The Wardman Wire

Try to recollect the highlights of recent British elections, and what do we remember? Prescott’s punch, Portillo’s face, Major’s soapbox. All of them images, but more than images - they said something about what was going on.

Symbols communicate, which is why brands spend so much time and money honing and protecting their own symbols.

Made of Plastic, but Explosive

A tin can on a stick:

A man with saggy jowls and his diary commitments in the Far East:

Not exactly world-shaking stuff. Not until this week anyway.

We’ve known about Tibet for years, and done very little, and we’ve know that China was hosting the Olympics since 2001. This is the same China which shares with North Korea, Saudia Arabia, Laos and Iran the dubious privilege of being in the ‘Top 10 worst places to live for Christians’, and who were strongly criticised by an Amnesty International report in March. Amnesty have produced some hard hitting ads, with the tagline ‘China is getting ready’, which show people being beaten up and with guns held to their heads.

But we’ve still not done much. We buy ‘Made in China’ products as though they were made in Cheltenham, we worry about the impact of Chinese economic growth on global warming, but until the last few days, China’s human rights record was a footnote rather than a headline.

So what’s changed?

Symbolism, that’s what.

The olympic torch, the presence or otherwise of Gordon Brown at the opening ceremony, and the 5 Olympic circles, are not long debates, lists of statistics, or in-depth reports. Like a burning cross, a Union Jack or a Golden Arches, they communicate in a different, deeper way. The best political leaders have grasped the power of symbol (Churchills ‘V for Victory’) or learnt it the hard way (Nixons stubble).

Symbols of the Saints

This week I had the privelige of conducting the funeral of a lady who was right at the heart of the local community. More than any of the words said during or after the service, people will remember two things. One is the picture in the service booklet, of Joan in fancy dress, with her best friend, off to ASDA to do a charity collection. The other is the duster and polish placed on the coffin by a family member, symbols of Joans passion for cleaning anything that moved, and many things that didn’t.

Try to recollect the highlights of recent British elections, and what do we remember? Prescotts punch, Portillos face, Majors soapbox. All of them images, but more than images - they said something about what was going on. Symbols communicate, which is why brands spend so much time and money honing and protecting their own symbols. The worlds top brand, Coca-Cola (an Olympic sponsor), is reckoned to be worth a staggering $65bn. One of the weapons in the armoury of Adbusters is the counter-symbol, or parody ad, which takes well known brands and repaints them with the opposite message. Artist Banksy is another prophet with skill on the symbols.

Prophets and Fools

I wrote last week about fools, and their power as truth-tellers. Arm in arm with the fools are the prophets, and a good prophet is a master of symbolism. Many times, Old Testament weirdos like Ezekiel did peculiar things like cook over their own excrement, or build scale models of a beseiged Jerusalem. The people might forget their words, but not the images of Ezekiels pessimistic political punditry. Especially when it came true. Jesus, when looking for a way of helping his followers to remember his life and its meaning, left the symbols of wine and broken bread.

Some prophets themselves become symbols, without speaking we already know what they stand for: Tutu, The Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King.

Image Management

At some level this works for all of us. We all have a public image, we are seen in a certain way, and we put varying degrees of effort into buffing it up and making sure it’s the one we want to project. We know that there is a gap between perception and reality, and we also know how much we stand to lose if and when that gap is exposed. (Whilst writing this I heard the story of a couple in Tescos; the wife knocked a few items off the shelf, my friend jokingly said ‘you’ll have to pay for those’ and she immediately responded ‘it was him!’ pointing at her husband. Adam and Eve eat your heart out, or perhaps your apple.)

Wrapping Up

Which all explains why image-management is so important, and why corporations will spend so much money and effort to protect their symbols from negative links. Image may be even more important in Asian cultures which set far more store on saving face. Whether the protests will make China more pliable, or more angry, is another question.