Is Walmart channeling Kurt Vonnegut? When Walmart unveiled its new logo last week, there was only one thing we thought of when we saw that logo.
Anyone who’s read “Breakfast of Champions” remembers that Vonnegut peppered his writing with illustrations, one of which was a drawing of his own asshole:
Sure enough, we’re not the only ones to have noticed. Terrific marketing job, Walmart!
More From Consumerist
-
Comcast Adds NBC Peacock To New Logo, Hoping To Replace Thoughts Of Mediocre Cable With Memories Of So-So TV Shows
-
American Airlines Treats Itself To A New Look With First Makeover In Over 40 Years
-
I Don’t Want To See A Zagg Ad Every Time I Look At My iPhone
-
Walmart Still Ignoring Customer Whose Engine Was Ruined In Botched Oil Change
-
Wendy’s Gives Its Girl A Makeover In Attempt To Update The Chain’s Image
Well, they are following the footsteps of a genius.
this brightened my day so much, I can’t even tell you.
but surely Walmart is even more highbrow than a mere Vonnegut reference — it’s probably inspired by the paintings of Joan Miro’, who used asterisk symbology in the exact same way.
Seems appropriate enough.
“This is a drawing of an asshole”
(Slaughterhouse Five, I think… maybe it was Breakfast of Champions.)
I guess the reason walmarts is yellow is to represent the corn that couldn’t be digested.
Americans. You can either fight against the dominance of Wal-Mart. Or bend over and cough…
OK, thanks to Consumerist from now on I will have an uncomfortable “literary moment” every time I get near a Wal*Mart. 8-P
Yeah, I just can’t believe that the folks running walmart read.
The picture probably doesn’t come through on audiobook early as well.
@emona: BofC.
C’mon, guys. I hate Walmart as much as the next guy, but even this is a stretch.
Like Vonnegut was the only person to ever use an asterisk to mean something else?
it’s a sunburst
I’m just glad they’re giving up on the giant ‘Always’, which reminded me of the feminine hygiene product line…
@darkryd: It has every same ink mark though. I think that is the point.
Ok, they both look like asterisks.
So Kurt has the asterisk trade marked?
Different color, different number of points, differing connectivity in the points.
Had I seen Kurt’s picture and Walmart’s logo a day apart, I would never even have made the connection.
@darkryd: It has the exact same ink markings. I think that’s more of the point than anything.
I like that they moved the star out of the middle of the word. I hated having to call it Wal*Mart. (I’m too OCD to be inaccurate.)
I just wonder if everyone’s giving Wal*Mart a little too much credit. I buy fredmertz’s sunburst better anyway. I really doubt first that they’d have the brains to attempt it and more so that anyone could read anything positive about the company as a result. An interesting (possibly unintended) allusion, though!
@Murph1908:
the walmart asshole is gaped. Much like goatse.
As much as I appreciate a hearty Vonnegut reference, I am just not seeing it. I might even go so far as to say that if you spontaneously made the connection between that logo and the drawing from Breakfast Of Champions, you might not have properly resolved the anal stage of your psychosexual development! Be careful…soon enough you’ll start having dirty dreams about your own mother! Ain’t Freud Fun?!
I guess I’m just glad you didn’t make a goatse comparo…although I guess I just did!
I thought “Umbrella Corporation” when I saw the new logo.
As Garth said in Waynes’ world “we fear change”. I think changing their near-iconic logo is a harbinger of other change, and likely means they are planning on raising prices.
I’m just not sure WHY they’re changing their logo, considering it’s one of the best-known “products” in the WORLD. I guess they’re trying to be “more like Target”, but just changing the sign out front really won’t do that. They’d have remodel all of their stores and change the culture inside those stores. Does anyone have a link to an article explaining this change?
You’re all wrong. It’s a daisy. A pretty daisy loving the sunshine of Wal-Mart’s great selection and low prices.
/daisy
I immediately thought of the Holiday Inn logo (one of the newer ones, not the cool older one).
Anyone check out the scale? (1/100)
That’s a big asshole! I guess it really does fit Wal-Mart!
I don’t believe Kurt Vonnegut’s asshole has received some much attention before.
@blue_duck: I’m pretty sure the 2nd Walmart logo with a black asterisk isn’t real.
@darkryd: I agree, The 1st logo is just a generic sunburst/asterisk and looks nothing like the Vonnegut one.
@Angryrider:
…turn our heads and cough? Or bend over…? Maybe?
Neither one applies to me…I fight against them. They can take our small businesses, but they cannot take…our FREEDOM!!!!
This post just gave me a flashback to high school in the Chicago suburbs circa 1987. I worked part time at a Mobil station with a very fey 200lb Korean-American dude who, in reference to an attractive customer would say, “Gurrl, I’d let him pull into my ‘Red O’ any day!”
@cedarpointfan: I think that means it’s the first of 100 signed prints . . . of his asshole.
Sure, there’s no influence in reality, but the visual imagery now whenever I see the (otherwise lame) logo is great.
I imagine that Wal-Mart will care about as much as AT&T cares when people call their newish logo the “Death Star logo”. (We shall prevail!)
Looks like the Red Hot Chili’s logo.
The bottom logo was made to illustrate the similarity; it’s not the real logo. Goodbye Blue Monday was the secondary title of Breakfast of Champions.
@Murph1908: Do you mean they look like assterisks?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Vonnegut signed a first edition of Jailbird for me once and incorporated an asterisk into his signature. I’ve always wondered whether he was calling me an asshole or himself one.
I think that this article fails.
A friend of mine noted the asshole similarity last week, and I immediately thought of our dear, departed Kurt. That said, it also looks like this “Third-Eye” plate design I would have bought a long time ago if it wasn’t so expensive:
[www.poshchicago.com]
@tmed: Right, because the folks running one of the largest and most successful corporations in the world (love ‘em or hate ‘em), they’ve gotta be dumb!
I’m with @Murph1908, you guys are retards. Hey guess what? This means that every keyboard ever made has Kurt Vonnegut’s asshole on it.
Good job.
Damn, with Wal-Mart practically printing its own money you’d think they’d come up with a better logo than….this. Very ugly.
S T R E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E T C H much?
Also, apparently [www.asterisk.org] and the Red Hot Chili Peppers both stole from Vonnegut as well?
Oh, and [www.speckproducts.com] too.
Oh look, another: [www.asterisksoftware.com]
I guess all of these companies also did a “terrific marketing job.”
@BeFrugalNotCheap: Money can’t buy you good taste, unfortunately.
walmart is assholes, surprise!
This will go down in the anals of brilliant advertising.
Really, consumerist? Really.
And for the record, they starburst asterix is clearly meant to echo the star that’s used as a hyphen in their current logo.
vonnegut was an inventor and a writer? who knew…
comparing walmart* to vonnegut’s asshold could have been done with so much more humor and less wild accusation
soooooo vonnegut invented the asterisk?
that logo is fugly btw
Agilent had a similar logo. I’m told it was called the “Splat of Inspiration.”
[www.3g.co.uk]