Mercedes Hijacks Che Image for Free Market Insult

[Ed Jewett]

Mercedes Hijacks Che Image for Free Market Insult

Posted on January 12, 2012 by willyloman

by Scott Creighton
A smirking Daimler AG beams the header "viva la revolucion!" behind a classic photo of Che Guevara at their consumer electronics show in Vegas. They stuck their Mercedes logo on his hat. Their "revolution" is the free market revolution of neoliberal graft and savage capitalism. The Mercedes logo is the starter-house symbol of privilege and status recognized by wanna-be millionaire capitalists toiling away and sucking up to anyone higher than they are in the institutionalized pecking order. These are people who have yet to fully comprehend the gravity of the unraveling world around us, yet they know they need to pull up to the valet in a Mercedes or better to have any clout.
This ad campaign is a cynical joke, a jab in the eyes of any who understand their corporatist mission is an assault on humanity itself. Fitting that it would come from a company associated with the Third Reich, the first major fascist attempt to remake the world in the corporate model.
The corporatist/fascist Cuban exiles in Miami are incensed. They apparently don't get the joke and they fear that now their coveted Mercs will be somehow tainted by this association. After all, it was Che himself who helped drive the corporations and the mobsters out of Cuba.
The conservatives, ignorant and dull by design, also don't seem to be in on the laugh. They are complaining from the Heritage Foundation all the way down the line. Soon enough the Tea Party will be all over it as well. They aren't really known for thinking for themselves.
The message is clear enough were you but to see. The revolution is won. The free market revolution lives. Che is dead. They usurp his image and brand their logo on his forehead.
.

[Magda Hassan]

Korda's family will sue. They are fine if I make 2,000 tshirts with his picture screen printed on them to sell at a market and make money for a progressive cause but they want no commercial corporation to use that photo.

In 2000, he sued Smirnoff over the use of the image in advertisement. Commenting on the illicit use of his photograph, the artist said, "As a supporter of the ideals for which Che Guevara died, I am not averse to its reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world, but I am categorically against the exploitation of Che's image for the promotion of products such as alcohol, or for any purpose that denigrates the reputation of Che". His out-of-court settlement of US $50,000 was donated to the Cuban healthcare system. He said, "If Che were still alive, he would have done the same".

[Magda Hassan]

Oh, and Mercedes are shameless. Not contect with using slave labour supplied by the Nazis they also used Janis Joplin's song to push their over priced over hyped mediocre product beloved by dictators the world over.

[Keith Millea]

That's Okay:

"Mercedes Benz" was probably Janis's worst song ever!

Love those pictures!!!!!