The Fall and Rise of Captain Birdseye
Sunday, 7 January 2007 - 20:57
Chloe raises the issue of Captain Birdseye, another long-serving and aged corporate mascot, who was temporarily replaced with a young and rugged adventurer. The mistreatment of Captain Birdseye does seem related to many of the same issues raised by Professor Weeto's retirement, and perhaps to their deeper causes.
Fish fingers have been transformed from a hard-earned treat into treasure to be won. Does this not indicate an awareness, in these modern, globalised times, that hard work is simply not the rate-determining step when it comes to life-chances. Through a pure accident of chance, we are born in a rich country, where everything tends to work out fairly well; no matter how hard a Burmese farmer toiled, his quality of life will likely fall short of ours. With this in mind, is it any wonder that the work ethic is in decline in the West? Adventuring and exploring is a decadent activity, pursued by the leisured classes, and the younger Birdseye symbolises the role Britain sees for itself in today's world, content to live off the riches of past success.
But perhaps the replacement of the trawler-man points to a growing environmental awareness amongst children and parents: in an age of dwindling cod stocks, the company would hardly want to associate itself with those actively engaged in overfishing. Unfortunately, this change is likely to be purely cosmetic and misleading as the fish fingers will have been produced by the same industrial methods as before. Another sign of social decline is this willingness to disengage from the realities of our impacts on the natural world; the reality is maligned purely for its ugliness. Despite the fact that today's generation have more information at their fingertips than ever before, most will be painfully unaware of the ecological impacts of fishing fleets, such as the indiscriminate capture of marine life, and potential devastation of the sea floor.
We can only hope that the removal of the younger actor reflects a sense of responsibility within the ranks of Birdseye, a desire to step back from the brink before it is too late. Perhaps, however, it was a purely pragmatic step called for by the fact that their product is aimed at a different market than Weetos: chocolatey breakfast cereals appeal to children's sweet tooths, while fish fingers are more savoury and enjoyed by a wider slice of society, many of whom would not appreciate blatant ageism. To finish things off, here is a topical musical interlude.
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