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Onward Marlboro Maybe
Filed under: Cigarette advertising | Tags: Germany, marlboro, maybe
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The Maybe campaign goes on. New for 2013 is the poster on the left. In Marlboro Country, no doubt, the occupants of a car on the freeway gesture. I had to look up what the gesture actually means. It is called the Corna and seemingly has modern satanic origins; though in this poster it is more likely to mean “rock on”. If seen at a football match it may be an unpleasant gesture to the referee.
Suffice to say, the occupants of this vehicle are not ‘maybe’ers’. They know what they are about. Maybe.
Hand gesture info from http://www.languagetrainers.co.uk
Kate Windsor’s portrait
Filed under: Art, Royal Watching | Tags: Kate Windsor, royal portraiture
Leave a comment The newly unveiled portrait of Kate Windor has proved to be quite a talking point. As usual with these matters. The subjects themselves are always delighted with the result. The Royal loyalists are always disappointed. The artists are castigated for being unfair; they present a distortion of reality, the true person.
Whilst this new portrait is as near as a photograph one is likely to get, the comments remain that it makes her look old; or as the Sun newspaper put it, looking like Ian Botham, former England cricketer (cue opportunity to post a picture of Ian Botham onto the newspaper’s website). It is also the fault, it seems, of the National Portrait Gallery for promoting the use of photographs by artists. Also, bad choice of artist. In this case the artist – Paul Emsley – is very good at doing animals.
Mrs Windsor and her husband are, true to form, said to be absolutely delighted by it.
What is great about art, and particularly portraiture, is that we get an opportunity to see the sitter through the eyes of another. I’m no artist, but I have been a life model and seen many depictions of my own body; I was always fascinated at how different emphases, light, angle, colour, perspective, etc., impacted on the outcome. It is not for me to say whether the likeness was true. In this case, if the artist thinks Kate Windsor has bags under he eyes and and Ian Botham’s nose then she has. I was not there when she sat for the artist, nor have I seen the photographs that he used.
Artists are artists because they see what most of us do not see – or in Kate Windsor’s case – be allowed to see stripped of normal media management. If I had the opportunity to talk to Paul Emsley I would be inclined to say that I do not really like his portrait because I cannot see the point in hyper-reality. But even then, Emsley has subverted the perfection of the Kate Windsor fascade. That seems to be a problem for the ‘critics’. But that is the point of art.
Picture: screengrab, Sky News
Why the release of a music track is not an event
Filed under: Journalism and News Reportage, Music | Tags: Bowie, online music marketing
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I woke up yesterday morning to the Today programme on Radio 4 as usual to the ‘news’ that David Bowie would be releasing a new single at 0715 and that I would be one of the first to hear it if I stayed tuned. David Bowie is one of the formative characters in my life. I was listening to him and buying both singles and albums from the age of 12. Though I have never seen him play live (coming from Hull, that is not surprising). The release of a new single (and video viewable on youtube) is of interest, especially as I am informed that the song has references to Berlin and hence his most creative period in the 1970s.
It worked a dream – the newspapers are full of it; Radio 4 had another go this morning with a couple of eminent fans eulogising Bowie much to the incredulity of the presenter, Sarah Montague (the story became more her incredulity than their eulogising). Again, whilst it is great to have some new music, it is not an event. It is not as though he made an appearance on the programme. It does not warrant the time given to it on a flagship news programme. It is again lazy journalism; manipulation marketing.
Radio 4 did not even play the song.
Picture of David Bowie by Photobra|Adam Bielawski, sourced from Wikipedia; screengrab from Youtube from music video
New Year’s honours
I notice that I will have to wait at least another year to be awarded a gong for me to turn it down. The list of people who have turned down a gong, in history, is not very long. The Wikipedia page on this is as comprehensive as they come (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declining_a_British_honour), but my admiration goes in particular to: Alan Bennett (a persistent offender), Michael Foot, David Bowie, Stephen Hawking, L.S. Lowry (declined more honours than anyone else!), J.G. Ballard and Jon Snow (who later did a Channel 4 exposé of the honour system to make sure that he was never offered another one). I trust also there a lot of more admirable anonymous ordinary people who have turned down honours.
This year, it seems, one gets an award for having got a gold medal in the Olympics. Whilst winning an Olympic gold medal is quite an achievement, whether it warrants further recognition is questionable. In the case of Sir Bradley Wiggins who also won the Tour de France – clean of drugs – the receipt even then of yet another award seems excessive. And surely, Sir Bradley, a knighthood is secondary to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award (can anyone tell me how such a non-award became so ‘important’ and ‘newsworthy’?)
Readers of this blog will know that I have a problem with the awards system in the first place. This year it is even more even further undermined because of Sir Jimmy Savile and now not Sir Fred Goodwin, he of Royal 
Bank of Scotland notoriety.
It is time to end this nonsense.
Photo of Jimmy Savile source: JMB, Wikipedia
Circuses
I spent a good part of my youth picketing circuses against the use and abuse of animals. Heady days. To a very large extent we won the argument. The circus is no place for animals. Big cats, elephants, horses, etc., should not be in captivity and transported around the country or Europe. Very few circuses now touring the UK bring non-domestic animals.
However, as I wander around Munich over the festive period, I see the circuses are in town. Circus Crone’s poster is iconic (above left). The two clowns holding a crown with images of wild animals charging and roaring through.
Also in town are three other circuses, not all with animals. Circus Baldoni-Kaiser (right) bring their Christmas circus to the city, here showing horses but no big cats or elephants.
By way of competition, the City hosts the Chinese State Circus with captive dragons for added fire risk.
Finally, Sleeping Beauty as circus is performed by The Circus of Imagination, albeit in a theatre. I suspect the beast is a human in disguise? 
Spoilt for choice nonetheless!
For anyone interested in reading further about why animals should not be in circuses, Animal Aid in the UK has published a useful factsheet on the topic: http://www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/factfiles/circus.pdf
Marlboro’s new approach; Gauloises genius
The ‘Don’t be a Maybe’ Marlboro campaign has taken a new direction presumably in response to the criticism it received with respect to glamorising the product (for and by young people). First they launch the bearded man (see post 1 December 2012) and now – in parallel – we have the defiant very old woman. She clearly has done something that makes her not a ‘Maybe’, though we have no idea what that was or might have been. Her defiant pose – fist raised – suggests even now she is not to be messed with. It is actually a great photograph, but I suspect not too many smokers of Marlboro get to her age.
By contrast, the Gauloises brand continues to lunch out on Paris. A couple of packets of cigarettes wander around Paris having a good time. Genius.
Hunting with hounds – get used to being prosecuted
Boxing day brings the fox hunters out in their pantomime clothes and claims of victimhood. It is true it took an awful lot of parliamentary time to get this long-overdue piece of legislation in place. There is a solid majority in the parliament and country in favour of it. It is right. Simple. Get used to it. It does not outlaw the fancy dress and dog walking.
The tactics of the landed class to overturn it, however, are evident. Just before Christmas that most traditional and conservative of animal protection bodies, the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals, came under intense criticism for having committed £300,000 to convict two hunters from the Prime Minister’s local hunt, the Heythrop Hunt. Scadalaously, the loudest voice was the judge at the case. Will the Law Society or whoever regulates these people step in? I doubt it.
Going to law, however, was a no-brainer. An organisation committed to animal protection and the prevention of cruelty (it is in the name) with evidence of intended cruelty against animals legislated against in law, should see those responsible in the dock. And convicted. The State was not bold enough to do it.
Picture source: Michael Gwyther-Jones, Wikipedia
Christmas 2012
I did not do very well collecting pictures of really awful Christmas decorations this year. So, of the four that I did briefly upload, I nominate the Christmas tree at St. Pancras Station in London as the least impressive. I wrote: “St. Pancras Station in London has gone for an unimaginative concept – cashing in again on the Olympics with this tree adorned with medals and a slogan about what a wonderful summer of sport it was. Even if it was a good idea to squeeze any more out of the Olympics, it looks a bit rubbish.”
The best is Munich Airport: “Munich Airport generally puts on a good show. Usually – and this year is no exception – the displays are secular. The displays are always above the escalators to and from the S-Bahn. This gives the opportunity to give the sense of movement. Left is this year’s, featuring lots of polar bears, fishing seals and a sleeping man, complete with snoring.
Merry Christmas to all readers – normal business resumes…
Maybe in Australia
So, it is now not possible in Australia to brand cigarettes. From today, cigarettes can only be sold in packs that are olive 
green in colour and depict images of the consequences of smoking; for example, blindness (see right). The industry has, of course, objected to this – even at one point claiming that it was an infringement of trading law. Essentially the argument goes that states cannot restrict firms from using their brands. The role of the state is to maintain fairness in trading, not restrict it.
In going to law, the tobacco industry lost the case. In response the industry then claimed that the new rules would draw in counterfeiters, particularly from Asia. This is a nice but flawed relativist argument. By definition, counterfeited products are potentially more dangerous – brand owners, even cigarette brand owners – do not try to poison consumers in any acute sense (over time, they knowingly do so). But there is no safe level of cigarette consumption. And the explicit aim of the Australian government is to stop people from smoking. One has to assume that the Australian government does have a contingency for the counterfeiters.
Good on the Australian government.
By way of contrast, cigarette advertising – brand promotion – goes on in every German high street. Today I shot the latest in the ongoing Marlboro ‘Don’t be a Maybe’ campaign (left). The campaign requires some insider knowledge fully to understand. The notion of being a ‘maybe’ is not clear from any one poster, but I have seen the associated video in shops; chilling in their association with glamour and success. Indeed, the campaign has been criticised and deemed to be in breach of the law. Cigarette companies cannot target young people in advertising. Frankly, most of the brands glamorise smoking for young people (see elsewhere in this blog copious examples, particularly Pall Mall). I think it needs to be turned around. ‘Don’t be a maybe cancer sufferer’?
L&M have a new poster for the run up to Christmas (right). There is no glamorisation of smoking as the brand pursues its additive free nature. Different and a standard, if my translation is correct.
Women Bishops
So, the Church of England has voted against the ordination of women bishops at its General Synod on 21 November 2012. How progressive is that? What is particularly troubling is the number of women in the laity who have argued for their own subservience on this issue. It turns out that half of those voting against were women associated with the conservative evangelical group Reform or the traditional Anglo-Catholic movement, Forward in Faith (surely wrongly named?).
I am inclined, however, to call for the expedition of the removal of bishops from the House of Lords on the grounds that they represent an organisation with strict discriminatory policies; namely, that women cannot actually get to the top on the basis of some bizarre reading of stories that may or may not be true and of dubious authenticity. Equally – and for not dissimilar reasons – it is time to disestablish.
Or maybe on the grounds that a belief in the supernatural should not be rewarded with a seat in Parliament.
Be informed 