I used to hate Hello Kitty. Then I started spotting samurai Kitty (I have a handful of figures of HK dressed as the Shinsengumi troop of the Meiji Revolution, but there are also HK versions of Sengoku warlords like Tokugawa Ieyasu), gothic lolita Kitty, wa-loli Kitty (wa-loli is the lolita version of wafuku -- think kimonos with lace and poofy skirts), pirate Kitty, Kitty plushies dressed with chirimen silk kimonos, and so on.

My japanophile side won.

For some illustration, here are a lot of HK tchotkes at Strapya. Notice the h.NAOTO and BALZAC collabs that make Kitty-chan go punk, or the series about the 47 ronin.

People of color as backdrop! Gun as penis! Murder as victory! YAAAAAAAY!

Beyond these things, I'm trying to articulate why this series is disturbing to me, perhaps because it brings cartoon characters into the non-cartoon world and gives them realistic remains. Most of the characters shown are heavily anthropomorphized, which adds an extra layer to their death. The trope of "big game hunt" doesn't really fly for me when I see a tree with a sad humanoid face with its limbs amputated. What do other people think?

I'm with you, Lisa. I love the "death" of childhood advertising or fantasy icons (though there's an interesting mix of the specific (say, Hello Kitty or Micky Mouse) and the mythic/generic (a unicorn, the robot). But I'm recoiling from the colonial theme. In both ads the sulky, white teenager is literally framed by two colonial subjects who help the "hunter" pose for the photograph with all his/her kills.

I don't think the kind of kills they are in any way subverts or questions the colonial frame. The white youth is still the center of the photograph, clearly mastering both his/her innocence but doing so through imperialist means.

Edward Said said: "Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires."

The truth is, I'm not surprised to see imperialist discourses circulating at this economic, political, and social moment, when our definitions of the "West" and first world/third world, economic sufficiency, etc., are all being upended.

Didn't you guys already feature these ads? I've definitely seen them before & I thought it was here. Oh, these are a huge Great White Hope mess, but I'm not sure it isn't playing off the stereotype? Ah, who am I kidding, I just LIKE them.

We talked about this over at The F Word a while ago - http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/shs_teen_clothes_guy. There is a good idea in there somewhere, the illustration of the loss of innocence and that, but the colonial theme is just vomitty and ruins it.

Am I the only one disturbed primarily by the connection between teenagers and guns in these ads? These ads glorify violence, and identify guns as the best way to liberate oneself from the past. I don't think this is the best message to be sending to angsty teenagers.

I feel like, if all the problematic stuff is being done *self-consciously* then these are awesome ads. (I don't actually think that, sadly.)

"Loss of innocence?" Why *shouldn't* it include the realization for white teenagers that they are violent, rich, colonizing little bastards who have no problem killing identities and cultures that other people love for their own gratification? :p

(More gut reaction = I kinda love these ads. o.O I'm clearly perverse.)

For whatever its worth, the girl is almost certainly at least part Asian.

In addition to all the problems that everyone else mentions, teenagers with guns? In the era of high-school and college shootings? Really? (Maybe my British urban sensibilities are showing. Maybe if I was from the country I'd have no problem with this. But I think I still would.)

I don't, on the whole, have a problem with the "putting away childish things" message. I've always assumed, though, that teenagers / students like to wear cartoon T-shirts and so on as an indication that they don't yet have to behave like adults, no matter how much parents might like them to. So I think the effect is likely to be circular.

Young teens and pre-teens seem (in my limited experience) to be keener to distance themselves from "cute" than older ones are. Childlike imagery evidently becomes more appealing as childhood becomes more distant.

Who are the cartoons? The dead "animals" or the living yet silent natives in the backround. Bizarre!

FYI, the concept is totally ripped off from artist Michael Paulus (who is clever and amusing, sans colonialist nonsense):

Paulus is also currently being ripped off by this guy.

Wow, this is really disturbing but would be great for so many classes. Thanks!

Yeah, I think the idolization of murder is a bit more worrisome than the intimation of colonialism.

The ads are clever. I'm not bothered that they have guns, my father and brothers and nephews learned to shoot and hunt when they were 8. It's a sad world where people freak out over hunting, geesh get a grip.

I can understand the death of the characters, I can even accept it. You get to a certain age when you shed (sometime viciously) the things you loved as a child, you start to build your own image. I am much more bothered by the stereotype of the Indian and African men in the background. Are we telling these teeny boppers that not only should they bannish their childhood favourites but also treat all people around them like second rate citizens who can be used?

Like I said, the guns and hunting don't bother me, but how can such an "advanced" world still be portraying these ridiculous images of "natives”?

Maybe my strong feelings come from the fact that I live in a country with a strong colonial history and I have certainly seen how when these images are pushed on people they have serious effects on society.

Although the images carry a disturbing undertone, the visual appeal is there for me. The juxtaposition of so many disparate components, many of which clash, is interesting but pulled off well, as they do not seem disjointed but seem to work as a whole. I like the pieces on a purely artistic level but hopefully am not condoning some bizarre message that I may otherwise be missing.
thanks,
Dr. Samuel Lam

wtf