Archive for the 'branding' Tag
Hey! Leave Those Brands Alone
Filed under: Advertising, Interaction | Tags: Advertising, branding, brands, charity, Copyright, darfur, Design, intellectual property rights, Interaction, louis vuitton, nadia plesner, piracy, remixing
Comments(2) 
Danish artist Nadia Plesner devised this design to raise money for Darfur.
Louis Vuitton aren’t happy about her fundraising activities (full story here), citing an infringement of “Intellectual Property Rights”.
“Intellectual Property”?
Wow. How contrary. Brands want us to love, cherish, kiss and hug them. Online, they want us to play with them, tickle them, retouch them (I’m thinking sneakers and labels - Beck’s Fusions last year comes to mind).
They want us to remix. Because they know we like to remix. But only if it’s on their terms and, preferably, their microsite.
This attitude’s so retro it’s almost charming. But not quite. And far less charming for its PR stupidity. They could have easily supported the campaign and added buckets to their brand greenwash. Not to mention dirtied dollars to the Darfur appeal.
I’m with Brazilian designer Mario Amaya (see below). Let’s get remixing brands, whether they like it or not. If they want to be in our lives, they need to be taught how the real world shakes today.
Related: Boosh vs. Honey Monster, Round 1.
Essential: The Pirate’s Dilemma - We Invented the Remix.
Previous: Segway Watch - the Future Goes Social.
Hurdling the Hoo-Ha
Filed under: Advertising, Design | Tags: beijing, branding, Culture, Design, globalisation, hobsbawn, logo, london, olympics, world cup
Comments(2) 
What are the Olympics?
Even in this age of media splintering, they’re a festival of global hypnosis. Each one, in time, becomes a cultural artefact.
Without resorting to a Google, I can’t tell you anything about Mexico ‘68. Apart from the fact it had a great logo.
Beijing 2008 is already crafting its legacy. PR disaster leads the pack. After events in Paris and London (to name just two of the incidents), it’s going to take a spectacular recovery to turn things around. And that’s before we’ve even heard a starter’s gun.
But whatever the political obstacles, for an Olympics to get off on the B of the BANG it needs well-honed branding. Here, notoriously, London 2012 false-started.
You can check out 100 years of high-performance Olympic design if you’re in London this weekend. And wherever you are in the world, events in Beijing this summer will eventually find their place in your cultural memory.
Recommended: What is the World Cup? Eric Hobsbawn’s thoughts on ‘Nations and Nationalism in the New Century’.
RSS Feed
