As the submissions continue to be loaded into the flag.govt.nz gallery, there’s been growing international coverage about the “designs”. The Guardian picked up on the process and published an article highlighting “15 Quirky Contenders”. It’s hard not to be embarrassed by such coverage, however pointing out how poor or “quirky” some of the designs are is important. It got worse though as The Guardian collated some of our other most recent international media coverage:

Remember, by way of context, this is a nation in which the prime minister admitted to pulling a woman’s ponytail, a man was convicted of attempting to take out women’s teeth during sex, a corpse on a gurney rolled out of a hearse and onto a highway, a pet sheep was stolen and spray painted with an Isis logo on one side and “420” on the other, a runner drank her own breast milk after getting lost in the bush, and a parochial swimming pool had a six-week ordeal with a “serial pooper”.

And that’s just in the past couple of months. How do you capture those eccentricities in shape and colour alone? These bloody legends gave it a decent stab.

BuzzFeed posted another listicle of “The 20 Best Designs For The New Zealand Flag”. Number 14: “Fush & Chups” is an extremely funny and clever concept, however I have less tolerance for some of the other submissions.

Both BuzzFeed and The Guardian are clearly having a laugh with these articles. Sadly there’s been little critical coverage internationally about the process. It seems it is much easier to post links to hilariously bad submissions than write in-depth articles on identity, culture, vexillology, and design.

I’ve collected some of the other articles the flag redesign process has being mentioned in below for posterity:

Vice: This Is What Happens When You Let New Zealanders Make Their Own Flag

Huffington Post: New Zealand Asked The Internet To Design A New Flag, And This Is What They Came Up With

BBC News: The colourful contenders for New Zealand’s new flag

RT: Kiwi bird vs. Union Jack: New Zealand suggests new national flag

Daily Mail: A robot Kiwi and sheep on a rainbow: After New Zealand government asks members of the public to submit designs for a new flag, we reveal the more unusual suggestions

The Star: Could this become New Zealand’s new flag?

The Australian: New Zealand flag: designs from the public flood in

CNBC: Could a kiwi with laser eyes be on this nation’s next flag?

Gizmodo: 9 Designs That Could Finally Replace New Zealand’s Controversial Flag

The Independant: We don’t think New Zealanders are taking redesigning their national flag entirely seriously