Designed cute
A post about feeling cute & filthy rich capitalists
When I was twelve, I went to a cartoon drawing class on a school holiday program. The teacher opened the class by projecting a picture of Pikachu on the wall and asked us to look at the shapes that form Pikachu. He said, ‘So why do you think we like Pikachu so much?’ To which the whole class said, ‘Pikachu is SO cute!’, he said ‘Yes, Pikachu is the cutest Pokémon with a small round body, big round eyes, and round cheeks. That is cute’. Then we morbidly dissected the remaining qualities of Pikachu's cuteness until the magic had truly gone. “Pikaaaaaa!”
In that class, I learned that thinking a character is cute, is a powerful and engaging emotional reaction. Accordingly, when my youngest sister told me she was attending a ‘cuteness’ exhibition in London, a hot pink heart-shaped neon light lit up in my chest. I felt my eyebrows lift, cocked my head to the right and I smiled. This is our chat while she was at the exhibition:
*BTW she calls me ‘gurl’ which is a call back to the Spice Girls ‘girl power’ and I call her GOAT (greatest of all time). So cute.
Gosh, it didn’t take long for the Hello Kitty patterned veil to be lifted on GOAT. Just gauging from her photos, the ‘cuteness’ exhibition contained a lot of very recognisable merch. Through cat cartoons, Hello Kitty, Kawaii (Japanese cute culture), and my beloved Pokémon, the curators were able to show how cuteness has been a potent marketing tool for some of the world’s largest multinational companies. For Hello Kitty (HK), cuteness is their whole product. HK is a character invented by Sanrio, a Japanese merchandise company. There is an actual story of HK but it was written later, for more merch… obviously. The image of HK, similar to Pikachu, contains a round face with two dots for eyes, six whiskers, a dot for a nose, and a giant towering bow. Mysteriously, HK has no mouth. Regarding her mouthlessness spokespeople for Sanrio have said,
Hello Kitty has no mouth, as they want people to "project their feelings onto the character" and "be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty."Another explanation Sanrio has given for Hello Kitty's lack of a mouth is that she "speaks from the heart. She's Sanrio's ambassador to the world and isn't bound to any particular language."However, Yuko Yamaguchi (lead HK designer) has also said that "Kitty has a mouth" that is "hidden in the fur".
A PR mess worthy of royal. This sounds exactly like what it is: a marketing team falling all over each other trying to give meaning to a trait in a cartoon that has nothing to do with projected happiness/sadness/speaking from heart/hidden in fur/language barrier-related reasons. HK doesn’t have a mouth for the same reason the AI-generated kitten below doesn’t, you don’t need to smile to be cute. Cuteness is about being innocent, reproachful, and most importantly, silent. If you don’t have a mouth, you can’t talk and therefore no one knows anything about you so you have no character either. Also, can you imagine how much a line for that smile would cost in printing? I hate to think. The blandness of ‘cute’ is important for companies in the business of fast production, and profit margins, and is a fact that has changed my opinion of ‘cute’ dramatically.
While I appreciate all that is cute, I’m not sure I like the subtext of a brand using cute to sell products. I thought about writing top tips on making your brand cuter however I think you would benefit more from taking a walk outside or catching up with a friend. Cute is a tool of mercenary capitalists and ideas that promote overconsumption and is not what this newsletter is about. There is so much more depth to the art in books, galleries, music, and in the outside world. Start now by looking at my new dose of wonder this week section below where I will post links to events that will provide the neuroaesthetic input you need.
I feel like the Grinch of Christmas.
Dose of wonder this week
Ecofest in Auckland started last week: “A month-long celebration of our unique environment and sustainable living across Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. EcoFest is packed with interactive workshops, experiences, and activities for all ages that celebrate and restore our natural environment and offer practical ways to live more sustainably.”
As a part of Ecofest, NorthArt in Northcote is showing an exhibition called ‘subsume’:
“subsume is a contemporary art exhibition exploring the legacy of deforestation as a consequence of colonialisation through a collaborative sound work, a set of digital prints, a series of original frottage tree drawings and a series of mixed media drawing-paintings.”
Exhibition Date: Tuesday 27 February – Saturday 23 March 2024 (Open: Tuesdays to Saturdays 11:00 – 14:00)
Drop-in drawing Workshop during exhibition, no booking necessary (Open: Tuesdays to Saturdays 11:00 – 14:00)
‘Celebrating Cultures’ 23rd of March 2024 in Auckland
https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2023/celebrating-cultures/auckland/flat-bush
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Hi Kim,
Very interesting! I actually went to an Ecofest event at Botanic Gardens, Manukau, this morning, on nature journalism i.e. writing about trees and shrubs. I've rediscovered the Botanic Gardens. They're a masterpiece of curated landscaping. I'll have to see that Ecofest exhibition at Northcote. Definitely. Yes who wants to see cuteness as a marketing tool - but it's used all the time of course...