Some will say these two ads are disrespectful of the martial arts tradition, but as a practitioner of TaeKwon-Do, I think they’re a riot.
If more advertising were like this, I’d resent it a lot less.
Mad props to the ad wizards who came up with these.
不夠快！The Old Wolf has *urp* spoken.
Utah gets nothing but sugar beets (now a defunct industry.) Colorado gets a mint, Montana gets Injuns, the South gets nothing but happy darkies workin’ in the fields. Pretty sad map all the way around, if you ask me; even discounting the racism, it doesn’t even highlight the best things each state has to offer.
I’d like to think we’ve come a bit farther than this.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
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.
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.)
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.
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:
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.
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.
That cute little plastic thing in the filter looked cool, but it did absolutely nothing to reduce the harm being inflicted on her body.
Winston Rowntree (a pseudonym for a breathtakingly perceptive and gifted cartoonist) advertises over at Subnormality! that he has provided “Comix with too many words since 2007.” One of my favorite examples is “The Mission.”
His creations are almost always terribly verbose – and worth reading, every whit, every jot, every tittle.
But I think this advertising copy for Colgate goes over the top – and while clever, as its only purpose is to hawk product and not entertain or inspire or prod people into thinking about the reasons for their existence or how to make the world a better place, it doesn’t measure up to Subnormality’s standard of excellence.
But here it is, just because it’s weird.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
No, not the band. I didn’t even know there was a band named Hüsker Dü.
What I remember is the game, relentlessly promoted by K-Tel.
Back in 1974 or thereabouts, these K-Tel ads were a source of constant amusement; I used to joke that Hüsker Dü meant “up yours” in Sicilian.
I’m so glad that some of these gems were preserved for posterity. Isn’t that amazing!
The Old Wolf has spoken.
When I’m using my home computers, I never see ads. Ever. Browser add-ons Ad Block Plus and F.B. Purity (available for both Firefox and Chrome) ensure that affiliate ads are a thing of the past. My Droid is not so fortunate, and this morning I happened across this one:
I smiled wryly because despite its overwhelming appearance everywhere, the “weird trick” (in this case, “sneaky linguistic secret”) meme is still generating millions of dollars from uneducated and unwary consumers.
Now that that’s out of the way, the “Pimsleur Approach” is a scam. Plain and simple, no ifs, ands, or buts.
We’re talking about rampant spamming and deceptive marketing practices; before Comcast filtered them out, I used to get several of their spam mails each week, and the complaints boards are full of unhappy people – just have a look at the WOT (Web of Trust) feedback site for pimlseurapproach.com, or Ripoff Report’s complaint board.
Most people sign up for the $9.95 offer without reading the (†) box, which states:
† Pimsleur Rapid Fluency Purchase Program:
One month after you receive your Quick & Simple you’ll begin receiving 30 day trial copies of advanced Pimsleur courses in the language you selected. Each course is yours to try for 30 days. You’ll receive a new course once every 60 days. For each course you keep we’ll bill you in four monthly payments of $64. Remember, there’s never an immediate obligation to buy any course because of the 30-day trial period provided with each shipment. And you may cancel future shipments at any time by calling 1-877-802-5283. See Key Details.
The “Key Details” spell out in greater detail your obligation to receive and be charged $256.00 for each additional course they send you, the first 30 days after you place your initial order, and every 60 days thereafter.
Yes, it’s all there on the website, but cleverly hidden in small, gray type which most people won’t read. The complaints boards are rampant with people being charged recurring fees, difficulty obtaining refunds, rude customer support agents (a hallmark of shady operators who bully unhappy customers), and of course, the unbridled spamming.
Stay far away from this company. I’ll be writing more about the actual Pimsleur Method later, but if you want to check it out, just head for your local library. It’s a good bet they have several of the beginner courses there for you to check out for free and see if you like the method. If you can’t find anything at your branch, go directly to Pimsleur’s site (they are now a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster); they offer a free lesson with each language so you can see how it works. If you decide you like the method, head over to Amazon where you can usually find the courses at a significant discount.
Just don’t have anything to do with this sleazy “Pimsleur Approach” outfit.
This has been a public service announcement from The Old Wolf.
Had one of these when I was a kid, and I think I ordered it from Honor House. It was actually quite clever. Cap-loaded, you’d pull the pin and throw it, and the handle would come off and release a snapper which popped the cap. Wish I still had it. Have to make do with this:
Army surplus dummy training fuse, cast-iron grenade copy, routed base. Fun for the office – “Complaint Department – Please Take a Number.”
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Even though Mother slipped quietly into the Great Beyond last year at the respected age of 94, she still gets mail from all sorts of places – 99% of them wanting her money. Yesterday our mailbox was graced with a 32-page full color glossy brochure (even had circles and arrows) from an outfit named Biowell, guaranteeing her a restored memory and the mind of a 20-year-old if only she would buy a 6-month supply of MentaFit Ultra at the special price of $269.95.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I happen to believe that nutritional supplementation is an essential part of good health, especially given the Standard American Diet (aptly abbreviated SAD) which is chock full of high-glycemic carbohydrates, fats, and very little actual nutrition which our cells are screaming for.
Unfortunately, the largely unregulated supplement industry is a hotbed of fraud, waste, and abuse, and there are precious few reputable companies out there.
MentaFit Ultra is a good example of the worst kind of nonsense. Let’s look at some of the claims found in this brochure:
And on and on. Pages and pages of references to obscure and misinterpreted studies, pictures of doctors, hyped up claims about the individual ingredients (sage, rhodolia rosea, vinpocetine and Vitamin D3), and hype worthy of a used-car salesman. And a bottle of this relatively worthless stuff sells for $49.95, where it probably cost $3.95 to manufacture, all without any guarantee whatsoever of quality. Face it – if things like this worked even a fraction as well as they claimed, every doctor in the world would be prescribing it, and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia would be a thing of the past.
There’s a huge irony in targeting advertising materials like this at the elderly. They are losing mental acuity as the result of natural aging processes, and hence are more susceptible to slick advertising campaigns which promise outlandish results and offer false hopes, for the low low price of whatever. And Biowell is only one of hundreds of outfits out there who are dedicated to only one proposition: extracting money from unwary and vulnerable consumers. In the last 10 years of my mother’s life, I had to deal with dozens of companies who sold her things she didn’t want, didn’t need, couldn’t use, and didn’t understand – and most of it was (to be charitable) camel ejecta.
“Do not resent growing old, it is a privilege denied to many,” said someone wise. Aging is a normal part of life; every time our cells divide, our telomeres get a bit shorter, and thus far science has not found a way to reverse the process. All physical degeneration can be slowed, however, by making sure the body has ample supplies of the elements needed to keep our cells functioning at the top of their game – vitamins, minerals, co-factors and antioxidants – and sadly we don’t get everything we need from our daily diets. Supplementation is a must for optimal health, but there are only a handful of companies out there that manufacture effective products. If you take things like One-A-Day or Centrum, you might as well be swallowing rocks for all the good you’re doing yourself; do your research – look for companies that follow pharmaceutical good manufacturing processes, and whose products are submitted to independent laboratories like NSF, and which exceed industry standards for completeness, bioavailablilty, purity, potency, and safety.
You may be wondering why I haven’t recommended any of these companies by name. It’s simple – I distribute for one of them, and this post is not designed as a guerrilla marketing pitch. But the takeaways here are two:
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Playing in the World Game 