A Wellington advertising agency has come up with an alternative logo to the International Arts Festival's controversial kiwi with a "palm shoved up its backside."
A rival New Colenso logo features a golden naked man - looking suspiciously akin to an Oscar trophy - flying on wings made of nikau palm
leaves.
The Saatchi and Saatchi-designed New Zealand Festival 2000 logo, which has a nikau palm sprouting out the back of a kiwi, was launched in July.
New Colenso design accounts director Jonathan Hales said the alternative logo was designed because it believed the festival's choice denigrated a national icon and was offensive to Maori.
"The designer seems to have tried to give the kiwi some plumage to poke a bit of fun at it," Mr Hales said. "At first glance, however, it looks like the palm is shoved up its backside."
Mr Hales said New Colenso had received a lot of negative feedback about the kiwi because it was an icon. He also believed it went against the spirit of the festival, which should emphasise inspiration, innovation, greatness and "soul."
University of Auckland Maori studies head Professor Pare Hopa said last month that the logo was horrible and looked more like "a bird with its bum on fire."
When the logo first appeared, Saatchi and Saatchi spokesman Hayden Doughty said the nikau palm was used as a link to previous festivals and to catch the eye. It designed the logo free of charge.
The nikau has featured in the last two festival logos. The 1996 version was a photograph of a Pakeha woman whose lower half was an image of one of the metal nikau palms that surround the city library. Last year's image was a negative of a Polynesian man whose lower half was a real palm.
New Zealand Festival 2000 executive director Carla van Zon defended the logo, of which she said the organisers were very proud. "Rather than the suggested 'howls of outrage,' the release of the kiwi logo has met with an enormously positive response from the festival's participants and the public." - NZPA
