prensa – Page 2 – don't confuse the narrator

tact in advertising

Metro UK frontpage March 14th: Japanese earthquake news and Pokémon advert

Occasional unfortunate juxtapositions of headlines or adverts and news stories can’t be avoided, particularly online when there may be no one person in charge of a page design and layout.

Even so, I was shocked to see the front page of today’s UK Metro digital edition.

There’s a huge, attention-grabbing photo of devastation caused by the earthquake in Japan, and right below it an advert for Pokémon Everywhere which claims that “over 150 new pokémon have arrived in the UK”.
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state of alarm

I woke this morning to find the country in estado de alarma.

On the radio they were talking about the military being mobilised, Spanish air space was closed and we were awaiting news from La Moncloa. It all sounded pretty desperate.
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political polemic

I know I try and keep away from politics on the blog, but because of the Catalán elections, there have been a couple of Spanish stories in the news this week and they are really too good to ignore. The first, reported by the BBC under the headline Spain outrage over migrant bombing game centres on a video game – Rescate (Rescue) – that the Partido Popular launched a few days on their website.

I haven’t played the game, which seems to be no longer available on the website, but have read a few of the reports in both Spanish and UK national press. The tag line for the game appears to be:

Ayuda a Alicia y a Pepe, su gaviota, a rescatar a Cataluña de la crisis

and it features Alicia Sánchez-Camacho (President of the PP in Catalonia) as Alicia Croft, perched on a great white seagull shooting at illegal immigrants and symbols of Catalán nationalism.
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race day

Today is doce de octubre: la fiesta nacional de España, celebrated in Spain as el día de la hispanidad – ‘Hispanity’ day – although it used to be called el día de la raza – the day of the race.

Although I’m not in Madrid to see the parade, I did catch part of the desfile militar on the TV this morning. There were certainly plenty of horses in attendance, but none of them seemed to be making much effort to win the race.

And, sadly, there were no glorious Ascot-style hats. Indeed, as can be seen from this photo from El País, none of the royal ladies wore hats of any sort. A poor sort of race day, if you ask me.

of gender and generalities

There’s a general strike planned in Spain for this coming Wednesday and this advert appears in El Público today:

The call to action comes from the Izquierda Unida, the main left wing party in Spain (as opposed to the PSOE – the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party – currently in power and not half as left wing as the name might lead you to expect).

Whatever my sympathies might be for the left, and for those who intend to strike, I object to the phrase nosotras y nosotros.
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