Nevertheless, just as yesterday’s ill-conceived attempt to ride your kid’s skateboard is tomorrow’s YouTube sensation, it’s Ashburton’s slogan that has found itself going viral.
So here was RNZ Checkpoint’s Lisa Owen this week, gleefully trolling the town’s mayor with hilarious new alternatives like “Ashburton, for a pie and a pee”.
To his credit the guy gamely took it on the chin, knowing he was probably on a hiding to nothing. It is, after all, the fate of small-town mayors that whenever they appear in the national media it will probably be because they have been hospital-passed the job of making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Phrases like “this is a problem that could happen in any community”, and “I guess I really should have closed the beach after that first shark attack” spring to mind.