(My article from the Indo, Thursday April 24. Not on the Indo website, so here it is.)

It would be hard to miss the spate of Henri Hippo ads which have dominated trains, buses and billboards since he was reintroduced a few weeks ago by Ulster Bank. The friendly-faced mammal, as we all know, aims to encourage younger children to stick a few quid aside for a rainy day (or a mortgage deposit) rather than blowing it all on sweets, cinema tickets and games.

This isn’t a new concept by any means, or a unique one. When he was first launched in 1980, Henri was just one of a group of anthropomorphic characters with alliterative names, aiming to encourage kids in this way. It was an important concept at the time, as saving was an alien concept in a country built on renting, spending and a circular cash flow.

But my, how things have changed since his first run in the limelight. The Celtic Tiger hunted down the original Henri and tore him to shreds, as pocket money rates soared, gifts increased in magnitude and parents generally sought to give their kids the luxurious upbringings of which they themselves had been deprived.

And while it’s telling enough that Henri has been revived in the first place, given the current economic climate, what’s even more indicative of the current state of affairs is the fact that these ads are clearly aimed at adults as opposed to kids.

Slogans such as “Remember when a mobile was something that hung from your bedroom ceiling” or “Remember when all you wanted in life was a SodaStream” aren’t merely to tap into the ongoing nostalgia craze. If anything, it’s an alarm going off. Time to adopt the crash landing position, folks. No soft landings here, so please quickly make your adjustments before we hit the ground.

For the campaign is the first long-overdue nod from the banks, ever the great optimists when it comes to all things economic, that things may not continue as they have been for the last decade. A colourful and subtle way of saying “Well, alright then, there is a recession on the way. But hey, it’s gonna be fun!”

Don’t be fooled by that smiley face, that cuddly demeamour and those warm memory-filled catchphrases. Henri the Hippo is the harbringer of doom. The first hippopotamus of the economic apocalypse.

- Aidan Coughlan

I just logged in and looked through my recent changes, and how delighted I was to see that almost every single one is by someone from our dear class; a week ahead of the biggest deadline we've faced to date, yet we manage to become more active than ever we've managed before on this little social networking distractor-supreme. As if practicing for a BA in Procrastination, Antoin's quiz is leading the rounds, while the saying-boxes seem to be occupied with pleasantly vicious anti-dissertation messages and there's more videos being changed around now than there has been in four years put together.

Keep up the good work my friends, I think we all feel that little bit better when we look around and see everyone else trying as hard as we are to avoid the inevitable!

Hey folks,

So I was wondering if a few of you would take 2-3 minutes to do this survey for my dissertation... it's about talk radio in Ireland, is very short and you don't need to register or give an email address or anything like that. More responses gives the thing more credence, so I hope you'll get clickin... and I'd love to hear any other thoughts you have on radio in Ireland.

The survey is available at http://irishradio.speedsurvey.com

Cheers!

Aidan