The semiotics of campaign buttons

By Knute Berger I've been fascinated with presidential campaign buttons all my life — or at least since I was a tyke who ran through the house wearing an Eisenhower flasher hollering "I yike Ike!" in 1956, a campaign junky at age 3. Every four years, I find myself scrutinizing TV coverage of campaign victory (and concession) parties to see how the faithful are expressing their political passions on their blouses and lapels.

One type of button can tell you a lot about the candidate and their supporters: It's the genre of pin that features the candidate and a picture of a famous predecessor or other historical figure. Pictures of presidential aspirants are often paired with the likes of Washington, Jefferson, one of the Roosevelts, or John F. Kennedy. It's all just to help you see them in the glorious glow cast by the great men of history.

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Pecha Kucha and Emotionally Intelligent Signage

I figure it's my responsibility to break us from our current funk :) I'm sure we're all busy (and maybe a bit burnt out?). Anyhow, here is an interesting presentation I found recently:

Signifier/Signified?

Following on the last post about useless signs, there's a potentially useful but confused sign at the east end of Nevada's ET Highway. It busily signifies, but I can't make out what is being signified.

Jerky that's as fresh as aliens?

Fresh jerky from aliens?

Are the olives stuffed with aliens?

Is the honey made of alien fluids?

Are the Area 51 gifts radioactive?

English campaigners against senseless signs

Linked from http://www.funniez.net/funnynews/1-latest-news/76-CampaignAgainstSigns:

On September, 2007. London campaigners who fight for the effective use of English attacked a growing tendency for obvious and senseless public information posters and instructions, such as a police sign: "Don't Commit Crime."
"They assume a lack of intelligence on the part of the reader - says their spokeswoman. 'Do not commit crime. Pay for your fuel' is hardly a deterrent to a criminal who has every intention of driving off without paying."
The Plain English Campaign cited other examples including:
"Warning: Platform ends here" on the end of rail station platforms,
"May cause drowsiness" on sleeping pills,
"Warning: contains nuts" labeled on packets of nuts,
"Caution: water on road during rain"
"May irritate eyes" on a can of self-defense pepper spray,
"Do not open door while airborne except in emergency" on emergency exit doors in planes,
"Removing the wheel can influence the performance of the bicycle" from a Dutch bicycle manual,
"Do not iron clothes on body" from packaging on a steam iron,
Supermarket Tesco - which also warns shoppers that cream contains milk and that salted butter contains milk and salt - defended itself, saying it gave customers "all the possible information they should need."
The Plain English Campaign said politicians were also guilty of the trend.
"Politicians declaring 'We are taking the terrorist threat very seriously', or 'We are committed to improving the health service' is just rhetoric," he said.
He added: "Our advice would be say what you need to plainly and simply then stop. If nothing needs to be said, say nothing."

The Semiotics of Smoke

In the process of hunting up illustrations for a post about the meanings of smoking I ran across an astonishing example of how a habit, and everything it represents, is systematically being erased not just from daily life — but from history. The photo on the left of Dean perched against the wall of the Dakota in New York is a copy of the original picture taken by Roy Shatt in 1954. The one on the right is the version being licensed by CMG International, the company that now owns the rights to James Dean’s image. Notice anything missing? His cigarette has been Photoshopped out of the licensed version — I assume to make his image more marketable to advertisers that would use it in a world where smoking has become a social disease. The manipulation of dead celebrities’ identities has been going on for awhile, but the irony of sanitizing the original bad boy iconoclast hero — literally pulling the cigarette from his lips forever — is particularly galling.

I’m thinking about smoke. It’s what one does while quitting. And what I’m thinking is that I miss it. Not the smoke itself, of course. The smoke itself is no more enjoyable now than it was the first time I choked on a lung full at the age of eight (don’t worry, I didn’t start smoking that young. I had asked my mother if I could take a drag on her cigarette and she — wisely — said, “Sure.” I did, almost vomited, and didn’t touch another cigarette for almost 20 years…). It’s enjoyable in the same way that the burning poisonous taste of liquor is enjoyable, which is to say: not much. No one really enjoys the medium of illicit or dangerous substances. It’s about the effects, of course, but also something more.

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The History Of Political Symbols i.e. John McCain

Article from Transworldnews.com:

We have all seen the symbols of the donkey and the elephant. We are smothered in newspaper ads, cartoons, and newsbreaks including these as well as the now famous red and blue states. If you have been curious as many of our Americas youth is here is the history behind these famous political symbols.

The Democrat donkey, as it’s called, came to be in the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828. Jackson’s opponents began calling him a jackass (a donkey) and this lead to Jackson’s choice to use this stubborn symbol, the donkey or mule. The cartoonist, Thomas Nast used the donkey in a newspaper cartoon that made this symbol famous. Today’s democrats see the symbol of the donkey as being strong and brave. The same cartoonist, Thomas Nast, later created the Republican elephant in 1874. Today’s Republicans see the symbol of the elephant as representing strength and dignity.

When it comes to the red and blue state diagrams that we see each election, this did not start to emerge mainstream until its use in 2000. It really became standard use in the 2004 election. The red states represent states that are mainly Republican and the blue states represent the Democratic Party.

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Ban on Asian symbols: A Westside story of bias?

From IBN Live:

Does the wearing a burkha, nose rings or a mangalsutra undermine a modern secular society?

In England, a woman who worked at a catering services firm at Heathrow airport, was sacked for wearing a nose ring. London's Mayor Ken Livingstone says this is an attack on her right to express her religion.

Other western countries have gone a step further. France has banned the wearing of headscarves and turbans in school whereas in England a teacher was sacked for wearing a veil.

So, does the West overreact to Asian cultural symbols?

Head of Communications, London CNN News, William Higham, Senior Lawyer of Supreme Court K T S Tulsi and Fashion Designer Rina Dhaka debated the topic on Face the Nation.

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World's most semiotic nation?

Sadly, the Turks in 2007 are almost always right in 'detecting the enemy' through semiotics like in the 1970s

Burak BEKDİL

The other day's top story in the Turkish Daily News was headlined "World's most virile nation" and naturally was referring to the Turks who, according to a study, have the highest average of partners in the world. The findings of the survey may or may not be true. But there is convincing empirical evidence that the Turks are probably the world's most "semiotic" nation.

It began with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic that is today sadly fading away according to some, and, to others, is just restoring itself. Atatürk was probably the only great leader of his time with a genuine obsession about the semiotics of headwear; so passionate of an obsession that its traces live on almost a century later.

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