The Engine Of Democracy: Invented by Hitler?

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: November 28th, 2008

the engine of democracy invented by hitler

As Farago wrote, the Caravan of Love broke down before it even left Motown. Supposedly, it went virtual, and took the information superhighway instead of routes 76 and 70 as even the most half-witted GPS would recommend. Jeez, they can’t even do what a 3 year old can do in 10 minutes: Build a website. TheEngineOfDemocracy.com displays the dreaded “Our site is currently under construction.” It promises: “We will be back online Monday, December 1st as promised.” What do they mean with “back?” Where they ever on-line before?

And then, that logo: I bet, trademark lawyers in Wolfsburg are right this minute arguing with Volkswagen top management: “We recommend sending a cease and desist. They are diluting our Autostadt mark.” “It might not be politically expedient. They’ll say we hate them.” “If you don’t send the letter, we may lose our mark.” Anyway, the thing on the site looks terribly like Volkswagen’s Autostadt logo. The Autostadt logo looks back at a long line of German Heritage: It was purloined from Volkswagen’s New Beetle, which was inspired by the old VW Bug, which was ordered by old Adolf himself. But at least: It was all in the family. The Engine Of Democracy: In the ass, and cooled by hot air?

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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4 of 34 comments

ZoomZoom on Nov 30, 2008
Bertel Schmitt : @Justin: In my line of work, I am continuously surrounded by trademark lawyers. Recently, I registered a trademark for a first aid kit. The trademark was challenged by Johnson & Johnson. Not because mine did even remotely look like theirs. It did not. They challenged it because somewhere in my mark there was some red. Johnson & Johnson claimed rights to red. Totally silly. But faced with the legal costs of a 5 year battle over the proprietoryness of the color of red, we gave up and chose another color. Well, when good people (companies are just made up of people) won't fight for what's right, then we all lose. You should have fought for Red. Nobody's willing to fight for Red anymore. Next, they'll make Robert remove the Red graphic at the top of the TTAC site, and maybe even the Red fonts and that round Red "X" at the top of the post-entry window. Or maybe some other (expletive deleted) manager/executive/lawyer/company will decide that we can't use black or blue. Or white backgrounds. Will we fight for Black or Blue, or White? Or will we abandon them too, like we did Red? Oh, hell; let's just dump the use of the English language while we're at it. Too much usage of that "+" sign. When the polls ask me if I think the country is going in the "wrong direction," I'm one of the guys who says "HELL YES!". But they never ask the common-sense follow up question, which is "what direction is the right direction?"

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ZoomZoom on Nov 30, 2008

Interesting. When I don't see a post that I just entered, I can type a short second post and my first post will often appear. It's just unfortunate that I can't immediately delete the second post.

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Ronnie Schreiber on Nov 30, 2008

ZoomZoom, Just close your browser and reopen it. That usually works for me.

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KixStart on Dec 02, 2008

Well, I've submitted MY story. I hope they like it. I'm often amazed at what gets published on FastLane (it's like they have a mole paid by Toyota working there, sometimes). Something tells me I'm not going to be surprised at all by any content on TheEngineOfDemocracy.com.

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