May 28, 2007
Companies that give a damn. Or not. Pt. 4
As I've noted in the past, Google will often mark the existence of a holiday by adding festive images to its logo: a sombrero on Cinco de Mayo; pumpkins and bats on Halloween; leprechauns and a pot of gold on St. Patrick's Day.
But if the holiday is explicitly Judeo-Christian (Christmas, Easter, Chanukah) or patriotic (4th of July, 9-11, December 7), the ever-so sophisticated Google-nauts leave their logo unaltered.
Little Green Footballs posted a list of the "important" dates that Google commemorated by changing its logo during 2006.
Edvard Munch’s Birthday - December 12, 2006
World Cup - June 9, 2006
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Birthday - May 22, 2006
Mother’s Day - May 14, 2006
Birthday of Percival Lowell - March 13, 2006
Winter Games: Torino 2006 - February 2006
Nice to know what's important to them. And what's not.
As is the norm for Google, Memorial Day has gone unobserved.
But that's not the case for a couple other sites, who never fail to recognize days that have great meaning to Americans.
Ask.com has a low-key addition to its homepage, a tasteful, somber way of noting this time for remembering our fallen citizen soldiers.
But my favorite, as is often the case, is the one from Dogpile.com.
Go ahead and click on the image above so you can see the whole thing. Of great interest to me is what it says to the right of the uniformed critters.
We Salute You
Please join us in honoring the U.S. men and women who have given their lives for our great country.
"Our great country."
Not your country. Not this country.
Our great country.
As I've said before, it's not a matter of great importance; it simply highlights the degree to which traditional values -- love of country, the importance of faith -- mean nothing to the people who run some corporations, but still have some meaning for others, like the folks at Ask.com and Dogpile.com.
All things being equal, I know which companies I'd prefer to patronize. Don't you?
Posted by Mike Lief at May 28, 2007 08:35 PM
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Comments
I noticed your site didn't change on Memorial Day, hypocrite.
Posted by: yassir at May 29, 2007 07:41 AM
It doesn't change on any other day, either. Nothing hypocritical at all about his post.
Posted by: RM1(SS) (ret) at May 29, 2007 02:58 PM
I disagree. Every time Google fails to honor a holiday, Lief posts a complaint about it, but puts up no Easter Bunnies or anything cute to commemorate the holiday itself. I'm assuming Lief's got his reasons. I assume Google's got its reasons also. But Lief's ascribing to Google some nefarious motive, while expecting everyone to assume his motives are pure. That's hypocritical.
Google's holiday logo changes are remarkably consistent: "Season's Greetings," New Year's, MLK, Chinese (Lunar) New Year, St. Pat's Day, Mother's Day, Independence Day, Google's Birthday, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Then they throw in some random tributes to people and events, like M.C. Escher, or the World Cup. Lief seems to think this demonstrates "the degree to which traditional values -- love of country, the importance of faith -- mean nothing to the people who run some corporations...." Hogwash. It demonstrates nothing more than how corporate executives see fit to run a company. Or perhaps how corporate lawyers have advised executives to avoid getting sued. Didn't Lief himself sit on a jury and slap a corporation with huge damages for "discrimination"? To say the failure to commemorate Memorial Day with some altered logo means "love of country" means nothing to the people of Google is pure hyperbole--and ridiculous to boot. Lief's failure to alter his site's logo, then, must indicate faith means nothing to him or his family. Maybe that's true, but it's certainly not something to glean from a lack of logo-change.
And RM1, your wearing of your dolphins and medals on that outfit in your photo is pretty unsat. You must hate your country.
Posted by: LT at May 29, 2007 04:59 PM