Dec 162010
Well, the good news is that we’ve lost the Beatles as Manson’s Angels of the Apocalypse. The bad news is that now we have the Beatles cult of personality.
Joe Stalin filled the Russian public space with Vladimir Lenin. Now, we have Steve Jobs doing the same here in America with John Lennon.
And then there’s the damage to the Beatles brand. The Beatles magic was their accessibility. Everyone knew that unless sired by a satyr they were never going to be a Jagger or a Richards. But, all you had to do to be a pea in the pod with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr was to boycott the barber. Apple’s attempt to portray the Beatles as supermen lets the air out of the brand-vehicle’s tires.
- Pictures of the iTunes Beatles billboards at the NYC Apple Store
- Pictures of the iTunes Beatles billboard with the Empire State Building in the background
With the exception of Mount Rushmore, Wizard of Oz images have been absent from the American environment. That’s why the Citizen Kane campaign poster signifies bloated egotism, not greatness.
Perhaps this aversion to the glorification of any individual harks back to the rejection of kings? Another explanation is the Protestant prohibition against idols.
This would explain why the Nazis — clearly not averse to personality cults — focused on the swastika symbol rather than the person of Hitler. The Orthodox Church’s use of icons quite likely was what inclined the Russians to the personfication of power through grand images.