All nations compete for a place on the map*

Magnet #876 - Portugal

I love this magnet my friend brought this back for me from her vacation to the Continent. It's supercute, and oddly makes red ok next to Carolina blue.

I've magnetblogged on the rooster of Portugal before - you know, back when I thought it was a chicken. I've never been to Portugal but perhaps, one day I'll include it as a sidetrip when I finally get to Spain to see all of Gaudi's work.

I did, however, go to the Visit Portugal site, and found some really great stuff to do there. Also, they launched a branding campaign for Portugal, to help bolster their tourism numbers and improve general awareness.

According to their brand brochure (which probably had more background info than visitors really need - except for us who love this kind of stuff), Portugal has always had low awareness, and has always been viewed as "Southern Europe." Which seems to be a bad thing in their eyes.

So, with BBDO Portugal's help, they reframed the conversation, explaining that their great differentiator to the rest of the continent is that they are actually Europe's West Coast - and way cooler than folks realize.

I dunno what their budget was, but it had to be big, because they hired Nick Knight, a fancy-schmancy, contemp photographer, to execute the imagery of the campaign that makes the Portugal look and feel "contemporary, cosmopolitan and entrepreneurial." All in all, it's a pretty cool campaign, with all their celebrities and fantastic photography. So mission accomplished, I think.

But, I still gotta ask, if Portugal's the West Coast, then what's Europe's East Coast?


*From their brochure - an interesting thought, since by the very virtue of a map, every nation has a place.

The rooster crows

Magnet #331 - Galo de Barcelos, Portugal

A friend of mine brought this magnet back for me from her trip to Portugal. It's O Galo de Barcelos, the unofficial symbol for Portugal.

As with most legends, his origins are so old, that no one knows for sure the story behind it, which leaves us with several versions.

One version is some rich dude in Barcelos gave a banquet, and piece of silver was stolen. One of the guests was accused of the crime, tried and found guilty - and the whole while, he swore his innocence. So, the magistrate gave him one chance to prove his case. The guy saw the rooster in a basket and said if that rooster crows, I'm innocent. It did. So the guy was set free.

There are other versions along the same lines, but say that it was a murder the guy (supposedly a Spaniard) committed, and that he had already been hung, and when the rooster (which was already roasted) came alive and crowed three times, the accused had miraculously survived the rope. He was freed, and went back to Barcelos and built a religious statue to thank the saints who had helped him.

Legends are fabulous, aren't they? Written word, people. Never underestimate the power of the written word.

Anyway, the real reason I picked today, was because I hadn't yet done my homework on O Galo, and somehow had thought this was a pretty chicken. And I was going to use that chicken to expound on the wonders of the best meal ever - scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns.

Yeah, the rooster was probably a little more fascinating than breakfast.