Logorama

(2/12/10 - Back to edit this blog. The film was taken down but I linked to their homepage. If you get a chance to view it, don't miss it. The trailer for the film is still out there on youtube and the like. Wish you could still view it in its entirety... Go find it. A gem.)

Mr. Falco, thank you for this little ditty.

I have a great love/hate relationship with advertising and this video to share.

Logos, the graphic design of it all, Mascots, branding, marketing, PMS colors, the cigarettes and liquid lunches, I remember and cherish it all as a kid, student and now consumer and seller of things that don't exist. Interning back in the day and dreaming about becoming a Don Draper, like I imagined my old man must have been before Don Draper was Don Draper. The Ad world in all of its glory, fame and vampirism. It's an amazing power that inevitably comes with an inherent evil created by that power. I admired it as a kid and as an illustrator I silently chuckle to myself every time I utilize it - My "Jekyll & Hyde" moments.

Now as a father is scares the living shit out of me. Leaving a somehow uncomfortably acceptable metallic flavor in my mouth - the Awe and Horror of it all. Needless to say I am sure I will be passing down these sick and twisted and giddy attributes to my daughters....

The raw might of selling Joe Shmo something he never needed, intended to buy or would better his life with by acquiring! Good or bad, it always leaves me speechless.

But what about the other side of things? Is there not a price to pay for such power? An alternate reality created by such twisted creations and abuses of the nature of consumption?

I have always wondered what it would be like to witness Ronald go insane. The Michelin Man - was he a gambler or a ladies man? These icons I looked up to and dreamed of consuming products from (I was the kid who walked around with a star wars case of action figures but wore a shirt that had a tiger on it that screamed "THEYYYYYYY'RE GREAT!"). What would their world be like if that world existed?

Maybe it was just all those years of flipping burgers and slaving over drive-thru windows, the mind tends to wander if you've never experienced such professions. Stocking shelves and now ordering from Amazon for necessities and baby supplies online, I stare at these boxes and wastes and wonder again at what it must be like to live in a world of advertising.

Times like that can twist a man and his imagination. A lifetime of such exposure can twist the creative sole...

And to those soles who created this piece, thank you. I am sure I have spent more time nostalgically dreaming of times past, memories long forgotten and products bought sold and traded. But then... isn't that the point?

Enjoy, as I did. I'll let the characters or our lives say the rest...

cheers,

n