who we are?

While it does mock the haka, it does not seem any more distrustful than letting an American Insurance company exploit it by flogging some 360 deg app.  A cynic might suggest lack of outrage is something that can be brokered.

The main crime of the campaign is that it’s pretty naff; there is no context in which the Macarena is ever acceptable, and it would appear it was not original either.

This was not an English invention.  In fact it was pretty similar to what the French put together.  From 2011.  That one is vaguely homoerotic too.

Before that, in 2006, there was Fiat.  MFAT complained, but there is a real sense of admiration in this ad.

Thanks to Fobski and Ruggerblogger with their research assistance in preparing this post.