Why are there so many jazz songs about food?
I noticed that this morning while listening to the song “Black Coffee” on my foggy morning commute. It made me think of the Ray Charles song “Saturday Night” that I heard yesterday morning that was all about a smorgasbord of foods and liquors.
Why is that? Of course, the marketer in me begins to think that in the case of some jazz songs, was there some sort of reasoning that prompted this… kind of a “Hey, if you’re going to play at my club, try to figure out a way to help us push the cornbread and beans tonight” situation if you will.
Maybe there was, maybe there wasn’t. But, what if these songs about food unwittingly brought about sales of items? Let’s say a jazz quartet were to play a rousing version of “Black Coffee” right around last call and it got people to think about sobering up a little before hitting the road. Pretty innocuous, but the results can be interesting.
There’s a lot of opportunity for unwittingly (or purposefully) communicating a subversive, pervasive, intrusive, or subtle message in the subtext of design. Any good designer knows that. Often times it’s a great thing. Sometimes it bites you in the ass. Sometimes you get weird, disjointed impressions based on the same message.
Bottom line, subtext is awesome. There may be subtext in this post. Can you find it?
Just kidding. There is none (that I meant to include anyway).
How about you? What is an ingenious message that you gleaned through a piece of design that you felt was unintended but ended up being more powerful than the primary message? Do you have examples to share?