A former Frederick Street flattie has let Critic Te Ārohi in on an inside secret. The scoop? LJ Hooker’s ad for their former flat is giving Critic free advertising.
It began as the historic student tradition of plastering Critic covers on their flat wall. Jessie described the collaging experience as the “highlight” of the flat’s week. In 2020, one of the covers that made the cut was the iconic ‘cigarette butt’ – a photographic masterpiece featuring fifteen durries sticking out of somebody’s ass.
Seemingly unaware of her own pun, Jessie said, “It was crack-up as, so of course we had to put it on the fridge like a proud mum of their child's artwork.” And there it stayed, it seems, when the LJ Hooker photographer took pics for the flat’s online ad.
Needless to say, it’s become a flat tradition for the group to stalk the LJ Hooker website and see the increasing rent (the real inflation measure) and pictures of their old flat from 2020. And without fail every year, Critic’s (arguably iconic) bum cover from 2020 features front and centre of the picture of the lounge.
“Every single year they use the same pictures! It is 2025 – five years since living there and they are still using the same pictures. LJ Hooker really be giving [Critic] free advertising without fail each year, and it’s the best cover.” We are so blushing. Jessie tells us it’s what she’s looking forward to for 2026.
The unusual tradition and associated running joke is now a fond memory of Jessie’s Polytech days. “I want that [picture] to stay there forever,” she said. With the topic of the bum cover within her old flat resurfacing each year, she hit up Critic to get us in on the joke.
Jessie said she couldn’t help but wonder why the cover had remained up throughout the years and several changes in tenancy, one would assume. “I mean, come on. Have you not noticed that picture? That's hilarious,” Jessie said. Maybe the photographer and LJ Hooker found it funny, or simply haven’t noticed? We’ll never know – LJ Hooker did not respond for comment in time for print when Critic tried to follow their line of reasoning.
Jessie did say that it was “probably not” a testament to the laziness of property managers in North D, not being able to recall any beef from their days of tenancy. The most likely answer, she pondered, was that the flat hasn’t been done up – hey, if it ain’t broke. “Obviously if they did up the flat, then it's not gonna make sense to keep the same pictures. But man, if it looks the same from five years ago, I reckon that's pretty good advertising,” said Jessie.
At least for now, Critic and Jessie will be twiddling their thumbs for the 2025 flat drop, to see whether the durry-bum will make its sixth annual return. Whoever takes over this Frederick Street flat should consider themselves lucky, and explore the possibility of reviving a super cool tradition *wink*.