Free Advice to Donald Trump’s 18 co-defendants:
Hire a lawyer who has Fani Willis on speed dial.
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Tautology of the Day:
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Today’s Orwell Award goes to Louisiana State Trooper Jacob Brown.
Brown beat Aaron Bowman 18 times with a flashlight. Bowman sustained a broken jaw, broken ribs, and a gash to his head.
Brown defended his actions as “pain compliance.”
A Louisiana jury acquitted him.(1)
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Lamest Excuse of the Day
“Trump-supporting Ohio lawyer admits voting twice in past elections: 'Accidents do happen’”(2)
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The All-Purpose Deflection:
During World War II, the Nazis occupied the British Channel Islands.
An official government inquiry into the full horrors of the Nazi occupation on Alderney . . . has vowed to investigate all new evidence of atrocities, including the grisly Water Lane tunnels where, it is claimed, huge numbers of slave labourers died in their making.(3)
However, not every Alderney resident welcomes the new inquiry:
Trevor Davenport, the director of Alderney’s museum, seethes when the Observer raises the issue at his home, a few fields from one of the island’s four Nazi camps. Pointing to the fact that just eight Jews are officially recorded as dying on Alderney, Davenport said linking the Holocaust to Alderney is a “step too far”.
And he accuses Sir Eric Pickles, the UK’s Holocaust envoy leading the inquiry, of “wokeism”.
“Woke,” “Wokeism”?
I think the definition of these terms is a simple one:
It is whatever seems to upset your apple cart.
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Pretentious? Moi? Division
I have just stumbled upon the news that Pepsi-Cola is going through a re-branding. I was quite surprised, considering that Pepsi spent a million dollars decade-and-a-half ago to re-brand itself.
The recipient of the million bucks, the Arnell Group spouted the following explanation of its efforts:
The vocabulary of truth and simplicity is a reoccurring phenomena in the brand's history. It communicates the brand in a timeless manner and with an expression of clarity. Pepsi BREATHTAKING builds on this knowledge. True innovation always begins by investigating the historic path. Going back-to-the-roots moves the brand forward as it changes the trajectory of the future.(4)
Arnell Group evoked Descartes, the Golden Ratio, and the "Hindu tradition of numerical harmony as spatial organizer.” And claimed that "energy fields are in balance.”
Alas, the energy field must have gotten out of whack.
The “Pepsi” in the logo “is decoupled from the globe,” . . . Todd Kaplan, Pepsi’s chief marketing officer [noted recently]. “It’s this lowercase, italicized font, the blue is a little bit muted … it doesn’t exude that confidence and energy that the brand really represents.”
Pepsi, Kaplan said, is “a bold and confident brand,” one that stands for “unapologetic enjoyment.” The current logo, with its lower-case “pepsi” standing shyly away from that laid-back globe? Not very bold, not very confident.(5)
And I bet you thought it was all about fizzy sugar water in a can.
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Re-branding continues apace across the Atlantic as well.
Aston Villa football club has moved its lion. The beast used to face left on a shield; for the new season it faces right on a circle.
The new crest’s designers
say it’s about “reigniting authentic brand assets” and creating a new “flexible, characterful, rich brand identity”. The lion has changed direction to signify “the progressive, forward-facing nature of the club”.(6)
Villa lost 5 - 1 in its opening game of the season.
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