The Kaiser Edition

A couple of weeks ago the Kaiserin dragged me kicking and screaming into a cinema to see a film called “Die Welle” which actually turned out to be a rather good film. Based on “The Third Wave”; a social experiment which took place in an American school towards the end of the 1960’s, the film explored autocracy and Germany’s darkest history and asks, amongst other things “could it happen again”.

The film, as did the original experiment, makes it quite clear that it with a mix of strict discipline, a strong “leader” and identity through uniform, that yes, it could happen again. Yes, it was a good and frightening* film.

On the way home I decided to pen a memo to all those top-notch agency ladies and gentlemen to prevent this kind of nonsense happening within the realm of advertising. I mean, you do know how some of the senior glitterati get carried away.

Alas, I was too late.

• Rules for uniform have been set
• And the queue for paper clips just gets longer, and longer.

* Update: I’m putting this in to make sure something is absolutely clear. This film is good because it shows how easily a dictatorship/autocratic system can take hold of a society/community. If you follow the “The Third Wave” link you will see that it took less than five days for the system to take hold. To me, that’s frightening and important and something that should be talked about. Repeat: I find that terrifying and appalling.

The connection to the two posts above should be clear; that the introduction dress codes/uniforms is an attempt to curb individuality – by enforcing this code is, in itself a form of corporate-autocracy. Remember advertising is a so called “creative industry”. Should this post have offended your pseudo-liberal sensibilities then please accept my apologies.

If you think that others might been interested in this would you be so kind as to Stumble it?

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