Bad branding exercise: Westinghouse logo on a prisoner's electric chair hood | Hacker News Reader

Bad branding exercise: Westinghouse logo on a prisoner's electric chair hood

gettyimages.co.uk

14 pointswebmonkeyuk12 comments

WeeGee was a crime photographer. This W logo - the logo might not be the only thing that's not real about the image.

(http://weegeeweegeeweegee.net/2013/03/07/ny-daily-news-posts...)

> 6. “Macabre was Weegee’s specialty. Case in point, the photographer took this shot of an American prisoner strapped into a chair in a gas chamber as he is sentenced to death.”

> The W logo on the American prisoner’s head is a hand drawn Westinghouse (Westinghouse Electric) logo on a wax figure (self-correction: probably not at the National Wax Museum in Washington D.C., while making the film Shangri-La, instead, it’s probably in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London) of Caryl Chessman… Macabre and humor, etc.

Yeah, the logo is certainly not real because Westinghouse didn't invent or manufacture the original electric chair. But it's easy to guess why the logo might have appeared.

"Edison opposed capital punishment, but his desire to disparage the use of alternating current led to the invention of the electric chair. Harold P. Brown, who was being secretly paid by Edison, built the first electric chair for the state of New York to promote the idea that alternating current was deadlier than DC."

See - War Of Currents: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents#Edison.27s_publ...

And particularly since the photo description, and appearance of the device, is a gas chamber.

Which makes me wonder even more: what is this picture really showing? Was it staged by someone with a Westinghouse-satirizing or -critical perspective? (Might the modern equivalent be a Tesla logo, especially if there are ever any fatalities due to a battery/charging problem?)

It could be a leftover hood from the electric chair. I imagine it's more important to cover the face of someone being electrocuted to death than being gassed, at least from the observer's standpoint.

That was my initial thought. However, assuming that the photo is real, Westinghouse could have had the project to design and build the gas chamber itself.

I think that depends on public opinion at the time, no? http://www.gallup.com/poll/1606/death-penalty.aspx

I'm doubtful. There's a number of different aspects to it. For example, the job of executioner has almost always been a shameful one even when the death penalty itself is popular. People shy away from the actual death even if they want it to happen.

Brand associations, like Pavlovian associations, are very primitive, subconscious and emotional. The most important thing advertising needs to do (besides simply identify the brand) is to link the brand with positive, uplifting feelings. Coke and McDonalds are probably the best at doing this.

Even if you are the most fervent death penalty supporter, this branded hood will not make you crave more Westinghouse products.

Looks like an editing job from closer inspection. The logo is too straight and parallel to the camera.

This may have been an unfortunate tactic used in the feud between Westinghouse and Edison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents

Definitely not. The picture is dated to around 1945, about half a century after the War of Currents had ended.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com