One day on a sunny afternoon in the gorgeous high-altitude, adventure Capital of Huaraz, Peru I stumbled upon something that perplexed and slightly disgusted me. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a kid’s furniture store with logos painted on them. First I noticed a car bed with a Ferrari logo painted on it, then my eyes were drawn to a chest of drawers with a Vodafone logo which seemed strange. To finish the set were three different chests painted red with a white Marlboro Cigarettes logo on them. I literally had to do a double take to see if my eyes were deceiving me, and I struggled to grasp how and why children’s furniture would have this deadly logo. At first I played with the idea that Marlboro had some secret campaign to get kids comfortable with their logo at a young age so when they become teenagers they will smoke to remind them of happy childhood memories.
The truth is that Marlboro is probably not behind this or even knows about it at all. The sad reality is that because it is an iconic logo that is popular in the States, the maker of this furniture probably just painted it on their to make it seem ‘cool’ and ‘trendy.’ American logos are often seen as a symbol of status and wealth in foreign countries and from the Playboy bunny being a popular symbol on children’s clothing in Thailand to Marlboro furniture in Peru, its not the meaning behind the symbol as much as it is just a recognizable American Logo. To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if the painter of this furniture didn’t even know what Marlboro was at all! Even if this is the case I still think that there are plenty of other popular logos to choose from. I also can’t believe that not one person involved in the furniture construction, marketing and sales process didn’t realize the negative aspects of cigarette logos on children’s furniture. South America is an extremely laid back and fairly disorganized part of the world, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse…
Below is a short clip of the astonishing children’s furniture!