What with one thing and
another I’ve been spending a lot of time in Torre del Mar lately, no I
haven’t taken up tram spotting but it’s possible I may be nurturing an
equally odd obsession. The subject of my interest is, and not
unusually I might add, literally, ‘A load of old bull’.
My
interest started some years back when I drove down through Spain with
our son Ollie and on route we did a fair bit of Bull Spotting.
That is to say the giant, black, hillside-guardians like the one in
Torre, which (unknown to Ollie & I at the time) are known about these
parts as, The Osborne Bulls. If you’re a regular
Smile:)
reader you may well expect me to slip in some cheap gag about Ozzie or
Sharon right now but, that’d just be too
easy;)
so I’ll continue...
Someone once told me the bulls used to be a bill board advert (or bull
board?) for the Osborne drinks company, but what with magazine
deadlines, my sideline job as Daniel Craig’s body double and other
lame excuses, I never got round to finding out much more. So this year
I made it one of my New Years resolutions to wade through all the
(ahem) bull and pluck the facts from the blooming (no, that wasn’t
intended to be another swearing pun!)
Smile:) truth tree.
1956: Grupo Osborne commissioned an advertising company to
search for a suitable symbol to use to represent their Veterano
Brandy range. The first bull designs were revealed and a campaign
to place billboards shaped like bulls on hilltops near to Spain’s
national network of roads was created.
1957: The first bulls
were installed at various
locations in November 1957. They were made from wood, stood 4 metres
high, had white horns and bore the words, ‘Veterano - Osborne’ and a
picture of a glass of brandy.
1961: The design was changed
and the wooden silhouettes were coated in metallic paint to
protect them from the elements (sun, sun & more sun) and the newly
designed bulls stood at 7 metres high. But in 1962 a new law passed
which gave strict rules about the distance from the road bill boards
could stand. To ensure visibility the designers went back to the
drawing board... and returned with the 14 metre high bovine behemoths
we see today.
1990's:
When Spain outlawed roadside
billboards in the 1990's Osborne were instructed to remove
their bulls (they were troubling the cows) however, by this time they
had evolved from a mere corporate symbol and become known as Spain’s
unofficial national symbol. After much protesting by the people the
Osborne bulls which now numbered nearly 100 in Spain (see map), her
islands & Mexico, were spared the butchers block on the condition that
they were painted black. They were, and now the Osborne bulls are left
to guard the hills of Spain.
<Previous Activity<
Activities main page
>Next Activity>
