Cultural Cartography

How times move on

Interesting article on the Brandchannel about the use of Cadillac Plan in the US to describe a luxury health plan with all the bells on. They are basically asking how much longer will it continue to make sense to use the word for Cadillac to describe something extremely luxurious and opulent. Back in the day this might have been appropriate but the Cadillac brand has changed a lot since then. Interestingly for someone living in Germany, they suggest that it might make more sense to call it a Mercedes or BMW plan. 

I can´t help thinking that this shows how little the Americans have really moved on in their thinking about cars and automobiles. Surely the days of such luxury car brands have to be numbered. There is an article in the Economist about it this week, pointing out (which I didn't know) that one of the reasons that small cars are so much cheaper than large cars is because the car manufacturers make less profit on them. Not because they are cheaper to produce. But their main point is that we will be buying fewer and fewer large cars in the decades to come, due to economic, environmental and demographic reasons. 

So maybe the Americans will have to come up with a new name for luxury health plans. How about the Ritz Carlton or the Country Club of health plans. That might make more sense. 

Talking to the people (German Bundestag elections 2009)

In a few weeks Germany is holding its general elections. As I can't vote (or only on things like should there be more lampposts in the neighbourhood), I have been observing the whole thing with a certain amount of distance. What has struck me however, is the prevalence of posters and billboards. Some billboards have even been specially erected for the great day! 

What I have found the most interesting are the way that some but only some of the politicians have steered away from the typical portrait plus specious election slogan which is generally used (in particular by the main parties CDU and SPD).

A very well known politician and green campaigner is carrying on his tradition from the last election and is using a cartoony approach to the whole thing. 

I think this is great. It is fun, it says people working together to change things they don't like. There is a great dirty pile of bad things on the ground that they are all just going to march over and Marx is watching over everything from a cloud. Although I don't know why there is a question mark around that. Wolke? 

Another poster that caused a lot of furore was from the CDU politician who is campaigning against Stroebele. I think she probably decided she didn't have anything to lose by playing the female card. And so she showed what more the CDU has to offer - cleavage. 

I also like this guy, who has obviously decided that he has had enough of bad photos and is also picking up semiotically speaking on the whole tag cloud idea. It shows that a cartoon does not have to be cartoony. In fact this poster almost made me want to vote for the guy - except I can't. Except for the fact that he seems to be going on a bit too much about being child friendly, when I think what he actually means is parent friendly. 

Then of course there are the real outliers. Like this one. 

Literally translated it means "with arse in your pants" or with guts. I think I like. 

And here for the benefit of my "strategic advisor" (sorry, in joke) are the blatantly contradictory posters from the resurgent Left Party. 

1) Wealth for all

2) A tax on wealth 

Well, I guesss you just can't have your cake and eat it too. 

And here you can see both together in their full contradictory glory! 

Reichtum fuer alle besteuern

Don't worry, be happy

I was driving recently early morning feeling a bit like what I am doing up this early in the morning, when a song came on the radio that included some whistling. And I really noticed that it was that bit of the song that perked me up and made me feel carefree again. 

That got me thinking about whistling and what might be the semiotic significance of whistling. Of course I thought about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Whistle while you work" first. That really seems to sum it up. You only whistle when you are enjoying what you are doing, when you are relaxed and happy. The dwarfs had figured this out and suggested that it could be applied consciously (a bit like CBT): 

Just whistle while you work
And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place
So hum a merry tune
It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace. 

People on their way home from work whistle, people whistle when they are doing a routine task which they however enjoy. Basically you whistle when things are good. 

So semiotically whistling is connected to happiness, contentment and even whimsy, as it has no real purpose. Just doing something because you want to. 

So no wonder this songs and others with whistling in them made me feel better. 

I have to include the classic whistling song here, which even emphasises
  the idea I am talking about: Don't worry, be happy.

So whistle along and be happy

Art or truth

One of the interesting things about living in our times is that all the boundaries are blurred. We no longer know if something is advertising, art or genuine. Sometimes I know people find that annoying. But to be truthful, I don't really care. If something catches my fancy, then it catches my fancy. 

Like this letter stuck to a heating pipe in an old factory turned into artists studios in Berlin. It seems to be half ripped off and the first line appears to say "My gallery owner threw this out with me..." but as it is half ripped off, who knows. I know that I like making up the story that goes along with these words, somewhat like the people at Found. 

This rings so true

Things marketing people love - or maybe this should say "Things people who work in marketing departments love" 

http://thingsmarketingpeoplelove.blogspot.com/

Plus giving their brand a youth target audience! They think that means they will be speaking to people like this: 

But actually the reality is more like this: 

Photo courtesy of bellagabs

Beware of Greeks

I have just finished re-reading the Odyssey (Greetings and thanks at this point to members of my lovely Book Club) and it struck me again how much of our cultural history is being lost. I had a moment like this a while ago in New York when I realised that nobody on the street around me probably understood the significance of the carvings on the New York Public Library - why were all these people in swirling clothing standing up there and what are they supposed to stand for? The Odyssey is full of these moments where you realise that you just don't quite understand what things are supposed to mean. For example we had a long conversation about hospitality in Ancient Greece: Did you have to take everyone in who turned up at your door? At what point were you allowed to turn them out? But none of us really knew. 

One thing that did become clear though is that the Odyssey is a cracking story. Blood, gore, love, sex and a happy end. What more could you want? 

Interesting Berlin - been and gone

I can't believe it actually took up that much of my time as it did. But it was worth it. My experience of the evening feels a bit like my photos of the cake. One minute it was there, just getting going,  and then it was all gone. And all I could look at was an empty plate. But that sounds tragic and it wasn't at all. It was a great evening, with some really cool people who I am now proud to call my friends, and some truly interesting talks. It will all be up on the website soon and we can get back to normal life - until next year that is! 

Men at work and on holiday

I am working hard organizing Interesting Berlin . We have lots of speakers and the tickets are selling very well (Buy here to make sure you get one). I am also posting on our Interesting Berlin blog  and twittering as well. (http://twitter.com/IntrstingBerlin) so feeling rather digitally stretched. 

So I am going to do what is a classic in Britain in the summer holidays: put up a men at work sign and go on holiday. We are going to Sicily for 2 weeks and I am looking forward to good food and sun. 

I will probably post again before Interesting on 12th June but not sure. 

Long in the tooth

I often wonder about lost semiotic meanings. Indeed I am thinking of doing a series of postings on just that. One thing that struck me recently, after thinking a bit about age and people getting older in general, is how even sayings are losing their meaning. 

Long in the tooth is generally believed to refer to horses and the fact that their teeth carry on growing as they get older (see here). But there is some discussion about this. As I was an expert on useless facts to do with teeth in a past life, I happen to know that one of the by products of humans getting older is that their gums start to recede, making their teeth look longer. However this can be prevented by better brushing etc (I don't want to give you a lecture on how to look after your teeth). 

My question is: As we all look after our teeth better, will this phrase lose its meaning? Or has it already done so. 

Home Cooking

The places I was eating in Memphis were for various reasons not very sophisticated. I was there to do some work on ice tea, so I was looking for the best places that served their home made ice tea. This led to me eating at lots of places that do what they call down there "Home Cooking". 

What was interesting semiotically about these places, is that they used all the semiotic codes at their disposal to be homely and down to earth. Not really basic, just making it clear that this is all about motherly love. One place was called "The Cupboard". I love that idea of raiding the cupboard for food at night, which the name conjures up. Another was called "Soul Fish", evoking not only the idea of Southern soul food, but also the idea of simplicity. 

My biggest surprise at the latter restaurant was to discover that it is not only the UK that does fish in batter. Catfish with fries is amazing. It is like fish and chips but better - and I find that hard to say as a Brit. The batter was crispier and the fish hotter and fresher. And of course I washed the whole thing down with some good ole ice tea. Just as Momma would have wanted.