Originally Posted by
Traffic_Is_Er_Was
I absolutely doubt that. I would hazard that 99% of the world would have no idea what a Norfolk pine is, let alone what a stylised picture of one looks like, however, the Norfolk Islanders don't care, and aren't making exceptions for the world's ignorance.
So it actually says nothing at all about France. But people know it as the French flag. Because of market penetration. They have no idea what it means.
Our flag says nothing about Australia to the rest of the world. The only reason it is unknown is because of lack of market penetration. That shouldn't mean we have to dumb it down to kindergarten level to make up for that. Get it out there in enough people's faces, and it could be a picture of a naughts and crosses game and people will equate it with Australia. It's just brand recognition. The fact that Government policies and mandates like the "Made in Australia logo" do not advertise the flag, and choose to use various other images, just perpetuates the cultural cringe and the problem. It's almost like we are "Officially Ashamed" of our flag, and that is plain wrong.
Completely the opposite. It's because of the cultural cringe that we are ashamed of the flag because it's not totally Australian. It became the flag by accident not by design and it was a requirement at the time that such 'colonial flags' must include the Union flag to indicate the status of the dominion as 'an imperial dominion of the British Empire'. It is also because we are so unimaginative and artistically moribund that we don't have the guts or the nous to change it.
Canada never had an 'official flag' until 1965 (like us until 1953), their national flag was the Union Flag. They chose for their first 'national flag' an unequivocally Canadian design. Just because some tobacco company held a competition in 1901 and a British arse-licking PM decided to make it official in law in 1953 ("I did but see her passing by and yet I'll love her 'til I die" - sickening, even to largely royalist populace at the time) doesn't mean it 'represents' us.
It has a FOREIGN FLAG on it, thus it can NEVER be Australian.
The clear reason you NEVER see it on most tourism ads, brochures and other collateral, or on aid packages or made in Australia goods is because anyone who sees it overseas is bound to think of Britain.
The ludicrousness of your position is that you seriously think that someone advocating getting the foreign symbol OFF our flag is somehow un-Australian - totally unbelievable.
Hey, guess what. For a long time Finland prominently featured a swastika on their flags and arms - gee, why did they get rid of it, perhaps they just needed to keep it and rely on 'brand recognition'.