Comments on: Cover the earth!

Question: Cover the earth!

Sangre Azul — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:26:42 -0800

The Sherwin-Williams paint logo has always reminded me of a propaganda poster. Possibly with WWII Japan depicted as an octopus. Or maybe there's oil involved.

The Sherwin-Williams logo has always looked menacing to me. I recall one or two propaganda posters (or political cartoons) in my old middle/high school history book that forged this connotation.

One:

I'm fairly certain the original image was of an octopus engulfing the earth. I found this thread that covers many instances of the octopus being used as a propaganda symbol. There are a lot of close images, but not the one I remember.

In that thread, a member is looking for this image, but is unsuccessful:

"I'm trying to find one of the more famous octopus in propaganda, a WWII poster depicting Imperial Japan as an enormous cephalopod taking in Southeast Asia and reaching for Australia."

I think this might be the image I'm looking for, too. If not, it's in a similar vein and was not covered in the octopus forum thread linked to above.

Two:

Again, in my history book was a political cartoon (I think) of an oil drum pouring out onto the globe. I'm not sure what era this would have been from.

Any bites?

By: keswick

keswick — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:30:36 -0800

I've always had the same naggin' feeling about the S-W logo. (And god, what a horrible slogan.)

By: TonyRobots

TonyRobots — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:32:00 -0800

Rather off-topic, but it's also quite reminiscent of the nicktoons logo.

By: IshmaelGraves

IshmaelGraves — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:49:05 -0800

This page shows a Nazi poster depicting an octopus with the Star of David surrounding the earth.

This is a Photoshopped version of a poster with an octopus — possibly the original is what you're looking for?

By: electroboy

electroboy — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:50:46 -0800

I found a couple. This .pdf, and this image.. They're not anti-Japanese, but anti-monopoly, in particular Standard Oil.

By: misterbrandt

misterbrandt — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:52:45 -0800

Maybe send an email to the asker to see if he ever got a satisfactory answer (perhaps off-list)?

By: Sangre Azul

Sangre Azul — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:54:46 -0800

Those are close, but not what I remember. Still, it's ammo when I mention to folks exactly why the S-W logo creeps me out so much.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:58:15 -0800

Is this the one?

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 13:02:41 -0800

I seem to remember a cartoon - maybe Popeye or Mighty Mouse - where the Axis powers were depicted as a flood of red flowing over the globe of the Earth. If I'm not making it up, I bet that's it.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 13:04:12 -0800

I love the Sherwin-Williams logo. I've never seen a more Communist advertisement anywhere.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 13:21:29 -0800

By: Mr T

Mr T — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 13:33:57 -0800

The S-W logo, and in particular the slogan, has always creeped me out. The company has an interesting history. The logo dates to 1905 so it might actually be the inspiration to propaganda posters you have seen.

By: jeremias

jeremias — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 14:03:16 -0800

It's always unnerved me too. In fact I remember when I really *saw* it- I was in Central America at the time and the "Cover the Earth" logo was in Spanish.

It's always reminded me of Christian ideology- meaning that if you believe that the earth is merely a temporary stop on the way to Heaven then it's ok to cover the earth with paint. When Judgement Day comes, only the sinners will be left on the planet and all the chosen ones can look down and see it covered with red (i.e. Hell).

By: Sangre Azul

Sangre Azul — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 14:32:01 -0800

fandango_matt's answer, which is the original of IshmaelGraves's photoshopped version, might be it. I think my old text book had the image in black and white, which is what is throwing me off.

I'll flag that as a best answer later today if nothing else shows up, as it demonstrates the creep-out factor well enough for my purposes. Though not what I remembered, the anti semitic propaganda looks the closest to the actual logo, as does a communism image I found on my own.

I'm at least glad I'm not the only who who thinks it's a sinister logo!

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 14:40:36 -0800

Unrelated, but does anyone besides me see the "compacted" swastika in the Columbia Sportswear Logo? I swear, it looks like a swastika in a heavy gravitational field, or the shrinky-dink version of a swastika..

By: InkaLomax

InkaLomax — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:10:05 -0800

As a kid I remember thinking it would be a great poster for the Socialist Worker's Party to use.

By: qwip

qwip — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:44:18 -0800

I'm sure I remember a political cartoon from the turn of the century that had a similar theme. An image of the earth being covered by some liquid that represented politics or something. Same kind of cartoons where you'd see a huge fat man walking over the south with a sash that read "Carpet Bagger" or some such. I can't seem to find the one I'm thinking of, however.

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:45:42 -0800

Okay, sorry to stay off-topic, but it's even weirder to look at that Columbia logo and now know that the founder of the company was Jewish, and fled Nazi Germany for Portland, OR at the age of 13 in 1937 with her parents, and the company was founded in 1938 by her father. Guess sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar...

By: rafter

rafter — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 20:36:15 -0800

Unrelated, but does anyone besides me see the "compacted" swastika in the Columbia Sportswear Logo?

Yes! It's even more shocking when the logo is stitched into something so each "bar" is not quite so bulbous — I had a pair of sneakers where each was basically a single row of stitching and without a closer look the illusion was uncanny.

By: hortense

hortense — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 21:58:06 -0800

The Deadline to Action How left-wing labor unions engaged in political activism to combat corporate influence on the U.S. Congress in the years following World War II