Heraldry Is Alive and Well.

Well, it’s alive, anyway.

And for those of us who don’t live in England and so will not be seeing these advertisements "on thousands of bus stops across England", you might check out this link (http://www.bombardier.co.uk/bombardier/about-the-beer/advertising) to Bombardier Beer’s "new advertising celebrating everything that is 'Positively English'. The advertisements feature Bombardier at the heart of a selection of English icons, such as Stonehenge, Henry VIII and Red Squirrels in a modern take on a coat of arms."

These ads are the kind of thing where the longer you look at them, the more you see in them. I noticed the White Cliffs of Dover right off, but it took me a little while to notice both Stonehenge and the Cornish pastry as compartments. (Winston Churchill in a Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper uniform popped right out at me - as did Queen Victoria as Robin Hood - but it wasn’t until a later viewing that I noticed the 99 ice cream cone that he is holding.) I’m clearly not enough of an Anglophile to recognize every "Positively English" thing in these three "achievements of arms", but the Red Arrows precision flight team did pop out to me. (But then, I’m a military aviation fan from way back.)

I guess, really, that if people can have some fun (like they pretty obviously do here) with heraldry, then heraldry is probably both alive, and well.