Kangaroo Butter

I don't know if anyone remembers upsidedown rice and Kangaroo Butter. They were part of an Australian food marketing campaign in the last century (but within my lifetime).

Well, the upsidedown rice was a clever joke but the Kangaroo butter backfired as many people though it actually came from Kangaroos and were not prepared for this indigenous innovative leap.

With this sort of stuff in the back of my mind (it never leaves you) I was taken aback, just before Christmas, at the Panda sign above which suggested that pet pandas should now be binned.

I was even more taken aback at the post Christmas revelation that you can now apparently get your pet dog in a tin in your local supermarket.

Not only that, but it comes in convenient chunks and apparently accompanied by a chicken and some gravy. Whatever will they think of next?

For any non-Irish-speaking readers, I should explain that MADRA is simply the word for dog in the Irish language, and it has been chic in recent times for products to bear an Irish language name. Fiacla toothpaste, for example, springs to mind.

For an older generation there is always the story of Moggerly's sausages but that is probably best left for another day.

And hopefully the current horseburger controversy will not last long enough for that product to attract an Irish sounding name.