Airbnb rebrands neoliberal bullshit as genitalia-shaped bullshit

[Starry Messenger]

http://48hillsonline.org/2014/07/16/airbnb-rebrands-neoliberal-bullshit-genitalia-shaped-bullshit/

Today, Airbnb, one of San Francisco’s biggest “sharing economy” successes, launched a major rebranding effort, that includes a new website, redesigned rental listings, and a new logo. The theme of Airbnb’s new image is “belonging”; the tagline is “belong anywhere.”

<snip>

I’m less interested in Airbnb’s graphic design failures, and more interested in the ideology behind “belonging anywhere.” The founders reveal that their philosophy of “belonging” stems from a dismayingly selective reading of world history:

Cities used to be villages. Everyone knew each other, and everyone knew they had a place to call home. But after the mechanization and Industrial Revolution of the last century, those feelings of trust and belonging were displaced by mass-produced and impersonal travel experiences. We also stopped trusting each other. And in doing so, we lost something essential about what it means to be a community… That’s why Airbnb is returning us to a place where everyone can feel they belong.

I hate to be the one to break it to Joe, Nate, and Brian, but prior to the Industrial Revolution, one way people “belonged” to other people was through chattel slavery. Another was through marriages that made women the property of their husbands. It’s less funny than a doodle of a vagina, but perhaps more evocative of the limited viewpoint of the company’s three white, male founders.

<snip>

[NYC_SKP]

1. Sorry, that logo doesn't look much like the genitalia I've seen.

But I "get the point" about how powerful "branding" has become in the economic world.

[vlakitti]

2. Brilliant comment

Thanks

[bananas]

3. This is art - notice the phallus moving in from the bottom left.

Notice how she's looking straight at it, as she sips from a glass of wine.
So much artistic symbolism in this photograph.

http://recode.net/2014/07/17/airbnb-founder-on-vagina-logo-go-ahead-laugh-all-you-want/

[bananas]

4. "The new logo looks quite similar to the one sported by Automation Anywhere."

http://recode.net/2014/07/17/airbnb-founder-on-vagina-logo-go-ahead-laugh-all-you-want/

The new logo looks quite similar to the one sported by Automation Anywhere.

http://www.automationanywhere.com/