Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Red Stripe Lager Advert Message/beer label

.
....__....._Red Stripe

........For over 75 years
.Red Stripe Lager has embodied
...the spirit, rhythm and pulse
.....of Jamaica and its people.

Red Stripe is interesting beer, I bought a bottle. It turned out to be drinkable, but it is interesting in other ways, too. The label says it is "brewed and bottled" by Desnoes & Geddes Limited, Kingston, Jamaica. The importing firm is on the label as: Diago-Guiness USA, Norwalk, CT.

Also interesting is the advert claim-iology reproduced just above. There is a contrary argument – contrary to the one represented on the label – and this is that Red Stripe Lager would not, after all, embody the Jamaican ethnicity, or nation. This argument could be made, because the item of interest, the beer, is like other items. It must be a part of the economic globalization system. Thus, we might contest the claim that it embodies the ethnic heritage of Jamaica.

It cannot be both at once. The concept of incommensurability applies here as to what Red Stripe Lager is the embodiment of, for it is either an embodiment of the ethnic heritage of Jamaica or the embodiment of transnational economics, not both.

I feel that it is important to ask how capitalism developed: How did capitalism develop to create a livable, practicable world. The question that I work with and feel to be important is just that question. We need a livable capitalism ---- no less than a drinkable beer.

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