Symbols and signs burn into the back of my brain like TV suffering afterburn. Adverts bombard from every orifice of the world, oversized rectangular billboards as we’re driving, incessant chatter and adverts that seem to leap out of the radio like angry tigers, TV mini series in thirty second slices to pique the apetite of our interest before the sucker punchline and the hard sell.
Corporate logos have bastardized the world of the emblem – where once they were worn proud as badges of military honour, or membership of a secret society now the whole world of corporate image cleverly embroiders things on our psyche guiding us unconsciously toward product X or Y at the supermarket mega barn where rows and rows of competing Emblems shout from the shelves.
I need to approach things with a list and try as much as possible to stick to it, otherwise that glass and a half of milk in every bar on special might just pop up in my minds eye, and that symbol will speak to me. It’s funny as I push the complaining trolley with the squeaky wheels around the lanes how I hear the adverts sing in my head, in between the in house entertainments – designed to persuade a person of a certain age to feel ‘comfortable’ and ‘at home’. So many of these psychological tricks being played and we don’t realise. In multi-story air conditioned offices they look out over empty suburbs and try to find more ways to fill our minds with the awareness of their presence, new jingles, new themes- new logos- make sure you don’t pinch someone else’s though.
