Thursday, March 26, 2009

Peace, love and German engineering!

Attention Retailers:

I understand your desire to invoke the spirit of the 1960s in some of your advertising and store promotion signs.  What better way to denote free-spirited originality than to co-opt some of the symbols of that turbulent generation, right?  Sorta like how you play "classic rock" in the store? Especially if you're trying to attract postmodern millennials and their Gen Y brethren, yes? A little irony, like a little sarcasm, goes a long way.

Fine, I can live with that.  The medium is the mess, so to speak.

But pay attention here. This will be on your final exam, if only in a karmic sense:

THIS site shows an example of a peace symbol. Notice how many points it has?  That's right, FOUR.

Now THIS one shows a Mercedes Benz star logo.  How many points does the Mercedes star have? THREE.

Contrary to popular belief, these two symbols are NOT interchangeable! One straight line makes all the difference in the world.  If you're insist on invoking the peace symbol to sell overpriced clothing made in third-world sweatshops, at least get it right. Failing that, pay the Mercedes folks a royalty, slap a three-pointed star on the back pocket and triple the price.


No comments:

Post a Comment