The Kia Ora Incident similar event took place in 2014 when KiwiYo Whangarei employees were banned from using the term "kia ora." The Kia Ora Incident The Kia Ora Incident is an incident that took place in 1984, at a time when the use of Māori phrases was uncommon in New Zealand. An Auckland telephone operator, Naida Glavish, was instructed to stop using ""kia ora"" when greeting callers after the post office had received a complaint. She refused to do so and was consequently stood down, with the whole affair attracting much public interest. The Postmaster-General, Rob Talbot, convinced the Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon,
Kia-Ora launched a colourful, animated advertising campaign, directed by Oscar Grillo of Klacto Animations, which used the jingle "We all adore a Kia-Ora", and featured a child in a straw hat, a dog called Fedora who served the drink, and multiple crows who pursued the boy for a drink, with the boy responding with "it's too orangey for crows". Later promotions included Caramba's song "Fido", and the jingle was referred to in the Spaced episode "Gone". The advertisements attracted a degree of controversy in later years, with claims of implicit racism, because the boy looked similar to a golliwog. The brand