Cultural Cartography

It's all about the product

Sorry, had a bit of a break there. Work. Being freelance is great but does mean that it's not so easy to predict your working day. 

Interesting developments afoot in the world of Big Tobacco. This article here tells it all. There is pressure on governments to restrict tobacco companies to plain packaging, or to limit their options when it comes to packaging. One thing that the convention taking place in Durban at the moment wants to definitely curb is the use of colours to depict the strength of cigarettes, as it implies semiotically that green for example is healthier than red! 

I find this fascinating, if only because one of the principles that I have upheld in my life as a market researcher and advertising planner is that I won't do work for tobacco. As I said to my mates, nothing more genuinely interesting than trying to find that insight that would really work to sell tobacco again, but not an insight that I want to be found. 

If this comes through, we will finally see the power of the product, as there won't be any packging or brand to speak off. To what extent will a premium cigarette really be recognised as being premium? It's like the Pepsi test gone wild. And it would be great. 

Semiotically of course cigarette companies have been really clever for ages. Any Brit who grew up in the UK in the 80s will remember the Silk Cut ads, which were simply witty and brilliant and ended up not showing the brand at all. 

The other thing that could happen is that the companies have to put more graphic pictures on their packs. Also not a bad thing. The first time I saw this in Canada I almost threw up. It worked for me. 

Japan a go go

Bad title for the  post. But I am feeling slightly embarassed. The fact is that I have just been in Tokyo for the first time. I loved the city and the people and the way things are done there, and I really wanted to write something intelligent and highbrow about a culture that has perfected the art of eating, dressing, interacting with one another so that everything is thought of and conscious. However I can't come up with anything that I am sure hasn't been said before. One thing that I didn't know though, is that the Japanese with their ever present knack of spotting when something could be embarassing to someone, have added a soundtrack to their toilets. This means when you are just about to (or think you are about to) produce some horrible noise or revealing sound, you press the little button and it plays the sound of the toilet flushing. The toilet of course does not flush. But you feel better and dare I say safer to release whatever it is you needed to do in peace. I did wonder if the other users of the toilets think "Oh there is someone flushing the loo" or "Oh, there is someone playing the sound of the toilet flushing". But to be honest it doesn't matter. It gets you and everyone around you out of potential embarassment. Oh and yes, the seats are generally warm. 

More from someone who di more research on the matter

PS. I hope to come up with something more erudite about Japan soon. But I am now in Shanghai! 

Of course it isn't just art

The house that I saw that had shoes all down the front of it turns out to be a really interesting project, particularly for someone like me interested in the intersection between brands and culture (in this case high culture - art). It is an empty house where different artists have been allowed to install their work in the different flats. And the whole thing is sponsored by a DIY chain, Hornbach, here in Germany. I like that. I think it's quirky and interesting. And above all surprising for a DIY brand,which are generally much less interested in art and more interested in wallpaper. So good on them. I am definitely going to go and have a look. And you should too, if you are in Berlin. Torstrasse 166. Open from 12-22.00 til 12 October. 

"Always something to do"

Saw this being put up yesterday on the way to see a friend. Proof that Berlin really is the home of modern art at the moment. Even the houses are getting involved. Don't know anything else about it though. Despite having googled "Immer was zu tun" which fittingly means there is always something to do. Which is of course true and particularly in the case of this house.

Signs that save lives

A very brave friend of mine has flown this week to Haiti to work with an aid organisation for 3 months to help provide medical assistance and distribute aid. I had a quick look through the documents that she was sent to help prepare, in particular the Security Manual. It was a very scary document, especially because up until then, I hadn't really thought about the dangers that go along with the sort of crisis situation which now exists in Haiti. The Manual was a general manual so it tried to cover everything - situations where you are threatened by people and situations where you are threatened in other ways. One of those other situations is minefields!! In minefields the signs and symbols that you see have a very concrete meaning: they are there to warn you and hopefully protect you from injury. 

Some of the symbols that are used are stones painted red, coke bottles on a stick and cairns. Now interestingly I have just come back from hiking in the Lakes (beautiful!) and we saw lots of cairns. In fact up Great Gable it was the cairns that helped us find our way. 

On a minefield the cairns have a very different meaning. Instead of meaning walk here, they mean precisely the opposite: Don't walk here. And sometimes, my friend was told, the signs for minefields aren't even obvious, unless you know they are there. 

It's a very good lesson in the importance of context in semiotics. 

And of course a lesson in altruism for us all.  

Hockey Mom??

One thing that has struck me whilst reading all the articles about Sarah Palin is how often she is referred to by the shorthand of "Hockey Mom". Now I lived in the States for 3 years and I think I understand a lot of the cultural references but I am still not 100% sure about hockey mom. What about all the people who have had no more contact with the US than the ubiquitous TV series. Do they know what it really means? Come to that, do the reporters and journalists who are using it really know what it means. 

It clearly refers to Ice Hockey and not Field Hockey (as it is called in the US). But is it good or is it bad? Does it mean self-sacrifice or wallowing in your children's success? Does it mean that she is down to earth or extremely sporty? 

And is one Hockey Mom always the same as another hockey mom. This article from the Baltimore Sun gives a bit more insight into the typologies of Hockey Moms that exist. So even that isn't that easy. 

More than anything, this widepsread appropriation of a US term in European media suggests to me that the media is succumbing to one of the biggest problems in global branding - the assumption that we all know what something means and attach the same values to it. Sometimes it works, but very often it doesn't. 

Old logos seen with new(ish) eyes

I am back in London for a couple of days before heading off for an idyllic week's walking! One of the first things that struck me was the old British Rail logo that you still see when you get on the train at Stansted.

It really is a design classic. (as said here). What really struck me is that you know what it is, without having to think what it is. It makes use of elements of the product itself - in this case the rails; delivers a sense of what the product delivers - movement; and above all presents a clear sense of an entity which has a sense of purpose. The latter is actually more than what now adds up to British Rail does, but hey ho! the logo is still around and maybe sometime BR will be back.

Democratisation of English

I heard an interesting article on the World Service today about the way that the Internet is causing the democratisation of English. Interestingly enough I have always thought that English is a profoundly undemocratic language, as to be very good at it, you have to be very well educated. This is definitely not the case in other languages! But back to the point: as English is now more or less the working language of the web and everyone is using it, the words that they use or create get passed round the web in much the same way a virus does and take hold just as quickly. This also means that the typical authorities such as the OED and the Webster Dictionary in the States are no longer the gate keepers of what is considered to be an English word or not. Increasingly they are the momentary recorders of what is changing very quickly (check out this link and you will see that the OED at least has recognised that). 

What I like about this fact is that it moves English away from being the preserve of a few and into being a working object that changes and morphs as it is needed. Much like a well loved knife in the kitchen which no longer has a straight sharp blade but which is perfect for opening letters with. It's what you need and not what someone else thinks you need. At least that is what my mother tells me, when I try to sharpen her knives. 

I remember a friend of mine in London who used predictive texting. Whenever he typed in the letter combination for "cool", it came up with "book". So after a while, his friends and he just used "book" for "cool". Now that is quite "book" isn't it? 

Some new words which have supposedly developed are things like roariffic, a griefer and leetspeak.

Here is to the democratisation of English!! Long may it continue. 

Du or Sie unplugged

After writing my last post, I started thinking about Du and Sie again, and realised that there has been a big change in Germany in the last few years when it comes to the usage of Du or Sie. It is now much more common to say Du to someone on the first meeting or pretty soon afterwards. All it takes is for the two people to be of roughly the same age (and probably under 40), work in more informal branches of industry like the media or consulting, or for everyone around you to be saying "du" to each other, because they all work together. And bob's your uncle. Or bob is your neighbour at the meeting and not Herr Kaiser anymore. 

I am not quite sure what I think about this. I actually quite like Sie and its ability to signal distance between you and someone. It is like saying 'yes, we might be sitting here joking together but I am still going to get a bill from you tomorrow and I want to be able to question it'. 

However on the other hand, we get on quite fine without it in English (see my last post) and even countries which used to have two forms like Sweden are all happy with just using 'du'. 

The difficulty comes (as is often the case when language is in flux) when there are both usages around. Du as the default 2nd person pronoun and the choice between Sie and Du. 

I am convinced however that in 50 years there will be no Sie form, or only for the Queen (who as we all know is quite German). 

Things that drive me mad in Germany Part 1 Du or Sie

This has nothing to do with planning or semiotics or even anything but I just want to get something off my chest. 

I hate it in Germany when people say to me that we are really lucky in English because we all say "Du" to each other. I should explain for those that don't know that German has two ways to address someone: Du which is the informal and generally only used for people you know very well or for children and Sie, which you use for people you don't know very well or don't want to be very intimate with. Along with having to conjugate the verb differently for either Du or Sie, strictly speaking you use someone's first name with Du and address them as Ms. Smith with Sie. So some clever people think that because in English we often use first names straight away, that we are all really informal and best buddies, on the Du level of intimacy. 

Well, let me tell you here: We are not. There are a thousand ways in English to talk to someone and each one demonstrates more or less distance. Just because you call someone by their first name doesn't mean that you know them well, or even let's be honest here, even like them. An example: "Joan, would you please bring in the coffee now?" is more distant (IMHO) than "Joan, bring in the coffee, will you?" and so on. 

I don't know why it annoys me so much but it might have something to do with the fact that I feel that people that make this mistake can't have understood English very well. They are making that classic mistake of translating a concept from their language into another language. I tend to just take a deep breath and smile when someone says this to me. So be warned, if I am heavy breathing around you! 

PS. On this level, another tip for people who might meet me: Don't come up to me and say in bad, heavily accented English "Oh, you are English. I like to talk English." Well, I do too, but only to people whose English is as good as my German. And I don't like people who assume that because I am English, I don't speak German - Why?