Sen. Rand Paul is running for president. It’s not clear why he’s running for president, other than finding a new use for his dad’s old mailing list, and it’s not clear what political expertise Rand Paul brings to the table that could not be matched or exceeded by a worn copy of Atlas Shrugged tied to a rhododendron.
Team Rand Paul also has merchandising website up and running. The standard yard signs, placards (Rand on a stick), t-shirts, and baseball caps. The eyechart is unique. “Unique” is also the claim for the Ladies Liberty Burnout Tee, but it’s feminine cut and fashion-forward style is at best a dubious claim. It does, however, offer a clue as to the Rand Paul logo –a big red blob ragged in the top and right hand side — that had me stumped.
Is it a flame drawn by a five year old? Business Insider reports that it’s supposed to be a torch. What a flame or torch is supposed to symbolize for Rand’s campaign is a bit of a flicker. Design experts have essentially said that it sucks.
[Richard Westendorf] “This looks as if it was dashed off in PowerPoint by a staffer. …
[Milton Glaser] “Are we talking about Rand the candidate or Rand the corporation? Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing because the generic torch applies equally to either entity,”
“While graphic designers will appreciate the fact that the interval between the ‘A’ and the ‘N’ forms the base of a torch, the average viewer will not make the connection, and the dash and flame sit above the word almost as though it was an accent mark. In short; no uniqueness, no memorability, no real purpose,” he said.
IOW a dud that’s not going to increase sales of Rand Paul’s memorabilia because it’s not visually appealing. Plus, it lacks meaning without a decoder wand and that product isn’t yet available.
Charlie on the big announcement and helpfully reminding us of Rand’s ignorant silliness.
Edward Bernays put together freedom and torches as an advertising campaign a long time ago. Easter Sunday Parade of 1929 and “torches of freedom”. The product as harmful to humans as a Rand Paul presidency would be.
I learned of this bit of marketing history in the amazing documentary The Century Of The Self. I laughed at the incredible audaciousness of it all.
Of course, a modernized version of the same campaign was launched to sell cancer sticks to ’60’s feminists:
I like Adam Curtis’ work. Century of the Self is probably his best work. His “freedom/democracy” series is good but by narrowing his focus or primary thread so much, he seemed to get a bit lost in explicating what the neocons are really about. They use the same words but for them it’s marketing and freedom and democracy are irrelevant to them. Somewhat surprising given his depth of understanding marketing from Century of the Self.
Oh, my word, this is even more deliciously ludicrous than I thought it would be.
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For the first time ever, I am forced to use the expression OMG! Who on earth would be willing to pay $1,000 for a copy of the US Constitution that is signed by someone other than T. Jefferson and friends?
All my life, I have been astounded by the incredible stuff that people desirous of power will come up with.
This is truly pitiful. I really should stop watching.
A copy edited by Ron Paul — removing all the bits that his fellow travelers don’t like and adding amendments that they want — could be worth $1,000 to the suckers. Give them a choice between another assault weapon or a memorabilia investment.
Signed by T. Jefferson or any of his fellow travelers would fetch more like a million or more bucks. (Real US bucks and not Paul bucks.)
Wonder how the profits from selling this junk are to be distributed. How much goes to the Paul family cottage industry and how much goes to his political campaigns. If it’s like many “charitable” operations, 90% should end up in the Paul family bank accounts.
A big red blob? With “RAND” underneath it in big letters? Are you so out of touch with the rank and file of American voters that you cannot deduce what that means?
Unbelievable.
Really!!!
I got yer decoder ring, right here!!!
I’m giving it to you because i don’t need it. Throughout much of the country…areas that I visit quite reguilarly…that sign will immediately resonate loud and clear. In middle class suburbs and working class neighborhoods all the way up and down the U.S. people will pass a sign like that or see it on someone’s bumper and know that your “reb blob” is the flame of liberty and that Rand Paul is making a stand against big government. Will they be right? Is he telling the truth? Does it matter? People voted for our “Peace President” and he was full of shit too.
Will Rand Paul be a disaster if he wins? Maybe, but he’s running a serious campaign that is so far very well-aimed at those that he thinks can be persuaded to vote for him. You don’t like those folks? OK. Do something about it other than posting empty, blind mockery, because this time it looks to me like snark ain’t gonna be enough.
Watch.
AG
P.S. That sign will be in yards on streets that also have way too many “For Sale” signs on the houses, and they are there because of what has happened in this country since Bill Clinton was elected president. It always saddens me when I go to visit my family in rural Maine to see the rows upon rows of forlorn, already weather-beaten For Sale/For Rent signs in areas where as little as 15 years ago almost no one needed to sell their house because they were financially underwater.
Sad indeed.
For whom do you think those people are going to vote? HRC? Another Butch?
Please!!!
AG
Oh sure, “rank-and-file” “middle America” is going to associate a crude flame graphic (only a small proportion will recognize it as a torch) as the answer to their financial woes. It doesn’t resonate visually (it’s ugly) or symbolically.
Not seeing anything in all the words you typed that exhibit a decoding of the graphic. Just more blather about how you are a perfect microcosm for the majority of Americans and therefore, they will embrace Paul as you have. Not the real Paul based on all his words and deeds, but your fantasy version of him based on selective hearing.
It’s the “RAND” beneath it that makes it work, Marie. If it said “JEB” under it I’d maybe think it was that little flame that they put underneath steam tables to keep the food hot at RatPub meetings. If it said “OBAMA” maybe a drone hit as seen from a war satellite. “HILLARY?” The steam table again, only I believe that now it is she who is being cooked.
It’s all in the context.
AG
P.S. And you are as culturally blind as a bat.
AG
Hillary’s logo is graphically cleaner but also unattractive. To me suggests an order to follow the arrow — way too authoritarian for my tastes. But perhaps as a leftie I don’t respond correctly to heavy red arrows pointing right.