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…
Investors Rule!
Charles Schwab! “Talk to Chuck!” the award-winning campaign introduced by Euro RSCG Worldwide in the fall of 2005 recently took on a new look. The new “Investors Rule” TV spots feature Schwab “investors” digitally animated using “millions” of tiny dialog balloons created by San Francisco-based Mekanism. Previous spots were widely recognized for their distinctive rotoscoping animation technique originated by Mekanism and illustrator, Aaron Sacco. Personally, I prefer the new look to the original rotoscoping technique which struck me as grotesque.
Best of all, the Charles Schwab brand is suddenly more vibrant. There’s an expanded color palette—a rainbow collection of chroma-rich hues—used to fill the oft repeated dialog balloons with passion comparable to an investor’s dream. The full spectrum of colors associated with the Schwab brand is indicative of the wide spectrum of investment strategies available to young and old, conservative and aggressive individual investors.
Charles Schwab now owns the dialog ballon just like Target owns the red bullseye. If you’re questioning whether this discount brokerage firm’s claim to dialoging with investors is a credible one, visit their website and see for yourself. One nifty tool is the Schwab Portfolio Checkup that enables Schwab investors and non-Schwab investors alike to compare their current investments with their overall aims. If you have any other questions, just call Charles Schwab at 800-435-9050. They’ll be happy to talk with you!
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?