DIARY: Rant - Time are getting tough ... you'll see what I mean shortly

The Hong Kong Arts Festival 2002 programme fell out of my letter box recently, as I'm sure it did from maybe a million others across Hong Kong. Adorning the hugely expensive back cover is the accompanying advertisement for Rolex. As you know, the prestigious Swiss chronometer company (these aren't just "watches" baby!) represents wealth, sophistication, exacting precision, and attention to the most minute of details. Oh, and also glaring inattention to the most basic of English grammar rules. There, above a stylish black and white photograph of singers Tony Bennett and Diana Krall, whose voices presumably sound like pure gold, is the headline "There are time when it isn't silence that is golden". A minor mistake? Not really, especially when you know how many people an ad like this has to pass through before it can get the official sign-off. And especially for the prime back cover of a city's Arts Festival programme that will be kept on people's desks and referred to for another four months (just what poor Hong Kong, struggling so hard to be Asia's world class city, doesn't need). Because for an articulate, affluent and educated audience, the very people Rolex clearly considers its prime market, you can imagine what this does for its brand. If I was Tony Bennett or Diana Krall, I'd also be more than a little miffed. Time like these, you need a new head of marketing ... Whoever you are, and whatever you want to get off your chest, send your rants to rant@media.com.hk, and we'll print them anonymously.

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