5.01.2006 deaflypmics - does this ad bug anyone else?

I have a deaf sister but I don't claim to be an expert on deafness trivia... but still... shouldn't anyone know that Vincent Van Gogh just cut off one of his ears and that he wasn't deaf? Did I miss a history lesson? Nothing I can find on the net suggests he was deaf at any point or time. I get why Beethoven is on the ad but Van Gogh????? This is in a few MRTs in Taipei.

Labels: Only in Asia, taipei, taiwan

posted by cat @ 5/01/2006 03:30:00 AM 4 comments |

4 comments:

At 5/03/2006 11:50:00 AM,

ScubaDude Chris said...

I think this ad uses those North American techniques we see all too often - to prey on some of the common facts about the commercial audiences in general - they either don't know or don't care about the facts.

At 5/04/2006 02:42:00 PM,

Anonymous said...

Van Gogh was blonde...very very blonde :)

At 5/05/2006 02:24:00 AM,

cat said...

But don't you think since they made the whole add so van goghey (ala Starry Night) that it's him? I agree the hair colour isn't right but it DOES look like him, or at least the paintings we have of him.

I don't know, few ads I see here make a lot of sense, and the ones that do I can't read :)

At 5/09/2006 03:05:00 PM,

Andrew said...

Gotta agree with the notion it's working off a superficial reaction rather than an actual reasoned inclusion.

They're gambling on you saying, "Oh, right, Van Gogh cut off his ear" and leaving it at that, I suspect. Though in their defence, there aren't a great deal of instantly recognisable deaf individuals with broad cultural recognition. I mean, Helen Keller and Marlee Matlin would be too esoteric for Taiwan.

I seem to recall lots of Van Gogh art at the intersection of BaDe Lu and DunHua Lu...