

Bad branding exercise: Westinghouse logo on a prisoner's electric chair hood - webmonkeyuk
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/an-american-prisoner-sentenced-to-death-is-strapped-into-a-news-photo/3436847

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DanBC
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...](http://weegeeweegeeweegee.net/2013/03/07/ny-daily-news-
posts-12-weegee-photos-on-the-internet/))

> _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._

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joe_the_user
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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents#Edison.27s_publicity_campaign)

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

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gojomo
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?)

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muddylemon
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.

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

~~~
drcode
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.

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

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

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

