The Yellow Protest





Image 01: Yedioth Ahronoth


Image 02: A protester rallies against vaccine mandates on November 20, 2021, in New York City. Getty Images

Image 03: TheMarker magazine, Ofer Vaknin

Image 04: A participant in a demonstration against Coronavirus restrictions stands with a yellow star with the inscription "not vaccinated" in Berlin, March 13, 2021. Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images

5G implants, miracle cures, mass control and Bill gates as the mastermind behind the Corona pandemic are just a few examples of the various conspiracy theories that were created during the COVID-19 pandemic. A reasonable amount of people enthusiastically supported these beliefs and demonstrated on the streets to support these claims. Protest and demonstration is a matter that have been an interest in art and design fields for a very long time, from the surreal imagery that accompanied the Hippie demonstrations in the 60’s back to the French revolution symbolism that was depicted at “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugéne Delacroix. Correspondingly the Corona conspiracy theorists adopted their own set of symbols and visual identity tools. In this essay I will analyse one particular visual aspect of the corona conspiracy theorists “Brand” and set it on a global comparison.

The “Yellow badge”, marking jewish people is dated back to the Umayyad Caliphate in the early 8th century in order to distinguish jewish citizens from other citizens. Since then, the badge has been used throughout history in several nations. The last and most controversial use of the yellow badge in history was issued by the Axis Powers during WW2. Since then, the yellow symbol has been stricly associated with the holocaust and marked the horrors that were done during the war. Recently this symbol was documented in protests against the corona restrictions in several lands (including the UK, USA, Israel and Germany). Furthermore the yellow colour was adopted as a “brand colour” that symbolises the protest. This cynical use of the yellow badge is obviously supporting the protests to make the analogy between the strict restrictions taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to the behaviour of totalitarian regimes of the early/mid 19th century.

According to Professor Sheer Ganor at the University of Minnesota a lot of historians claim that the juxtaposition of the holocaust to current events is not necesccairly a negativ action: "there's a growing group of Holocaust historians who think we have a lot to benefit in understanding the Holocaust in conjunction with other events, in studying and speaking about genocide in comparative terms." but she does say that the use of the symbol is a problematic usage that might connect more with the holocaust deniel movement in which encourages denying or minimizing the significance of its evil: “Covid has done something different to this discourse. The anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination protests [is] such a transnational movement, such a transnational phenomenon, taking this trivializing abuse of the Holocaust to a frightening level… work with the assumption that the Holocaust was the terrible catastrophe and a horrible crime. They want to benefit from its moral cachet."(Perry, 2021). Cynical usage of visual symbols is a common trait in protests that might lead to incitement and polarisation, for example the movement against Yitzahk Rabin in the early 90’s portrayed him as a SS officer(image 01). Later this image was considered an offensive material that was a part of the large incitement movement that encouraged the murderer Igal Amir to assassinate the late prime minister.

In the following images we can compare three yellow badges that were used during anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination protests. The first image(image 02) is from a demonstration in the USA, this sign contains the word: “Unvaccinated”, a WiFichip symbol, the Microsoft logo and an ID number containing the numbers 666 (that refer to the devil). The second Image(image 03) was taken in Israel and the yellow badge contains the word “Dictatorship opposer” (סרבן דיקטטורה). The third image(Image 04) was taken in Berlin at an anti-vaccination protest and contains the word “Unvaccinated” (nicht geimpft). When we compare the designs, we see that the symbol is more of the same in each and every protest but the content is different. When we dive deeper and try to decipher what the content tells us about the culture and the traits of the population we have to take in consideration that there were many “Yellow badges” during the protests with different contents and we are taking in consideration only these three only as a case study. The yellow badge from the USA implies that the pandemic/vaccination is a part of a Bill Gates/5G scheme. The American badge shows the more radical and more conspiracy beliefs that the protesters tried to portray. The sign from Israel is connected to a whole different protest against the israeli government and Benjamin Netanyahu that took place during 2020 that was aimed personally against Netanyahu, accusing him of dictatorship. The israeli yellow badge is an example of common phenomena that take place in modern demonstrations - the combination of several protests into one protest or the uncertainty of what the demonstration is about. On the other hand the German sign is the most modest and simple from the three. The modest German badge might convey a certain attitude of straightforwardness or rather a more “careful” usage of this symbol considering German history.

Although the contents written on the badge are different from country to country we still see a strong resemblance in how this conspiracy theory is being “branded” or designed. They all use the same form and the same colour - they all try to use the “Yellow badge” in a cynical way comparing the restrictions that were taken to prevent the spread of the pandemic to the crimes of WWII. The usage of radical/cynical symbols is not an innovative invention - same as the “Yellow badge” that was put into use during the Axis powers and originated in an earlier epoch. From a brand perspective one can argue if this brand strategy is effective or not but this dubious strategy does raise moral questions about its nature.

Resources:
CNN 
Wikipedia
Colorado Times
ABC News








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