The most bizarre moment of the GSOC strike was when a group of "counter-protestors" (actually actors hired by an advertising agency) set up a huge inflatable businessman in Washington Square Park, along with a nice, cuddly inflatable rat to protest the UAW's fangy, menacing protest rat. Wearing t-shirts and equipped with a web site that called on passersby and strikers alike to respect rodentia, and attempting to rebrand the rat as the "
great pointed archer," (initials GPA. Get it? I just did...) threatened by villainous human supremacist trade unions, these ad agencies used our strike for some free publicity. The whole thing came out in MetroNY the next day. This was really my first interaction with an attempt to commodify the symbols of labor insurgency, other than asshole Yale undergrads wearing picket signs to frat halloween parties, and it's what came to mind immediately when I saw this in my subway station this morning.
Yeah, that's an HSBC ad. the text beneath the photos reads "Different Values Make The World a Richer Place" You take the people pissed off at finance capital and you turn them into an advertisement for finance capital. Brilliant.
EDIT: Unless I'm being stupid and this is some culture jam a la
adbusters, which would make some sense, but also points to how easily those tactics are incorporated into actual corporate strategies.
EDIT 2: Nope,
it really is an HSBC ad. Incredible.
Yeah, that's an HSBC ad. the text beneath the photos reads "Different Values Make The World a Richer Place" You take the people pissed off at finance capital and you turn them into an advertisement for finance capital. Brilliant.
I saw this ad in the NY Times this morning, and I've been puzzled about it all day. What the ?!()* were they thinking? I assumed that the ad was somehow hacked and someone replaced the intended photos with this rat as some kind of hack. I don't really get it at all. What do Free-Speech, Camaraderie and Clout have to do with this repulsive rat?
ReplyDeleteThe rat is a symbol of unfair labor practices used by unions against bad bosses.
ReplyDeleteHSBC is using the tactics that workers use against it to sell itself as an enlightened, global brand.
i found this on page A10 of the NYTimes yesterday, and i too was totally confused:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.number32.com/_misc/HSBC-Rat-Ad.jpg
but your mention of the 'great pointed archer' made me wonder if 'free-speech, camaraderie, clout' stand for FCC...? is HSBC worried that the regulation of media is squashing those 'different values'' that make the world -- or at least them -- r richer?
this ad sucks. If you can't figure out an ad in 30 seconds or less then it's useless. I mean, to think a room of executives got paid to think of this, give me a break.
ReplyDeleteI saw the ad this morning in the NYTs magazine too and also thought it was a hack. Got online to see if anyone had noticed. Honestly, they've lost their minds. All I see is "HSBC" and "rat," and since these two together make perfect sense, I think HSBC=rat. The images are so strong, they give the words the lie.
ReplyDeleteMore here.
ReplyDelete