Commercial Christmas

Pope rips commercial ‘pollution’ of Christmas
Benedict XVI urges displaying Nativity scene as tool to teach children faith

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that Christmas festivities have been polluted by consumerism and suggested that assembling the Nativity scene in the home is an effective way of teaching the faith to children.
Nativity scenes are a common sight in Italian homes around Christmas time, and in an annual tradition children came to St. Peter's Square bearing Nativity figures of baby Jesus for the pontiff to bless.
“In today's consumer society, this time (of the year) is unfortunately subjected to a sort of commercial ‘pollution’ that is in danger of altering its true spirit, which is characterized by meditation, sobriety and by a joy that is not exterior but intimate,” the pope said in his traditional Sunday blessing.

Private or Public? Who knows anymore?

Starbucks:
First of all, not my favorite coffee place in the world. I am more of an Alterra girl myself. Could not really tell you why; perhaps there still that stigma that hangs over Starbucks because it is this large mulit-national company that has invaded the globe. In a graphics class of mine we had to create a picture of what we thought the future would look like and one kid created an image that was wall-to-wall Starbucks. There was one on every corner, the streets and manhole covers had the trademark symbol on them. Crazy right? Well it may not be that far off. For my assginment I decided to go to the Starbucks off of Van Buren in Milwaukee. This area, with the Metro Mart and downtown being so close, is kind of an upper class area for the most part. Walking into the place I felt the eyes on me. People wondering who you are, what you're wearing and why are you in their coffee shop." Ok so maybe they just happened to look up when I walked in, but that was what it felt like. I get my latte and sit down to "read a book" but really I was people watching. There is the argument that public space is disappearing and that all public space is privatized. People in this coffee shop were all sitting alone. So it seems as though they wanted to get out of their homes but yet they are all alone. One guy was on his computer, working probably, on a saturday mind you. It just seems that with the internet and then these "private" public spaces people go out to be alone and go home to connect to the rest of the world. Humans are certainly an odd breed dont you think?

AdBusters

I just love Adbusters. I like advertising because its a great, creative and a lot of fun (sometimes). But it is fun to be able to laugh at it too. It helps us realize how much of a consumer driven society we really are. Here are some ads from their gallery that
though were particualry great:

International Advertising Mistakes

International Advertising MistakesFrom "American Demographics" Magazine

Here's a look at how shrewd American business people translate their slogans into foreign languages:
When Braniff translated a slogan touting its upholstery, "Fly in leather," it came out in Spanish as "Fly naked."
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
Chicken magnate Frank Perdue's line, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," sounds much more interesting in Spanish: "It takes a sexually stimulated man to make a chicken affectionate."
When Vicks first introduce its cough drops on the German market, they were chagrined to learn that the German pronunciation of "v" is f - which in German is the guttural equivalent of "sexual penetration."
Not to be outdone, Puffs tissues tried later to introduce its product,only to learn that "Puff" in German is a colloquial term for a whorehouse. The English weren't too fond of the name either, as it's a highly derogatory term for a non-heterosexual.
The Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. "No va" means "it doesn't go" in Spanish.
When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave."
When Coca-Cola first shipped to China, they named the product something that when pronounced sounded like "Coca-Cola." The only problem was that the characters used meant "Bite the wax tadpole." They later changed to a set of characters that mean "Happiness in the mouth."
A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the manure stick.
When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside since most people can't read.

Shall we try that again........

After going to the Milwaukee Public Museum the first time, I then received the acutal assignment and had to go back. I realized that what I did when I was there was simply pass through. I was a passive viewer and the second time around I was more of an active observer. The idea was to try to determine how the musuem represents other cultures. Instead of trying to give a fair report of all of the many exhibits in the museum, I chose to focus mainly on the Asian cultures. I even took some pictures (can we do that? well I did).
What I found was really not surprising at all. I saw a lot of oriental painted vases and other artwork and some ancient kung fu fighters. All of this seemed very stereotypical t0 me. Even the music was kind of cheesy. Now, I know that all of these things were true to form at some point, but I think that now a lot of it is seriously out dated.
But what then do you put in the msueums if people are critical of the old, and the present is mostly the same everywhere. I think if it were true to present day Asia, for the most part it would look like America only in another language. I guess the bottom line is that it is good for all of the ancient artifacts and ways of living are displayed, as long as it is made clear that it is not like that today in many parts of the Eastern world.

Its Amazing....

It is amazing what you see when you just open your eyes. I mean really open them up and look around...not just for the purposes of not running in to things. My friend/roommate is a Marketing major and is currently taking a class similar to this one. The other day we were discussing how odd it is for us to think of common words and gestures that we take for granted are seen as something completely unfathomable by another culture. For example, in her global media studies course she was told that in Italy the symbol we use to represent "rock on" or something to that effect (pinkie and pointer finger out) could mean something as outrageous as "your wife is cheating on you." And if that doesn't strike you as abnormal well, this should.....in Brazil the ok sign means something similar to our lovely middle finger gesture. Now, these are gestures, in our culture, have no negative connotation whatsoever. While in these two other cultures trying to tell someone "ok" you couldit l very well be ruining their day. It makes me wonder where these gestures came from. The "ok" symbol I would assume has its origin somewhere in sign language. But the other one, well, depending one which way you point your hand it kind of resembles a bull or some sort of horns. Interesting isn't it. Well I guess is true; you really do learn something new everyday.

Off we go....

The assignment, should you choose to accept it: Go to the Milwaukee Public Museum:

Ok go to the musuem and take a look at how other cultures are represented. So, of I go to the museum. I have been there a million times before (ok maybe not a million) and always the same thing over and over. I love the European Village. I have to say that it does closeslty resemble some of the small villages and towns I visited when I was in Europe. I especially love the little fountain, and I brought my roommate with me and made her throw a coin in it with me. Silly me I know.

Seriously though, the musuem feels like a blast from the past. Everything seems so old and terribly outdated. I never really noticed it when was I younger of course because I was too interested in seeing the dinosaurs, the rainforest and the Old Streets of Milwaukee. I just dont think that if I went to any of these other countries that I would see this. I think that it would more likely be that they would more closely resemble our society.