South Africa, Sept. 2 -- Questionable ads One which shocked me, although it didn't seem to ruffle many feathers among Joburg people at the time, was a radio ad for a dreadful TV soapie called Tanamera, Lion of Singapore, which was running on an SABC channel in the early 1990s.

The ad's soundtrack was of passionate sex, then the announcement "Singapore, 1940", followed by some other occasions of frenzied coupling.

Each time came the breathless question: "Did the Earth move for you, darling?"

Finally - and I kid you not, it was "Hiroshima, 1945" and the question was, again, "Did the Earth move for you?"

The Japanese embassy in Pretoria at the time was horrified, but being Japanese, were too polite to complain. But as tackiness goes, tha...