We’re all used to peeling the stickers off our bananas and apples. The blue Chiquita logo is as much a recognizable part of my childhood as the banana itself. I wasn’t a huge fan of the fruit, but I sure did like the free stickers.
Stickers are fun, but what if the logo couldn’t be removed from the fruit? We’re targeted by advertising everywhere we look, and now it just might be staring back at you from your plate. Certain fruit grown in Dongguan, China have recently been featuring logos in the fruit itself, presumably created by application of a sticker of some sort during growth.
Wow. It seems the blank spaces in life are slowly being infiltrated more and more by the fingers of advertising. The water we drink is branded by the liter, the clothes we slip into are essentially wearable logos, the brand of device we communicate with often becomes more important than what we are saying on it. Our shoes leave a logo imprinted in the dirt as we walk, even our wide blue skies are being filled with ads written in the clouds, and banners flying by.
In our hyper visual culture, advertisers are grabbing every bit of space left, in an effort to make their mark in, or is it on, your mind?
So where will our culture eventually draw the line? What is too much? For over a hundred years is has been acceptable to brand cattle; will little Fifi the poodle now come home from the groomer with the pet shop’s name and contact info shaved across her bum? Will tattoo artists insist on including their logo in the bottom right corner of every tattoo they do? Will companies test the ultimate employee loyalty and effectiveness of ad executives by demanding they feature the company’s logo as a permenant implant on their hands?
Throughout history people have killed, sold rights, children, and usage of their body for money, is the next item on the market their skin? Apparently it is. People have auctioned off space on their heads for thousands of dollars on ebay. Certain restaurants offer free lunches for life to anyone willing to get their corporate logo tattooed on their body. The Great Northern Brewing Company holds contests, giving away a new Harley Davidson to the person with the biggest version of their “yahoo-in cowboy” logo. Even baseball teams have given away free lifetime season tickets to anyone willing to tattoo their logo on their body.
If it’s all about ad space, where will it stop? Our skies are filling up, ads are creeping onto our bodies. We’ll soon be selling out landscape we know as our dreams. I have some interesting product placement opportunities, if you are interested.