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Chief Oshkosh Red Lager Campaign Analysis

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This 1962 logo features the brewing company’s factor, and also depicts a red Chief Oshkosh figure wearing a war bonnet and paddling a traditional canoe alongside a white figure with a speedboat. The red shape behind the text also remains reminiscent of an arrowhead. This logo clearly appropriates Native American traditions and motifs and misrepresents them from no other reason than to advertise a product. In 1991, University of Oshkosh alum Jeff Fulbright attempted to revive the microbrew with ‘Chief Oshkosh Red Lager’, which won several awards before competing brands once again caused the obsolescence of the brand. Despite being designed after the American Indian Movement, the branding for Chief Oshkosh Red Lager depicts a Chief Oshkosh Native …show more content…

Put into scale, Chief Oshkosh the Brave hardly seems relevant to the course of history. The vast, winding web of competing stories that makes up the history discipline seems not the have room for figures who weren’t necessarily earth shakers, but ultimately any figure who makes the earth move in some way contains value in understanding. Chief Oshkosh’s life, while worthy of being understood on its own, tells a much larger story of how white Americans treat Native American figures. Just within the Oshkosh community, three different interest groups rework his afterlife with three different tropes for three different purposes. The general public’s apathetic ignorance contributes to the Dying Indian trope, which reinforces their apathy towards the contemporary Native American plight. The academic institutions’ glorification of Chief Oshkosh depicts him as a patriot and a Civilized Indian, undermining modern Native Americans who suffer from double consciousness or blend their heritage with their modern world. Certain business interests in the city reduce Chief Oshkosh to a Noble Savage to sell beer that at one point contained less that one half of 1% alcohol content by volume, which in the short term might sell more beer but ultimately socializes white Americans to perceive Native Americans as closer to nature and less human. In this one historical figure, three very different fictional characters have been perpetuated. As a city, if Oshkosh is to do its namesake justice, they must work to subvert these afterlives and recognize Chief Oshkosh as the flawed, multifaceted, and controversial leader that he

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