Firemen's strip protest

[SweatyAussie]

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,,25141687-5006301,00.html

Come on Bondsman, this cause is right up your alley! I'd have thought a Bonds-lover like yourself would have been one of the first to show your - ummmmm... mettle, and get out there in your Y-fronts in support of this protest!

[deusex]

It really is sad that the whole world is losing manufacturing jobs to China and call center jobs to India.

[SweatyAussie]

It really is sad that the whole world is losing manufacturing jobs to China and call center jobs to India.
Agreed. I don't have anything against China per se, but when you are already producing something well, and have an established market, and our dollar has plummeted so that should make the local products more competitive with o/s, I just don't get it. It's not as though people are going to stop buying socks and underwear just because there's a near-recession..

The public might be more accepting of the need for the company to cut some costs in order to save the long-term future of the industry, were it not for the obscene salaries paid to their top brass, while they are telling their shop-floor workers "Sorry, you're not required as of tomorrow".

[The Bondsman]

Yes, I have been speechless (not a usual state for me, I will admit); since this cynical action from a company I have supported, ....and has supported me, for years!
The massive bonuses the upper executives granted themselves just before sacking the workers really galls me.
I have written to Bonds (Aust) HUH!!! expressing my extreme dissatisfaction, ......and meanwhile am contemplating just which underwear I shall be wearing in future. Trouble is I do have such a sizeable stockpile of Bonds put away!
May even have to contemplate a new "name" here at USG! :eek:
I am considering becoming "China-Plate", .....rhyming slang here for "mate", ....and of course the "China" bit being the irony.
This company has made such a big deal of playing the "Aussie" company thing too!
The call-centres I couldn't care less about, ....I have found that the most effective way to be taken off their list is to ask very firmly to speak to their supervisor when called. For some reason the phone eventually goes dead, and you get no more calls.
We were getting up to three a DAY! :eek: :mad:
Now? None for months!

[SweatyAussie]

I am considering becoming "China-Plate", .....rhyming slang here for "mate", ....and of course the "China" bit being the irony.
or you could go for Aussiebum - I don't know whether you wear the products but at least they are still made here as far as I know, and the name would suit. :D

[The Bondsman]

"....This year the internet-based company (AussieBum) is on target to turn over more than $20 million. Iconic label Bonds has courted the company and AussieBum now has major real estate in some of the world’s leading fashion stores: Selfridges and Harvey Nichols in London, Printemps and Galeries Lafayette in Paris and KaDeWe in Berlin, among them."
Maybe it's only a matter of time too.
Plus the fact that AussieBum apparent development plan for the future just sees their stuff becoming briefer and briefer, ...which to my eye just makes your bloke look like he's got the smallest todger! :eek:
(If it will fit in anything THAT small....!)

I was really taken by their product when it first arrived on the scene, ....they went back to 100% nylon for swimmers for a start!, ....but as time goes by it has lost the "bite" it had and now they have just gone for "brief" and colour to the exclusion of most other features.
Sadly there are those who will equate "brief" with sexiness, in that the briefer the garment is, therefore it must be sexier, but on the average bloke, .......remember they are NOT all like the astoundingly well-built models AussieBum uses, ....on the average bloke, briefer is certainly NOT better! :eek: There are far more flattering options.
When blokes are absolutely SQUEEZED into, ...or should I say bursting out of tiny little things, it just makes the observer laugh rather than see "sexy"!
And it's mostly the ....er, .....shall we say "older, ...and less toned" bodies that are doing it out in public too.
Surely one does not want to set off derogatory giggles and snide asides?
I know this is un-PC, but wearing very tiny suits can also make them look like a dirty old perve in the sandhills or on the beach etc. Sad, ....but true!
Sales of AussieBum costumes may well be up, but if you visit any beach in Australia, ...apart from the uber-gay few in Sydney, you'd be hard pressed to find even one bloke wearing a tiny little AussieBum swimsuit. It must be the underwear that's keeping the company afloat.

[deusex]

Speaking of telemarketers....

The Canadian government decided to make a do not call list here and enforce it and as you can imagine, people rushed to add their names to it. Well, they also made it easy to access so the telemarketing companies could grab the list so they knew who not to call. People were adding their home phones and their cell phones.....

Of course the flaw...

American telemarketers, immune to Canadian laws just needed to go to the website download the huge list, and so the calls have actually increased for those on the list.

I now play a few games if I have the time...one is to see how long I can keep the person on the phone knowing that they have a quota to fill. The other is to do a reversal, asking them if they want to buy a jockstrap and being equally as arrogant. And finally, insisting that they give me their personal home phone number, promising to call them at some ungodly hour to continue the conversation.

[SweatyAussie]

As always, the cartoonists are having a field day with any news relating to underwear:

http://newmatilda.com/files/images/Leak2Mar.jpg

For the benefit of those members not from Oz, the bloke being lampooned is Wayne Swan, the Australian Federal treasurer.

[deadgoodundiesdotcom]

I now play a few games if I have the time...one is to see how long I can keep the person on the phone knowing that they have a quota to fill. .

We use Skype quite a lot in my business and so that we make it easier for our USA customers we have a US phone number via skype which comes through to our skype phone (hence savinf the US customer a international call).
Downside of this is that of course we get cold calls froms sales people in the US trying to sell us Satellite TV, credit cards etc.
I just let them go through their sales pitch and then hit them with the bombshell that they are calling the UK - that soon gets me off their lists.

Other game I like to play is what I like to call the pervy game.

We quite often get calls from companies saying we want to list you on charity calendar/office planners etc. all of which never end up getting produced and no one has ever seen them.
What they do is phone up and claim we spoke to them last year and said we would help them out this year. If they don't listen to me refuting this (and carrying on) I just say in a low voice "Mmmmmmm you sound sexy, what are you wearing right now" totally throws them off balance :D

[deusex]

I just say in a low voice "Mmmmmmm you sound sexy, what are you wearing right now" totally throws them off balance :D

Oh! I like that one, I'm going to have to borrow that.

[The Bondsman]

As always, the cartoonists are having a field day with any news relating to underwear:
For the benefit of those members not from Oz, the bloke being lampooned is Wayne Swan, the Australian Federal treasurer.
What's even odder is that he's wearing a Jockey Y-front design in the cartoon, ...NOT Bonds at all!
Guess the cartoonist was definitely NOT an underwear lover!

[pnhmrk]

Oh! I like that one, I'm going to have to borrow that.

And how about adding a line that includes the question "what style of underwear are you wearing?" :cool: (I am of course assuming that it's a male caller and not a female one)

[The Bondsman]

In like the ploy where you say in an official sounding voice:
"International Sex-Line Services. Please be aware that your call is being charged at ten dollars per minute. Your credit card number please."