Monday, June 02, 2008

Policy Differences Aside


Team Clinton seriously needs to sack its Art Director


Tomorrow




and hire someone




-- anyone --




with a fucking clue





about the disturbing





semiotic




history




of Authoritarian-Power

As-Rising-Sun


iconography.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

BINGO!

Anonymous said...

And make no mistake, she would be authoritarian to a degree that would make George Bush seem, well, as inept as he is.

Lockwood said...

Very, very funny. Iposted on this same thing here:

http://outsidetheinterzone.blogspot.com/2008/06/bill-just-asked-me-if-i-thought-hillary.html

You did a much better job. Definitly gonna link this post. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Holy fuck! I thought that was just a Drifty Photoshop job. Yikes!

Anonymous said...

Hey -- it's a setting sun.

Malacandra said...

Drifty, I love you like my brother from another mother...

... and, Lord knows, I admire Barack's graphic designers... but, to be fair, how is Barack's logo NOT rising sun iconography?

Yes, there's no lines of radiance reminiscent of the Empire of Japan, but the rising sun is intrinsic to his brand.

[for full disclosure, I do graphic design & web development for political campaigns]

tokyoterri said...

Malacandra, while that's true, O-san's sun seems round and rising (somehow organic or soft) while H-san's sun seems like a gridly deification of centralized power... at least to my admittedly untrained eye...

anyway, post made me laugh, Mr. Drift!

Rehctaw said...

Truth in advertising? In a political campaign?

Shirley you jest.

A map of the U.S. rising out of a cesspool might be off-putting.

Bloody hands being washed clean?

Empty heads, bumbling incompetents and outright clowns replaced by
the best and brightest?

Pre-dawn in America?

Phil said...

Chairman Meow nods in agreement.

Dhalgren said...

As much as I support Obama, I think that poster was the best Hillary poster of the year. Was it really produced by her campaign? It's very Evita-esque. Madonna True Blue, even. It's great! They should have done that a year ago.

Imaginista said...

While I agree with your main point, I do think it is a flattering image of the Hillster.

Anonymous said...

I was down to Mao Two before I realized that the Hillary poster was NOT a parody.

Maybe it looked better in the original Russian.

Anonymous said...

"but, to be fair, how is Barack's logo NOT rising sun iconography?"

The Obama logo doesn't consist of prominent rays/beams emanating from his head. That's the key difference.

The blunt and clumsy semiotic message of the examples Driftglass provides (including Hillary's poster) is: "the person or subject surrounded by the beams is as bright, omniscient, and worthy of veneration as the sun and its associated deities." The prominent halos you see in Christian iconography send a similar message.

A halfway decent art director or a campaign director with a basic knowledge of political history would have spotted the negative (at least for liberal educated Americans) connotations of this particular iconography immediately. And a Democratic candidate without a garguantuan sense of self-importance would have quashed this creative unit before it got out the door.

Not that it matters -- looks like Senator Clinton's dropping out tonight. Good riddance to Hillary-Knows-Best and her team of incompetents.

Anonymous said...

Hillary-ous!

But really, how is this not like the press photographers' insistence on giving Chimpy a "halo" whenever they photograph him indoors?

Anonymous said...

Hillary-ous!

But really, how is this not like the press photographers' insistence on giving Chimpy a "halo" whenever they photograph him indoors?

Anonymous said...

Oops. Sorry. My computer hiccupped.

And what's the deal with Hillary's hair in that picture? Not that it matters, but she looks like an extra from "Hairspray." Is she hiding more superdelegates in that pompadour?

Jill said...

Holy shit. That's the most frightening iconography since the photos of Bush that used to always be framed by the presidential seal in such a way that they looked like a halo around him.

Remember those days? Maybe things aren't so bad after all.

Anonymous said...

who gives a flying fuck? i thought this was supposed to be a innalekshul type lefty progressive blog, not a sophomoric analysis of "visual content"

steve g. would never post something as infantile as this. hang your head for even comparing this site to his, as you have become lame and unreadable since there is nothing to write about except how fucking great the purple one is.

hellary, purple lips, the cancerous potato man, this country deserves the candidates it has selected and/or tossed aside like so much recycled guano. the finest election money can buy, meanwhile the blogs have nothing to contribute except more bloggorhea. i cannot believe anyone would dedicate their life to such unreadable, worthless tripe.

keep it up! We can haz another truly fucked up four years!

Malacandra said...

I admit, there's a difference putting your candidate in the "there's an angel standing in the sun" role.

WereBear said...

I sit amazed.

She went for that?

Clueless.

Anonymous said...

lamb cannon said:

who gives a flying fuck? i thought this was supposed to be a innalekshul type lefty progressive blog, not a sophomoric analysis of "visual content"


Who gives/gave a FF?

1. Hermann Goerring, Germany 1930s

2. Leni Reifenstahl, Ditto op. cit.

3. Graphic Designers of the Maoist and Stalinist Cultural Revolutions

4. Sons of Poindexter, North y Contras, LLC, who built the Carnivore national database, and then Total Information Awareness snooper dB, with its logo of the all-seeing eye, plus sun rays.

You need to offer your superb judgment on the worthlessness of "visual content analysis" to filmmakers and poster artists on planet Earth. So they stop wasting their time on non-verbal communications.

Cue "sophmoric" Egyptian pyramids and Mayan ziggerats.

Oh, and make room for "purple lips" in the visual compositions. Even visually illiterate racists need love.

Anonymous said...

Sharoney sed
"Is she hiding more superdelegates in that pompadour?"

LMAO!

and lambykins,

Gilly wouldna put up with anyone sayin' "Steve Woulda done/said/written XYZ".

tenacitus said...

At first I thought the Hillarphobes put the poster out on the web. Boy was I wrong

Freida Bee said...

C'mon guys, Hillary was playing around with the PhotoBooth on her Mac and liked the blue pic. Who amongst us hasn't gone into debt doing that?

Seriously, Lamb Cannon, I'm disappointed your not linking your blog or profile, so I could know how fake it when the content police are coming.

Freida Bee said...

Ok, you're... sheesh.

Jesse Wendel said...

As for the Steve woulda coulda shoulda bullshit conversation.

Please see "Steve Would Have..."

As for the topic of the post, damn it, Drifty...

I grew up in Arizona. You've totally wrecked my state flag for me.

*sighs*

Jenonymous said...

Hey all. Jen stopping over for a look-see. Great piece, Drifty!

FWIW, have you checked out the amazing Shepard Fairey Obama poster?

http://obeygiant.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/obama.jpg

I came thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close t getting one when I saw him DJing at this year's SXSW in Austin. Had to settle for a SXSW graphic instead. Damn, wish I had me an Obama poster just now.

Anonymous said...

Jesse,
absolutely.
my apologies, and you're link-to sez it all. Miss the guy.
-sqsh