The adage reads that a picture is worth a thousand words. We know with the benefit of modern psychology that this only really applies if the person viewing the picture is visually dominant. To an auditory person, who prefers words, sounds and cadences, the picture may not convey the right message. And for the highly kinaesthetic person – who’s into feelings and emotions, taste, touch, smell, temperature, texture and pressure, the picture may well (to use their language) leave ‘em cold. But I’ve run across two newspaper pictures today that speak their own strange language. The one is the shot of the owl-eyes painted on the much written-about Jan Smuts Avenue wall of the Johannesburg Zoo. In order to dolly up its ersatz-rock look, the powers that be have decided to paint in the alcoves of the wall, sets of eyes representing various animals on site. They kicked off with the owl eyes. Which, given some African cultural norms, might not have been an especially wise (no pun) decision. Many black South Africans in particular still associate the owl with death rather than wisdom or great usefulness as a rodent controller. It’s the same blups the Yellow Pages made years ago. We can forgive them of course, because they were owned by Telkom – which excuses everything and explains all. But, I digress. The Yellow Pages Directory had line-drawn owls on the cover and also on just about every page because some dumb-ass ad agency had decided that using the yellow pages was a ‘wise’ thing to do. It would have been interesting to note how few black people used the yellow pages as a consequence. So, my question: Was the idea of owl eyes on the Zoo wall something from a Caucasian-dominated ad or promotion agency, or just an innocent, bona fide screw-up?
The second picture is of Dubya’n Laura. At first glance I thought it was the British Princess Royal – old Annabelle – with George dear. The same bouffant hairdo you must agree. But on closer examination, it’s clearly Laura B on a bad hair day. The chin position consequences just scream for a neck-lift surgical intervention given her role in that physical perfection-obsessed nation. If you’ve glanced at the pic though, you know why I’m writing about it. What is it with the tongues? He’s always done it – even in between smirks. Now she’s doing it? We have viral marketing. Could this, one wonders, be viral mouthing? The caption hints that they’re about to board Airforce Once. Maybe the meteorological service was down and the pilot asked them to do a tongue-tip test for wind direction. Dunno.
Whatever, it certainly does little to enhance Dubya’s already precarious IQ image.
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