The Duality of Man

I’ve often heard it said that to have true success, you need to find inspiration in the things you see everyday. Well, one of the things I see everyday, and often overlook, is a large, cylindrical tube of Quaker Oats, apparently it holds 30 delicious bowls (but how do they know how big the bowls I own are?), but anyway. I have this cardboard tube sitting on a cabinet at my cubical for some time now, and to tell the the truth, I don’t really know why. I don’t even eat Quaker Oats. At this very moment, as I write this, I am eating a bowl of oatmeal that is some other brand that I enjoy more than Quaker, but each time I buy more oatmeal, I take the contents and pour them into this Quaker Oats container. There’s just something about it that’s comforting. It makes me feel like home. It’s like having an old photo of a grandparent at my desk, but at the same time, I find the thing incredibly creepy. For some unfound reason, I can’t explain why it’s so intriguing to me and why I keep it around.

It’s fairly basic packaging. Nothing to write home to mom about, so why am I writing about it…? No bells and whistles, no amber waves of grain, or Photoshopped ‘grain’ textures, just bold reds, and blues, some golden gradients for style, and a kindly, white-haired Quaker illustration…

…oooooooohh, that illustration…

It’s the kind of illustration that pops-up in dreams out of nowhere and scares the Bejezus out of you with his ‘Mona Lisa smile,’ which is as friendly as it is diabolical. There’s just something eerie about his smirk. Apparently the portrait is one of the oldest advertising mascots in America, and contrary to popular belief, does not depict William Penn. Created originally by Jim Nash in black and white in 1964 and then taken full color by Haddon Sundblom in 1972. Representing Quaker values of honesty, integrity, and purity, the rosie-cheeked Quaker elder is not supposed to be a portrait of anyone in particular.

So I guess there in lies the rub, the fact that he’s just there. He’s there and he’s just smiling. He has no identity. All we really know is that he’s a Quaker, and even the Quakers, who are now the Religious Society of Friends, don’t want him around (they lost the law suit, so he stays). He never changes. He’s like the Mona Lisa, and the frightening twins from the Shining all wrapped into one. For all eternity, he’ll be there, smiling, and that, I find creepy. The new Quaker campaign doesn’t help with my paranoia, either. It’s just weird to have a huge omnipotent Quaker portrait telling you to, “Go Humans Go.”

At the same time, however, I think he can be somewhat comforting and it’s what I find successful about the whole Quaker brand. Their identity has basically been the same for generations. Anyone who sees that illustration knows what product is being sold. Even if you hate the bland, cardboard taste of plain oatmeal, which I happen to love, the product and feeling toward it is still the same. It resonates with people. You’ll never see Quaker Oats NEW FORMULA or some other ridiculous campaign, like Crystal Pepsi. It will always be the same oatmeal that your dad ate, and his dad ate, and his dad, and so on and so forth. The Quaker Oats Guy then becomes a perfect symbol for the brand. He goes on day by day, staying true to his fundamentals, to what made Quaker a recognizable brand.

Even though I sometimes feel like he’s staring at me, in this twitter feed / TMZ / topsy-turvy / here-one-minute-gone-the-next world we live in, it can be nice to know that there’s always a familiar, welcoming smile within an arms-length…even if the contents inside are someone else’s.

EndNote: For the record, YES, I did just compare an illustration and identity for an oatmeal manufacturer to the Mona Lisa, one of the single greatest works of art, ever.

North to Vancouver ’010

With the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver only hours away, and the Alpine Skiing qualifier already in full swing. I wanted to reflect upon the Olympic logo, which if you haven’t already, are going to be seeing a French-Canadian ton of, before the fortnight of games are over.

The logo is supposed to represent a monolithic Inuit character known as an Inukshuk. The Inuits were a tribe of people native to the Vancouver area. The name of the character is Illanaaq and it means friendship in Inuit. The illustration is chalk full of symbolism, which I guess, all Olympic logos are supposed to be. The green smiling head is for the coastal forests, the blue arms for the coast, the sky blue torso for the mountains, the red left leg is for the maple leaf, which, who doesn’t associate Canada with the maple leaf, and finally the yellow leg is for the sun. The CEO of the Vancouver Games said that the figure “reflects the sheer joy for winter sport and draws its strength from the true spirit of teamwork.” The ironic thing is that nothing about this identity equates with the speed, grace and athleticism of the Winter Games. My real question is what does the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man have to do with Alpine skiing, the Luge and speed skating. If you can’t tell, I’m not overly psyched on the 2010 Olympic logo. It seems as though the Inukshuk symbolizes so many things, but it missed out on the one that matters…sport.

I guess it could be worse, though. It could be as bad as the 2012 Summer Olympics logo from London, which looks like it could grace the cover of the newest Sex Pistols record. Stay tuned and enjoy the Games…

The Best Me Possible

I was visiting my favorite celebrity gossip blog, www.Celebitchy.com (a daily occurrence) and happened upon a story of Heidi Montag and her many plastics surgeries. The blog mentioned an article in this month’s People Magazine, “Obsessed With Being “Perfect”.” The article featured a before and after photo of Heidi, the 23 year old star of MTV’s – The Hills. At 23, Heidi has subjected herself to over ten plastic surgery procedures. The before photo features Heidi before the second round of plastic surgery, but not before her initial rhinoplasty and breast augmentation which she had done in September 2007, at the age of 21.

Heidi has defended her decision to undergo all these procedures in order to create “the best me possible.” Statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery attest to the fact that many young women (19-34) also want to be their “best,” and go on to report the number of cosmetic-surgery procedures performed on females 18 and younger nearly doubled over the past decade. Girls no longer believe they have to play the hand they’ve been dealt – they can simply go out and buy a better face and a different body.

Reading the article and the subsequent comments the blog received in response, it made me think, what is beautiful? The term “Aesthetic Plastic Surgery” would lead you to believe the plastic surgery procedure will create a more aesthetically pleasing you. With breast augmentation and liposuction procedures growing by leaps and bounds, whose aesthetic standards are we conforming to?