In news that has rocked Australia, it was revealed today that the architect of the famed Sydney Opera House designed the iconic structure to look like a school of great white sharks about to chomp down on their victims, and that only by carefully controlling the angle of all photos released have government officials, for 40 years, been able to fool the public into thinking it was meant to represent a fleet of sails on Sydney Harbour.
“The designer, Jorn Utzon, was Danish, he was irritated by critics who wanted the structure to be the work of an Australian, and he saw a way to exact revenge that no one would notice until it was too late,” said Bob Payne, Arts and Architecture Correspondent for the travel humor website bobcarrieson.com.
Utzon’s plan was that the image of sharks would make tourists think twice about visiting Australia, and consider a vacation to Denmark instead.
“The government coverup thwarted the plan, but it probably would not have worked anyway, because the kind of person an Australian vacation often appeals to – athletic, beach-loving, maybe-try-a-little surfing types – would typically rather face a great white shark than the prospect of vacationing in Northern Europe,” Payne said.
With the secret out, teams of public relations professionals have been working on campaigns to mitigate the damage. So far, the campaign showing the most promise is to turn the great white shark image into a friendly mascot by painting it with a toothy smile and naming it Sydney.
In other tourism news from Australia, officials there, in an effort to reposition the image of another tourism icon, are considering changing the name of the Great Barrier Reef to the Great Welcoming Reef.
“It should help with the visitor numbers, at least until we get past this Sydney Opera House thing,” one tourism official said.
Travel humor writer Bob Payne has been offered a great white shark mascot of his own by the Tourism Australia marketing team.
BigStock photo.
