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| Sam Marlow ~ The New Yorker |
Monday, April 27, 2020
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Land O'Lakes
Land O'Lakes Butter announced via press release its decision to change its brand packaging as the Minnesota dairy farmer co-op nears its centennial in 2021. Gone is Mia, the feathered Indian butter maiden, who graced its packaging for generations.
The first Mia was designed in 1928 by Arthur Hanson, an illustrator at Brown and Bigelow.
The background was changed slightly in 1939, and then Mia was last updated in the 1950s by the late artist Patrick DesJarlait, a member of the Red Lake Objibwe.
Given the growing number of institutions and companies who have made similar decisions about Native American symbolism and brands – Dartmouth College as far back as 1974, scores of school athletic teams since, and the Cleveland Indians baseball team's retirement of Chief Wahoo at the end of the 2018 season, the pendulum has certainly swung. Yet hundreds of companies continue to use similar brands and logos developed decades ago if not longer.
What's not especially helpful are the opportunistic and politically correct cries of racism, white privilege, colonialism, and woke finger pointing and shaming. But in America in 2020, a box of butter isn't just a box of butter when politics are at stake.
Now a middle-aged Baby Boomer, I am embarrassed to admit I cut and folded the box like this in the mid-1960s. MAD Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman made be do it. I'm sure I wasn't alone.
The first Mia was designed in 1928 by Arthur Hanson, an illustrator at Brown and Bigelow.
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| Arthur Hanson |
The background was changed slightly in 1939, and then Mia was last updated in the 1950s by the late artist Patrick DesJarlait, a member of the Red Lake Objibwe.
"As Land O'Lakes looks toward our 100th anniversary, we've recognized we need new packaging that reflects the foundation and heart of our company culture – and nothing does that better than our farmer-owners whose milk is used to produce Land O'Lakes' dairy products," said Beth Ford, President and CEO, Land O'Lakes.
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| Patrick DesJarlait |
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| New packaging |
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| New packaging |
What's not especially helpful are the opportunistic and politically correct cries of racism, white privilege, colonialism, and woke finger pointing and shaming. But in America in 2020, a box of butter isn't just a box of butter when politics are at stake.
Now a middle-aged Baby Boomer, I am embarrassed to admit I cut and folded the box like this in the mid-1960s. MAD Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman made be do it. I'm sure I wasn't alone.
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Easter 2020
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| Cross River Reservoir ~ Katonah, New York |
Excerpt from Christopher Pieper's editorial – Waiting Quietly to Rise Again – in the Waco Herald Tribune:
"No, this Easter will be unlike any other. It will be the most sincere, stripped-down, raw, and authentic Easter most of us have ever experienced. We, who have for so many weeks been looking among the dead, will be confronted by hope among the living. Resurrection means many different things to different people and at different times. This has always been true. But one thing is certain this Easter: Coming back to life will have a new and universal meaning for us in Pandemia 2020. It represents the fervent desire in all of us for a new and better life, an irrepressible hope that this darkness is passing, and that the world that waits for us on the other side of the stone is full of things that make life worth living. We are the ones waiting to come back to life."
Monday, April 6, 2020
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