Dalí Was A Branding Genius

BY OLLIE KHAKWANI

Perhaps the title is a bit misleading – it’s pretty clear that Dalí was a branding genius when it came to his ‘personal brand.’ Just consider the following quotes:

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

I seated ugliness on my knee, and almost immediately grew tired of it.

(Thank you Clementine Jacoby for the ‘best-of’ selection.) But that’s not what I meant when I said he was a branding genius. You know Chupa Chups lollipops? Well, I have three revelations about them for you. One, they’re Catalan. Two, their name is derived from the Spanish word ‘chupar’ – ‘to suck.’ Three, Salvador Dalí was the one who made their logo and demanded that it be placed on top of the lollipop (rather than on the side) so its full form can be seen at all times and isn’t broken up by removing the wrapper.

To give you an idea of how successful this was – they have sold 4 billion of these lollipops since their conception. Leave it to Dalí to prove that being insane was never an issue when it comes to making money.

I wonder how well Chupa Chups would have sold if his logo had involved melting clock faces instead…

(via FastCoDesign)

Ollie Khakwani (’13, STS – Product and Interaction Design / minors in Political Science and Art Practice) is the editor of the Design section and Managing Editor of the Stanford Arts Review. In his spare time he likes playing the drums, hating on Proust, and making stuff out of garbage and garbage out of stuff.