ImageGeisha: Is This Any Different from Mister Wong?

By Ernie | Monday, August 25, 2008 | 18 Comments

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File another one in the “European companies with unfortunate branding” bin: My former co-worker Rabble pointed me to an image manipulation platform which does live previews of Word Documents, PDFs and MP3s on the web from Austrian company wollzelle.

ImageGeisha logo with snarky commentary

Called ImageGeisha. Oy.

At this point, there isn’t anything I haven’t said before: racial caricatures are completely taboo subjects for Americans. In branding, especially — that’s why our software logos uses ridiculous swooshes and images of gears. Europeans, notsomuch. I’ll be honest; I was all ready to write an ZOMG SO ANGRY post a couple of days ago, and then softened my position when I noticed they modified their branding and read through some comments. Here’s why.

If there’s anything different between this situation and, say, the great Mister Wong fiasco of 2007, it would be that at the folks at ImageGeisha are cognizant of their international audience right off the bat, and there’s been an open, frank and immediate discussion between the folks at wollzelle and dissenting commenters. Each side makes their case, compromises can be made, and I can think of the mascot as an adorable figurine you can buy at a gift shop in J-Town that, say, a completely subservient female stereotype imposed by Western society upon all Asian people. My standpoint will probably not sit will with the more activist folk out there. So be it.

And if nothing else, they modified their original tagline: “ImageGeisha, at your service, polishing your assets.” As if the application would preview your PowerPoint presentation, and then give you a handjob afterwards.

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

John

Maybe the tag line is offensive, but the logo of the geisha – I don’t see anything horribly wrong with that…
Jacob

You’re such an angry asian man, do you go hunting around for stereotypes everywhere? Is your superpower racial-images-detection?

Give it a rest, nobody is out to get you. Just relax, let them do what they want, it does not matter one way or the other. I’m a ‘black’ dude, and I’d still shop in a shop even if it had a gollywog as it’s logo.
Ben

Hmm.. I don’t see the “polishing your assets” line on the actual site. Says “look surprised? good.” And just fyi, geishas were never prostitutes. It was the call girls in the 40s and such that called themselves geishas that people think about, but they never participated in the same line of work. It’s more like a companionship type thing. Just figured I’d point that out too.

Don’t really find anything wrong with the logo either.
brian276

being irish-European, i do squirm with embarassment when certain neighbouring culture’s aren’t as aware of minorities as we would expect in Ireland. My wife is spanish and has admitted that the asian community in spain just has not permeated the country and so most Spanish people will think of archaic/jingostic iconography when they think of asia.- but as an Irish person -when travelling in america I have similar sentiments about america -the fighting Irish Logo of some sports teams is quite alien to us in ireland – the lucky charms leprechaun is really the Mr. Wong for Irish people, but its goes unremarked.
Neil

Ben: it’s a fair question. Appeals to stereotypes are about perceptions, not what the real geishas were like. So if most people think geishas were prostitutes, that is the stereotype they are activating. This can be really tricky sometimes — one could imagine someone innocent of this stereotype using the geisha image as an example of an artistic entertainer.

I suppose it would hinge on whatever ImageGeisha is supposed to do. It seems to me that if it’s a web app, the theme is service, not talent. Kind of like the old Ask Jeeves, but geishas have the image, among Westerners, of a more complete subservience.
Jeff C.

More about the co-creator of the brand:

“Christina [Fried] is Creative Director and a partner in wollzelle. After graduating from Vienna University of Technology with an MSc in Architecture, Christina began her professional career with a number of media design and architecture internships in Germany and Austria and study trips to Japan, the USA and throughout Europe.”

In other words, the creator of the brand has exposure to the Japanese culture.

Perhaps you’re interpreting things with your American stereotype of geishas (as prostitutes) rather than the way the creator intended (as hostesses)? Just a thought…

Please, PLEASE stop interpreting everything, especially actions from Europeans, as an attack on Asian-Americans… it does nothing but create an us-versus-them mentality, and that’s the last thing we need considering the American Mainstream Media is already lambasting China as the common enemy
Toro

I dont see anything remotely offensive about the caricature or the caricature in connection with the word geisha.
StanfordEE

Me neither. I honestly don’t think there’s anything offensive about it. Unless there’s a direct reference to something objectionable (which I cannot find on the site), there’s nothing wrong. Even with Mister Wong, I kinda liked the site myself. Have you seen that brand of coffee sold in Asian supermarkets? Mr Brown? It’s clearly a Caucasian man with a big nose and mustache. Is that offensive? I don’t think so; it’s just coffee!

I’m of Asian descent, and unless there’s something rude about an image, I never take offense. So when angry, well-educated Asians (usually in the US) complain about things like this, I don’t get it. Even those old American comics about wartime heroes beating up on the Japanese or Vietnamese during WWII or the Vietnam war doesn’t seem offensive. It was just part of the historical context.

But there is no historical context in the case of ImageGeisha. In fact, there is no context, sexual or otherwise. So why the big deal! I kinda like the site design myself… Please find some real controversy for this site… There hasn’t been a good post in a while.
lxy

Since stereotypes are all the corporate rage these days, we should spread the “love” around and honor all peoples with logos celebrating their culture!

How about a bucktoof, barefoot White trash cracker-ass-cracker as a logo? Maybe selling something like pork rinds?

For Europeans in general, we can have a Spanish inquisitor torturing some unfortunate religious infdel. Or maybe a Britzie boy with bad teeth, and a cowardly Frog!

And for Jacob, the ‘black dude,” how’s about a reprisal of Buckweat and Stephin Fetchit pimping malt liquor?

The possibilities are endless.

Madison Avenue needs to get with this new marketing trend post-haste.

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