Sometimes things aren't as they seem. Other times things are very much as they seem, so much so that we don't believe what we're seeing. Take this famously creepy pic we all remember from thin, dog-eared picture books of our youth:
Coy Beauty or Grizzled Hag? (Watch "The Shinning" for the definitive answer.)
Sometimes we see things that unsettle us, sometimes we experience things that aren't one/the other but are both/and.
This is purportedly a blog about "food," but I don't see how that baggy term precludes me from talking about other things like, say, alcohol, and racism. I mean, I grew up in suburban Detroit and from what I can remember of the "grown-ups' table" - or at least a large contingent thereof - food, alcohol and racism were as much a part of the holidays as Fords caravanned in the circular drive.
So, keeping in mind the above photo, what should we think of this picture:
You can find this curious drawing along the left side of most Jack Daniels bottles (half pints don't have sides, ya dummy!). Sure, it's a hand clutching - if awkwardly - a glass of Jack. But, what else do we see here? With the above image in mind, lets now look at another item with deep roots in American culture:
Anyone? Anyone? Now with blackface in mind (or better yet a Sambo character) what else do we see in the J.D. label? Can we also see the thumb, forefinger and empty top half of the glass as a hat? The two curious white dots just below as eyes? The remaining fingers as bulbous nose and obscene, larger-than-life lips? Like the old woman photo, Jack Daniels gives us an image that is both/and; both white hand clutching a glass and a minstrel image evoking better times - presumably in the glass and in the past; what with all J.D.s talk of tradition that surrounds the drawing how could it not?
With these images - and any "optical illusion" - you see what you want but you cannot "un-see" its other half, it creeps into the periphery of what you'd prefer to see. Because it's there too, it's part of the image .
So what? Is this just some dumb exercise of my passion for academic pedantry and booze? Well, yes and no... Actually yes on both counts, but it's also bigger than that. Let's look at another image with a curious message:
So besides robust, alcohol inspired homo-social bonding, what is this an ad for? Certainly Chivas would say "honour" and "gallantry" - in fact, if I heard them correctly, they do say this. As Chivas would have it these are frail and forgotten ethics that can be resuscitated if we just drink enough whiskey. And while it's a step up from Jack's Jim Crow and The Minstrel Show, it still has an illusory quality that demands deeper focus. What was all that about a "code of behaviour that sets certain men apart"?
If the Jack Daniels label is haunted by what is there, the Chivas ad, and its message, springs from a fear of what is not there. Anyone? Anyone?
Answer: Be suspicious of an ad that features a bunch of white guys and ends with "Here's to us." (Unless it's an ad for stormfront.org or the Republican Party.) 'Us' in the Chivas world means the kind of guys who not only drink Chivas but are also predisposed to do all those great things the ad is suggesting. 'Us' is the guys in the ad, white guys - only.
Still don't buy it? Or is the advert just too English with its "sporting" types and effete, Thom Yorke-esque bellowing?
Then how about this one:
I much prefer the Stranglers-inspired soundtrack but I think these guys have seen "Lock. Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels" one too many times. Visually, this looks a lot like the Jack ad: all chiaroscuro, glass clutching, and masculinity. But while blackface is right up front in the Jack image blackness simply surrounds the guys in the Ketel ad. In the end the cool, brash, young dudes end up looking like these old ladies.
So why are these ads so amped about white guys and the past? Admittedly all Ketel is pining for is "last night" (albeit filtered through "300 years of tradition) while Chivas seems to want to get out of that gray city and find a place on which the sun never sets.
The cynical response to all the images, to the whole post, from the Jack label to the Ketel ad is that I am "reading too much into it," that all this racial stuff isn't there. However, like the old lady picture, the whole point is that it is there, but it's there in such a way where, whether you see it or not, it's part of the image, part of the message. You don't have to see the racial undertones of the Ketel or Chivas ad for these very undertones to seep into the periphery of your thought - in fact, it works better this way.
So have a drink, think about it, but remember: a lot of thought went into these ads - and vision can be impaired by more than alcohol.
Coy Beauty or Grizzled Hag? (Watch "The Shinning" for the definitive answer.)Sometimes we see things that unsettle us, sometimes we experience things that aren't one/the other but are both/and.
This is purportedly a blog about "food," but I don't see how that baggy term precludes me from talking about other things like, say, alcohol, and racism. I mean, I grew up in suburban Detroit and from what I can remember of the "grown-ups' table" - or at least a large contingent thereof - food, alcohol and racism were as much a part of the holidays as Fords caravanned in the circular drive.
So, keeping in mind the above photo, what should we think of this picture:
You can find this curious drawing along the left side of most Jack Daniels bottles (half pints don't have sides, ya dummy!). Sure, it's a hand clutching - if awkwardly - a glass of Jack. But, what else do we see here? With the above image in mind, lets now look at another item with deep roots in American culture:
Anyone? Anyone? Now with blackface in mind (or better yet a Sambo character) what else do we see in the J.D. label? Can we also see the thumb, forefinger and empty top half of the glass as a hat? The two curious white dots just below as eyes? The remaining fingers as bulbous nose and obscene, larger-than-life lips? Like the old woman photo, Jack Daniels gives us an image that is both/and; both white hand clutching a glass and a minstrel image evoking better times - presumably in the glass and in the past; what with all J.D.s talk of tradition that surrounds the drawing how could it not?With these images - and any "optical illusion" - you see what you want but you cannot "un-see" its other half, it creeps into the periphery of what you'd prefer to see. Because it's there too, it's part of the image .
So what? Is this just some dumb exercise of my passion for academic pedantry and booze? Well, yes and no... Actually yes on both counts, but it's also bigger than that. Let's look at another image with a curious message:
So besides robust, alcohol inspired homo-social bonding, what is this an ad for? Certainly Chivas would say "honour" and "gallantry" - in fact, if I heard them correctly, they do say this. As Chivas would have it these are frail and forgotten ethics that can be resuscitated if we just drink enough whiskey. And while it's a step up from Jack's Jim Crow and The Minstrel Show, it still has an illusory quality that demands deeper focus. What was all that about a "code of behaviour that sets certain men apart"?
If the Jack Daniels label is haunted by what is there, the Chivas ad, and its message, springs from a fear of what is not there. Anyone? Anyone?
Answer: Be suspicious of an ad that features a bunch of white guys and ends with "Here's to us." (Unless it's an ad for stormfront.org or the Republican Party.) 'Us' in the Chivas world means the kind of guys who not only drink Chivas but are also predisposed to do all those great things the ad is suggesting. 'Us' is the guys in the ad, white guys - only.
Still don't buy it? Or is the advert just too English with its "sporting" types and effete, Thom Yorke-esque bellowing?
Then how about this one:
I much prefer the Stranglers-inspired soundtrack but I think these guys have seen "Lock. Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels" one too many times. Visually, this looks a lot like the Jack ad: all chiaroscuro, glass clutching, and masculinity. But while blackface is right up front in the Jack image blackness simply surrounds the guys in the Ketel ad. In the end the cool, brash, young dudes end up looking like these old ladies.
So why are these ads so amped about white guys and the past? Admittedly all Ketel is pining for is "last night" (albeit filtered through "300 years of tradition) while Chivas seems to want to get out of that gray city and find a place on which the sun never sets.
The cynical response to all the images, to the whole post, from the Jack label to the Ketel ad is that I am "reading too much into it," that all this racial stuff isn't there. However, like the old lady picture, the whole point is that it is there, but it's there in such a way where, whether you see it or not, it's part of the image, part of the message. You don't have to see the racial undertones of the Ketel or Chivas ad for these very undertones to seep into the periphery of your thought - in fact, it works better this way.
So have a drink, think about it, but remember: a lot of thought went into these ads - and vision can be impaired by more than alcohol.
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