critical thinking LIB

Postliterate World

READ MERCER SCHUCHARDT

Read Mercer Schuchardt has a Ph.D. in Media Ecology from New York University. He is Assistant Professor of International Communications at Franklin College in Switzerland. Schuchardt has taught courses in communications history and theory, intemersonal communications, film, and media politics at Marymount College and expository writing at New York University. His publications have appeared in many journals. His 1997 article "The Perfect Icon for an Imperfect Postliterate World, " reflects two of his interests: religious symbolism and contemporary corporate iconography.

Getting Started

Sometimes in advertising a symbol or icon becomes so well known that the name of the product does not even need to be mentioned for us to recognize it. How many examples of this can you think of? Do you think this is becoming more common or less? What do you think are the most effective "textless" icons and what makes these work so well? Are you attracted to familiar logos and do you prefer to wear them on your clothes? Schuchardt suggests that there is almost a religious power to icons like these. Do you agree and do you think this is a good thing or not?

he early followers of Christ created a symbol to represent their I beliefs and communicate with one another in times of persecution. The well-known icthus, or "Christian fish," consisted of two curved lines that transected each other to form the abstract outline of fish and tail. The word for fish also happened to be a Greek acronym wherein:

Iota = lesous = Jesus

Chi = Christos = Christ

Theta = Theos = God

Upsilon = Huios = Son

Sigma = Soter = Savior

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Combining symbol and word, the fish provided an integrated media package that could be easily understood. When the threat of being fed to the Christians to be less explicit, they dropped the text. acronym to define the symbol's significance, the fish anything or nothing, an obvious advantage in a certain beliefs. But to Christians the textless symbol silent rebellion against the ruling authorities. Within turies, the faith signified by the fish had transformed a Christian empire.

Today, in an electronically accelerated culture, change the face of society in about one-sixteenth the Nike Swoosh, the most ubiquitous icon in the one that many other corporations have sought to world where technology, entertainment, and design ing, the story of the Swoosh is by far the most study of a systematic, integrated, and insanely for icon-driven marketing.

The simple version of the story is that a young student named Caroline Davidson got $35 in 1971 to for then-professor (now Nike CEO) Phil Knight's ing and selling improved Japanese running shoes. tive product line, combined with aggressive marketing positioning, eventually created an unbreakable tween the Swoosh image and the company's name. there was so much equity in the brand that they hurt to drop the word Nike and go with the Swoosh went to the textless format for U.S. advertising in and expanded it globally later that year. While the symbol appear together in ads today, the textless new standard. In the modern global market, the icon must be able to stand by itself, evoking all the associations that form a corporation's public identity.

In the past, it would have been unthinkable to campaign stripped of the company's name. Given stake—Nike's advertising budget totals more than per year—what made them think they could pull it

First, consider the strength of the Swoosh as Swoosh is a simple shape that reproduces well at color, and on almost any surface—three critical corporate logo that will be reproduced at sizes from an inch to 500 feet. It most frequently appears in resting colors: black, red, or white. A textless icon,

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"reads" left to right, like most languages. Now consider the sound of the word Swoosh. According to various Nike ads, it's the last sound you hear before coming in second place, the sound of a basketball hitting nothing but net. It's also the onomatopoeic analogue of the icon's visual stroke. Reading it left to right, the symbol itself actually seems to say "swoosh" as you look at it.

However it may read, the Swoosh transcends language, making it the perfect corporate icon for the postliterate global village.

With the invention of the printing press, according to the Italian semiotician Umberto Eco, the alphabet triumphed over the icon. But in an overstimulated electronic culture, the chief problem is what advertisers call "clutter?' or "chatter"—too many words, too much redundancy, too many competing messages. Add the rise of illiteracy and an increasingly multicultural world and you have a real communications problem. A hyper-linked global economy requires a single global communications medium, and it's simply easier to teach everyone a few common symbols than to teach the majority of non-English speakers a new language.

The unfortunate result is that language is being replaced by icons. From the rock star formerly known as Prince to e-mail "smileys" to the NAFTA-induced symbolic laundry labels, the names and words we use to describe the world are being replaced by a set of universal hieroglyphs. Leading the charge, as one would expect, are the organizations that stand to make the most money in a less text-dependent world: multinational corporations. With the decline of words, they now can fill the blank of the consumer's associative mind with whatever images they deem appropriate.

Some powerful modern logos manage to appropriate other 10 images and their meanings. The Mercedes-Benz icon, for instance, is easily confused with the peace sign (an association that can only help). Pepsi's new symbol needs little or no verbal justification because it so clearly imitates the yin-yang symbol. In fact, a close look reveals it to be almost identical to the South Korean national flag, which is itself a stylized yin-yang symbol in red, white, and blue.

Never underestimate the power of symbols. Textless corporate symbols operate at a level beneath the radar of rational Ianguage, and the power they wield can be corrupting. Advertising that relies on propaganda methods can grab you and take you somewhere whether you want to go or not; and as history tells us, it matters where you're going.

Language is the mediator between our minds and the world, and the thing that defines us as rational creatures. By going textless,

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Nike and other corporations have succeeded in performing partial lobotomies on our brains, conveying their messages without engaging our rational minds. Like Pavlov's bell, the Swoosh has become a stimulus that elicits a conditioned response. The problem is not that we buy Nike shoes, but that we've been led to do so by the same methods used to train Pavlov's dogs. It's ironic, of course, that this reflex is triggered by a stylized check mark—the standard reward for academic achievement and ultimate symbol for the rational, linguistically agile mind.

If sport is the religion of the modern age, then Nike has successfully become the official church. It is a church whose icon is a window between this world and the other, between your existing self (you overweight slob) and your Nike self (you god of fitness), where salvation lies in achieving the athletic Nietzschean ideal: no fear, no mercy, no second place. Like the Christian fish, the Swoosh is a true religious icon in that it both symbolizes the believer's reality and actually participates in it. After all, you have to wear something to attain this special salvation, so why not something emblazoned with the Swoosh?

Questions

I. What does the "icthus" or Christian fish look like? What was its original purpose? Is it still used today? For what purpose? What does the Nike Swoosh look like? For what purpose is it used? How does Schuchardt connect two such different icons?

2. Schuchardt writes: "However it may read, the Swoosh transcends language, making it the perfect corporate icon for the postliterate global village (paragraph 7). What are the characteristics of the Swoosh that make it effective as a corporate logo? What does Schuchardt mean by the "postliterate" world? What is the "global village"?

What examples does Schuchardt provide to support the idea that some modern logos "appropriate other images and their meanings" (paragraph 10)? Can you think of other logos that do this beyond the examples he provides?

4. Think about the clothes that you and your friends wear. How many of them have logos on them? You may be surprised that many of them do. What do these logos communicate about you when you wear them in public? How do you feel about providing free advertising for these brands?

5. Focus on an icon or logo that you think is effective in getting a message across. Describe it and how it has been used. What does the consumer need to know about the icon or logo you've chosen in order to decide whether to buy or accept the product or idea it represents?

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6, Read through the article again, this time underlining the various cultural referents—recognizable names and ideas that Schuchardt mentions. Identify the people and/or ideas at the source of those referents. How does Schuchardt use those referents to support the ideas in his article?