Jan 8, 2009

Communism. So Hot Right Now. Communism.


I LOVE the irony on this one. In the New York Times, Eric Wilson reported today that Saks Fifth Avenue is starting a new advertising campaign inspired by the Soviet art of the 1920s. I'm not kidding. The store hired Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the stylized Hope poster of Barack Obama. The Saks slogan, “Want It!” is printed in lettering similar to the graphic designs of Rodchenko, the Russian graphic designer who was one of the founders of Constructivism. Wilson assures us though:

Given the pricey goods Saks is selling, it’s not likely anyone would accuse the store of being socialist.

My beef: I hate when people think they're being kitchy by using Cyrillic letters that look like Latin letters. That doesn't say "WANT IT." It says "ShD(backwards L I think)T IT." Just saying.

5 comments:

Pirates(and)Diplomats said...

It's so confusing, because your brain always says, "What the hell does that say!??!"

Oh.....

Ern said...

RIGHT?!

Pirates(and)Diplomats said...

By the way, why use a backwards "L." Why not just use a "P"?

Unless he thinks he's Mayakovsky and is trying to subvert the values of the middle class by using backwards "L" when a "P" would do just fine.

But I doubt it.

Ern said...

You know I thought exactly the same thing.

BabaYaga said...

There's also something intrinsically wrong about using communism to promote capitalist consumption...