Monthly Archives: October 2012

Brand Retconning

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Over time, a number of corporate logos and personages have undergone subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in image to reflect changing social attitudes. Retroactive continuity (retcon for short) is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work, most often used in the comic book universe. What follows are a few brands who have re-worked their logos or spokespeople.

Aunt Jemima

This is one of the first brand updates that I recall being aware of.

This ad was from 1909. and Auntie looks like Al Jolson.

This 1925 ad shows a “mammy” looking more like an animated cartoon caricature, more clearly visible in the enlargement below.

The Aunt Jemima I remember looked cuddly and plump and just like the nanny you’d love to have:

And mm-mm! Don’t she make dat good fried chicken, too. The company was obviously trying to present an image of down-home, antebellum comfort, which in the 50’s still seemed totally à propos in the American psyche. As it happened, I did have two African-American nannies when I was growing up; Edith did make killer fried chicken, and also taught us how to make our own soap with animal fat and lye which had been leached from ashes. Nice lady, and sharp as a tack.

There was another one that I recall – she looked a lot like the plump Jemima, but wasn’t anything like the image. I don’t recall her name, but she chased me around the house with an ashtray, and that was the last time I ever saw her.

In 1968, Auntie got a makeover – she shed a bunch of weight and they lightened her up considerable. By the 60’s, the civil-rights movement was in full-swing, and the black mammy image wasn’t going to go over well with a large part of America’s population. Still, there were conflicting attitudes within the black population as well: hair straightening and skin lightening were popular, as though it somehow made a difference in social acceptance or self image.

Finally, in 1989 Aunt Jemima shed her scarf to reveal a natural hairdo and earrings.

A brand is a powerful thing. People have been buying Aunt Jemima products for almost 120 years, and a company would be loth to give up that kind of brand exposure. It seems to me, though, that clinging to the name and logo, even though updated, falls into the same zone as naming sports teams things like the Braves and the Redskins; it might be time for a complete rebranding, much the way Esso became Exxon, or U.S. Steel became USX. (Not that the letter X has any special value – I don’t know how likely I’d be to buy Nxxoxxi Pancakes. I make my own from scratch, anyway.)

The Campbell Kids

This one is unusual. The original kids were designed by Grace Drayton in 1904, and they were strong with the force through the 20’s, when their popularity tapered off. In the 50’s the kids were revitalized, had their own TV show, and have been part of the Brand ever since. The first image is from 1930, the second from the 50’s, and the kids are just as plump and well-fed as a Reubens painting. In 1984, the kids got a baryatric re-work, as seen in the third image above – but it’s not easy to find any pictures of the re-designed twins out there – it’s almost as if they have been scrubbed from the net.

Quaker Oats

Larry, the smiling Quaker so familiar to oatmeal lovers, was given a makeover in 2012 in order to keep the 135-year-old Quaker brand “fresh and innovative,” according to the company. The changes were subtle – a bit less hair, about 5 lbs off the face, and a few wrinkles gone – but he does look a tad younger and healthier than he used to.

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All of these changes make a certain type of sense. Racial attitudes change, and people are becoming far more health-conscious. But the next one seems to come from somewhere out beyond Pluto (which is still a planet), if you get my drift.

Minnie Mouse

Apparently, Barney’s department store is not satisfied to use Minnie Mouse as she normally looks in a Lanvin dress… so they’ve resurrected Heroin Chic for the occasion.

What? The? Hqiz?

This insult to the whole concept of body image (apparently only 5’11”, size zero looks good in Lanvin) has prompted a petition over at change.org entitled “Leave Minnie Mouse Alone,” which at the time of this writing almost 90,000 people have signed. From the petition website:

According to sources cited on the non-profit National Association of Anorexia and Associated Eating Disorders website:

  • 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures.
  • 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape.
  • 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner.
  • 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat.

Girls have enough pressure to be thin, now the beloved Disney mouse of their childhood has to add to the message that the only good body is a tall, size 0 body? Enough already. Let’s give girls a chance to celebrate the actual bodies they have instead hating them for not fitting into a Lanvin dress. Then maybe enough girls will get together and demand dresses that look good on their actual, non-digitally altered bodies and designers will just have to become talented enough to design a dress that looks good on them.

For what it’s worth, Minnie is not the only character to be violated in this manner:

Daisy Duck as a starving Barbie

Goofy looking like nothing more than an “Axe” model.

Really, Barney’s. How in thunder did something like this ever pass muster? And who at Disney greenlighted this use of their characters? I can only think that the executives themselves were smoking something.

The Old Wolf has *gag* spoken.

New York: Fraunce’s Tavern, 1900

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Click for full-size image. Found at Shorpy.

“Fraunce’s Tavern, Broad and Pearl Streets.” The building, which figured in the Revolutionary War, is said to be Manhattan’s oldest. [1] There are so many things to see in New York – this one probably never even got onto my radar during the 18 years I lived there.

This picture was taken the year my grandfather emigrated to New York from Italy.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] Apparently this building, however, is not the original one that Washington knew, that having been destroyed in a fire with only one wall left standing. It has been rebuilt and remodeled several times – see the Wikipedia article.

Reminiscing: My first job

Posted on by The Old Wolf

A news article on October 11th, 2010 reported that the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Winona, Minn. filled its last-ever lot of soda bottled in returnable six-and-a-half ounce glass bottles.

Refillable bottles played a big part in my first real job.

Aside from a few television and movie bit parts that my parents wangled for me (like a Kraft macaroni and cheese commercial, or episode 64 of “Twelve O’Clock High”), I wasn’t gainfully employed until I was 16. At that point, I was hired by the Daitch Shopwell grocery store on 1st Avenue and 58th Street in New York City.

Daitch advertisement from Mar. 4, 1970 – found at Soyo Sunset

Too young to qualify for cashiering, I functioned as a stock boy on occasion, putting stuff on shelves after stamping them with the prices:

 

Price stamps – we’d use this purple ink to stamp the tops of cans. These photos found at Itsy Bits and Pieces.

But my main job was driving one of these all around the local vicinity delivering groceries. Mine was gray, but it was the very same beast.

I was a small kid, and these things could get heavy – fortunately, New York doesn’t have a lot of hills. But I recall enjoying the job, because finally I was earning money of my own.

In addition to my salary – a big $1.50 per hour – I’d get tips from the people whose groceries I delivered. In 1966, a quarter was average. Fifty cents was good, and there was one family named Bruff who usually bought four jillionteen gallons of milk, who would invariably tip me a dollar. I got rich that summer, and ended up with a huge jar full of change, which I would scour for additions to my coin collection. You could still find a lot of silver coins in change back then, and buffalo nickels, and the occasional Indian-head penny, so it was a win all the way round. Some folks, however, instead of tipping me in cash, would give me their empty bottles to return for a deposit. At a nickel a shot, four six-packs would net me $1.20 back at the store, so I was always happy to oblige.

Funny the things we think of for no reason. The Daitch chain was aquired by A&P, the store itself has long been something else, but the memories linger…

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Live and Learn

Posted on by The Old Wolf

A “friend” of mine posted this on Facebook yesterday:

So, yeah… funny joke and all that, and I do like the Tokens version, but this is an Ohrwurm [1] of the first water, and was singing “Lion Sleeps Tonight” for the rest of the day.

What I didn’t know was that the original version of this song was written by Solomon Linda, entitled Mbube (lion). In 2004, Linda’s descendants filed suit against Walt Disney for unauthorized use of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in “The Lion King,” and in 2006 received a settlement including payment for past use and entitlement to future royalties. (Wikipedia)

Below is a video of Linda’s group “Evening Birds” singing Mbube – this original version can also be heard in the background of “Cry the Beloved Country”

The Old Wolf has spoken.

[1] This is one of those great words from other languages for which we have no corresponding term in English. Literally an “ear worm,” it’s the German term for one of those melodies that gets stuck in your head and won’t let go. A couple of other ones from German that I love:

1) Gardinenpredigt (curtain sermon): The kind of harangue that Andy Capp expects when coming home drunk at 3:00 AM… but doesn’t get in this case.

The “curtain” in this case refers to the old bedcurtains that used to hang on poster beds:

The labels on the various implements below are 11 PM, 12 AM, 1 AM, etc.

2) Drachenfutter: “dragon fodder” – a gift or some other form of peace offering used by a husband or boyfriend in order to avoid the kind of reaming-out mentioned above.

Some random graphic thoughts about faith

Posted on by The Old Wolf

From various artists and not-artists.

With thanks to Schulz and Frog Blog

Can you think of anything stupider to fight about?

Wiley is one of the best cartoonists out there.

Courtesy of This is True

At one time an actual product (tongue-in-cheek, of course). I have one of these in my files.

 

From Wikipedia. There are people who will happily exclude their neighbors from heaven (as if they had the authority to do so) for believing in the wrong flavor of millennial doctrine – and these are all mainstream, evangelical faiths.

Mormons couldn’t possibly be Christians – they think God has a body and still talks to people.

“Don’t be a Dick”

A good way to observe your religious holidays – courtesy of Stan Lynde

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”

Pure religion

Not pure religion – Pat Bagley

A thought for all ages.

The Old Wolf has spoken

 

First the brontosaurus, then the galaxy

Posted on by The Old Wolf

When I was a kid, the biggest dinosaur was the brontosaurus. Later scientists declared that there was no such beast, and renamed it apatosaurus, the post office notwithstanding.

Well, you can argue until the cows come home, but the bottom line is that scientific knowledge is always advancing. Except that Pluto is still a planet, dammit.

We’ve known for a long time that our galaxy was a spiral, similar to the great “nebula” in Andromeda, but over my lifetime, our knowledge of our home has increased exponentially, and it’s hard to keep abreast of all the changes.

(Image found at Nature.)

First off, we now know our galaxy is a barred spiral, with an elongated central core. Moreover, instead of being a lone unit in space as was once thought, our galaxy is only part of a large dynamic neighborhood of at least 26 dwarf galaxies (some of which are being torn apart and consumed, like the Saggitarius star stream), 157 globular clusters, a massive halo of stars with almost the mass of the main disk itself which may extend as far as the Magellanic clouds, powerful x-ray and gamma-ray bubbles issuing from a central black hole, and a dark-matter halo with a radius of 100 kiloparsecs. And that’s just today; just imagine what we’ll know tomorrow.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

The World’s Most Expensive Rubik’s Cube, 7rl

Posted on by The Old Wolf


The Rubik’s Masterpiece, also dubbed “The world’s most expensive toy.” Created by Fred Cuellar, founder and CEO of Diamond Cutters International.

“Cuellar’s Rubik’s Masterpiece will be the centerpiece of the 40th anniversary exhibit. Valued at over $2.5 million, the fully functioning Rubik’s Cube required 8,500 man hours to be crafted in 18 karat yellow gold with 25 precious stones per panel set in invisible settings. Cuellar used 185 carats of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and white diamonds to create the classic colored panels of the Rubik’s Cube puzzle with one small difference. While the original Rubik’s Cube is colored red, green, blue, orange, yellow, and white, Cuellar—himself a lover of puzzles and codes—decided to replace orange with purple for a variety of reasons both clever and protective.” (Full article at PRWeb)

Other oddities in the Cube world include Oskar van Deventer’s “Over the Top”, a 17 x 17 x 17 cube which was produced on Shapeways‘ 3D printer.

There have been some really tiny cubes made as well, also from 3D printers:

These 6mm wonders were made by Tony Fisher based on a Callum core.

Nowadays with software it’s possible to work puzzles of this nature in more than three dimenions and with insane matrices.

I loved my cube puzzles; I have a standard cube and a 2 x 2 x 2 mini-cube, and at one point owned a 4 x 4 x 4 Rubik’s Revenge which I sold on eBay recently because I could just never solve it. When I was younger I had more patience for such things. Puzzles of this nature were sort of like the “Angry Birds” of the 80’s.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Some things never change

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Healthy? No way. Delicious? Nothing beats a well-made doughnut. As a kid, I would read McCloskey’s Homer Price over and over again, just because those doughnuts looked so darn good. Even today, I’d be hard pressed to find something I like better when I’m looking for a sugar fix.

The Old Wolf has *burp* spoken.