Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Warping brands

I think I've seen the video for George Michael's Killer/Papa was a Rolling Stone about a couple of times, and only now did I do so in its entirety, thanks to You Tube. Now, this is one of those cases where the song and the video just click in your mind, and remain there for years. This song is over 13 years old, and yet, I remember vividly when it came out.

What really blew me away was the fact that they created fake products that featured some of the song's lyrics. So you had Remember cream, and All Alone detergent. This form of brand subversion had been used in rave culture and it reached the video industry. When I first saw the video, I remember thinking, "Wow, you can warp brands and logos like that and get away with it? That's so clever!!" I guess that was the designer in me, stirring already.

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