 The term is simultaneously both parochially proud and self-deprecatingly humorous.It indicates a pride that a small country should be able to produce individuals which, in the opinion of the speaker, would be of a necessary standard to become world famous, yet at the same time it recognises that these individuals come from a country which does not have a high international recognition factor, and therefore these individuals are destined to remain "big fish in a small pond".The phrase was created by Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland, the advertising agency of Coca-Cola Amatil at the time, and came into widespread use in 1993 when it was used as the slogan for the New Zealand soft drink Lemon & Paeroa (L&P).