Marketing the tri-colour

iMax

Over several beers (where else would you have such a discussion), we were discussing the "iconic" flags of the world, America, UK, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Norway even.

All these flags can be marketed in many ways, roof of a mini, faceplate of a guitar etc. But the tricolour... it's a bit lacking in that way.

It's usually the green that's taken out of the flag, muted a bit & then stylised (so not really using the flag then).

Although these aren't too bad:
nike-dunk-low-premium-sb-eire-edition-net-deep-orange-1.jpg
Superman_Ireland_Green_Shirt2.jpg

More often than not you get something like this:
Irish Flag T-shirt.jpg
irish_flag_swimwear_05.jpg

(did nobody explain to the designer what happens when white material gets wet?)

So is it just down to marketing or is it the fact that we have a ****ty flag that it can't be used in the same way ?

Wolfe Tone

iMax wrote: »

Over several beers (where else would you have such a discussion), we were discussing the "iconic" flags of the world, America, UK, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Norway even.

All these flags can be marketed in many ways, roof of a mini, faceplate of a guitar etc. But the tricolour... it's a bit lacking in that way.

It's usually the green that's taken out of the flag, muted a bit & then stylised (so not really using the flag then).

Although these aren't too bad:
nike-dunk-low-premium-sb-eire-edition-net-deep-orange-1.jpg
Superman_Ireland_Green_Shirt2.jpg

More often than not you get something like this:
Irish Flag T-shirt.jpg
irish_flag_swimwear_05.jpg

(did nobody explain to the designer what happens when white material gets wet?)

So is it just down to marketing or is it the fact that we have a ****ty flag that it can't be used in the same way ?

I dare say people are afraid people will think they are big RA heads if they have tricolours plastered on themselves any time other than paddys day.

Captain Darling

Tri-colour bog roll.

iMax

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

I dare say people are afraid people will think they are big RA heads if they have tricolours plastered on themselves any time other than paddys day.

Actually that was a point that was made. The only time Irish people have pride in their flag is if there's an international football match on, or they're IRA.

fontanalis

Green white and orange or green, white and gold.

BOHtox

You don't know man.......you weren't there!

theboss80

fontanalis wrote: »

Green white and orange or green, white and gold.

Green white and orange

Thinks thats
Green - Catholic
White - Peace
Orange - Protestant

Open to correction, original flag was all green

RichieC

I find it tacky, not Ireland in particular, just flags on cloths in general.

I do tend to associate it with the worst kind of nationalism, be it up the ra types or fascist fat head yanks/ skinhead BNP types.

fontanalis

theboss80 wrote: »

Green white and orange

Thinks thats
Green - Catholic
White - Peace
Orange - Protestant

Open to correction, original flag was all green

Yeah, it's just the green, white and gold does my head in as it's meaningless.
There were a few flags around; St Patricks cross, white back ground with diagonal red cross (appears in Union Jack) and the green one with harp.

mehfesto

theboss80 wrote: »

Green white and orange

Thinks thats
Green - Catholic
White - Peace
Orange - Protestant

Open to correction, original flag was all green

I was told that was all bollocks years ago by two history teachers. That our flag is really meaningless. Makes sense your way, but I was all a post-construction we were told.

mgmt

mehfesto wrote: »

I was told that was all bollocks years ago by two history teachers. That our flag is really meaningless. Makes sense your way, but I was all a post-construction we were told.

The symbolism of the flag is meaningless now. The IRA have forever tarnished the peaceful meanings of the flag.

User Friendly

theboss80 wrote: »

Green white and orange

Thinks thats
Green - Catholic
White - Peace
Orange - Protestant

Open to correction, original flag was all green

Thats not what the colours of he flag stand for.

Latchy

Originally Posted by theboss80
Green white and orange

Thinks thats
Green - Catholic
White - Peace
Orange - Protestant

^ This but also remember to the white being a refered to as a symbol of the republic .

fontanalis

User Friendly wrote: »

Thats not what the colours of he flag stand for.

Is the green and orange at least not meant to represent the two different cultures?

theboss80

User Friendly wrote: »

Thats not what the colours of he flag stand for.

Fair enough but if you are going to correct me then give an explanation as to whta it does stand for?

smk89

Captain Darling wrote: »

Tri-colour bog roll.

Orange and green cheeks with a white hole.
(I'm assuming it would be made in china and the colours would run

mgmt

theboss80 wrote: »

Fair enough but if you are going to correct me then give an explanation as to whta it does stand for?

The green represents the older Gaelic and Anglo-Norman element in the population, while the orange represents the Protestant planter stock, supporters of William of Orange. The meaning of the white was well expressed by Meagher when he introduced the flag. 'The white in the centre', he said, 'signifies a lasting truce between the 'Orange' and the 'Green' and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in heroic brotherhood.'

http://www.ireland-embassy.com.my/index.asp?id=8&page=about_dynamic_d

squod

mgmt wrote: »

The symbolism of the flag is meaningless now. The IRA have forever tarnished the peaceful meanings of the flag.

Stop.

My name is URL

This would be a far cooler flag

boobs are definitely marketable

Poor Uncle Tom

The very first Irish tri-colour flag was flown over the headquarters of Thomas Frances Meagher at 33 The Mall in Waterford on the 1st March in 1848.

KeithAFC

mehfesto wrote: »

I was told that was all bollocks years ago by two history teachers. That our flag is really meaningless. Makes sense your way, but I was all a post-construction we were told.

They are right. I don't believe the Tri colour means much to the majority of Protestants on the island.

KeithAFC

mgmt wrote: »

The symbolism of the flag is meaningless now. The IRA have forever tarnished the peaceful meanings of the flag.

Agree. I wish the Republic would take the Orange colour out of the Tri colour and put something else in.

theboss80

mgmt wrote: »

http://www.ireland-embassy.com.my/index.asp?id=8&page=about_dynamic_d

so ....basically what i said

theboss80

KeithAFC wrote: »

Agree. I wish the Republic would take the Orange colour out of the Tri colour and put something else in.

why?

LordSutch

The Tricolour is meant to represent the unity of the Green & the Orange traditions on this island, with white representing peace between the two traditions. The flag is an 'aspirational flag', meaning it has yet to achieve its true meaning (unity between the two).

The odd time you hear gold (instead of orange) being mentioned, dunno what that is

mgmt

LordSutch wrote: »

The Tricolour is meant to represent the unity of the Green & the Orange traditions on this island, with white representing peace between the two.

The odd time you hear gold (instead of orange) being mentioned, dunno what that is

That would be the same bigots who refer to Ireland as 'the Free State'.

KeithAFC

theboss80 wrote: »

why?

What is the point? The majority of Protestants in Ireland don't agree with what the Tri colour represents anyway.

Daroxtar

You need something cool, slick and sexy to appeal to the masses

theboss80

LordSutch wrote: »

The odd time you hear gold (instead of orange) being mentioned, dunno what that is

It original flag was all green with a gold harp on it

theboss80

KeithAFC wrote: »

What is the point? The majority of Protestants in Ireland don't agree with what the Tri colour represents anyway.

Where exactly are you getting this information from? just because a certain religous minority doesnt like what a clour on our national flag is meant to represent you want the state to change it?

squod

theboss80 wrote: »

It original flag was all green with a gold harp on it

Our new one is awful

number10a

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

The very first Irish tri-colour flag was flown over the headquarters of Thomas Frances Meagher at 33 The Mall in Waterford on the 1st March in 1848.

Found this bit on Wikipedia lately about where the flag came from:

"Presented as a gift in 1848 to Thomas Francis Meagher from a small group of French women sympathetic to the Irish cause"

Thought that was really interesting!!

Source (second paragraph)

strobe

squod wrote: »

Stop.

http://s11.allstarpics.net/images/orig/n/t/ntwqm07c9p22709w.jpg

Trog

KeithAFC wrote: »

What is the point? The majority of Protestants in Ireland don't agree with what the Tri colour represents anyway.

The majority of Irish protestants don't agree with peace between Catholic and Protestants? Where did you pluck this wonderfully accurate statistic from?

It's more of a symbol for the Catholic and Protestant classes. Instead of Protestant landowners siding with the british and ****ting all over their poorer countrymen that flag represents the aim of unity in society. They used Catholic and Protestant in their rhetoric, but that's because they were inseperable from what they really represented- wealth and lack thereof, or status. That's the true essence of all this 1916 schtuff anyway, and how it should be read, not just 'they're this religion so they're the (traditional) enemy'.

KeithAFC

theboss80 wrote: »

Where exactly are you getting this information from? just because a certain religous minority doesnt like what a clour on our national flag is meant to represent you want the state to change it?

Wasn't there a census in 2006 in the republic that only 6% live in the republic?

And yeah. I mean, would the republic flag not be better and represent the majority of the people with a harp or something?

KeithAFC

The majority of Irish protestants don't agree with peace between Catholic and Protestants?

Thats the problem. The majority of Protestants don't see it as a flag which represents them or a flag which represents peace.

TeddyTedson

We need to get a new flag and new colours.

number10a

KeithAFC wrote: »

Wasn't there a census in 2006 in the republic that only 6% live in the republic?

And yeah. I mean, would the republic flag not be better and represent the majority of the people with a harp or something?

Any Protestants that I know in the Republic are very proud of being Irish and don't identify with being anything else.

Trog

KeithAFC wrote: »

Wasn't there a census in 2006 in the republic that only 6% live in the republic?

And yeah. I mean, would the republic flag not be better and represent the majority of the people with a harp or something?

Yeah, let's only represent the biggest current demographic of our society. In fact, let's just drop the flag and have a link to the 'Ireland' facebook page. Most people in Ireland use facebook.


Hmm? History? Culture? What are those, the new indie band that I'm supposed to like?

Senna

Our forefathers fought for that flag, but they would have fought harder if it had 3 wolves on it.

Trog

TeddyTedson wrote: »

We need to get a new flag and new colours.

I know... we'll invent a NEW colour. With blackjack. And hookers. In fact, forget the blackjack and the colour.

KeithAFC

Trog wrote: »

Yeah, let's only represent the biggest current demographic of our society. In fact, let's just drop the flag and have a link to the 'Ireland' facebook page. Most people in Ireland use facebook.


Hmm? History? Culture? What are those, the new indie band that I'm supposed to like?

Why not? The Orange on the tri colour doesn't look right. Like some one said in the thread. You need a new flag.

theboss80

KeithAFC wrote: »

Wasn't there a census in 2006 in the republic that only 6% live in the republic?

And yeah. I mean, would the republic flag not be better and represent the majority of the people with a harp or something?

So change the flag to appease 6% of the population?. I know plenty of protestants and it has never come up in conversation as something that irritates them.

And the harp on the original flag came from Brian Boru's harp, the high king of Ireland, who represented the four kingdoms of Ireland, unfortunately POLLITICALLY there are only three kingdoms within the republic so using that flag would not be possible i think.

Im sure it will again some time in the future

Senna

Bollox to this, there's nothing wrong with it.
Do you really think if given the chance the Irish would come up with a better one, we're so PC mad, it would have every-other flag of the world on it so we don't offend anyone:rolleyes:

Stromecek

KeithAFC wrote: »

Thats the problem. The majority of Protestants don't see it as a flag which represents them or a flag which represents peace.

I don't know what you'll do when Scotland ultimately abdicates the union and declares independence,
perhaps your stale and ultimately self defeating culture, worshipping the British identity will have to come to terms with living on the island of Ireland
peacefully with your fellow inhabitants and acknowledging the aspiration of the Irish tricolour. Tainted in your view or not.
Although I probably think when the moment arrives a review of symbols would be in order.
A bit serious for after hours perhaps, I admit

Balmed Out

KeithAFC wrote: »

They are right. I don't believe the Tri colour means much to the majority of Protestants on the island.

Maybe not to those in the North but judging from friends of mine that are Protestant and Irish in Cork it means as much to them as to the rest of us

KeithAFC

Balmed Out wrote: »

Maybe not to those in the North but judging from friends of mine that are Protestant and Irish in Cork it means as much to them as to the rest of us

Not many of them though, lets be honest. The majority of Protestants live in Northern Ireland.

Balmed Out

Back to the op's question, why market the flag when we have leprechaun's ?

Balmed Out

KeithAFC wrote: »

Not many of them though, lets be honest. The majority of Protestants live in Northern Ireland.

True I think in the last census it was less then 6 percent between Church of Ireland, Methodist and Presbyterian but there was a big chunk of people who didnt put down a religion. These people have made a big contribution to pretty much every aspect of our nation and I cant understand why you (Whom I take to be a Northern Unionist) think we should slight them by removing their representation from the flag?

ballsymchugh

KeithAFC wrote: »

Not many of them though, lets be honest. The majority of Protestants live in Northern Ireland.

different country. why would they want a foreign flag to represent them?

and as for marketing the flag differently, if that would mean some girl in a half arsed girl band wearing a dress like ginger spice did with the union flag, then i'm quite happy with it the way it is now.

some_dose

[Rant]

Every single goddammed time there is a discussion about Ireland/the state of Ireland (as in the entity) or something relating to Irish people, it always, always, always ends up as Prodestants v Catholics. Christ on a fcuking bike - get over it and move the shag on. I'm as nationalist as the next person but this thread is about "Marketing the tri-colour" - not on "What the tri-colour stands for and the entire rehashed history of this nation". Not to back seat mod but I'm sure people are getting sick of others derailing threads by harking on with the same old shite each time.

[/Rant]

In relation to OP's question, I don't know why it isn't better marketed. The Union Jack is synonymous with fashion in some repects and the US flag and Russian/Cuba flags are used quite widely. It'd be cool to see the tri-colour used more often but maybe it's just that it's too boring a flag?