The most hated characters

Last summer's survey about the most hated characters ended in a draw between two baddies: Sandy Bates, from Stardust memories and Silas from How High. My condolences to them.

Sandy Bates is a first class pigeon maniac and anti-pigeon propaganda maker. He is specially hated for spreading the expression -rats with wings- which currently is widely used when referring to pigeons. Links: post, video. 

 

Silas is a cruel pigeon murderer. He planned and executed the worst pigeon massacre even recorded in a film: he fed pigeons with a mix of laxatives and birdseed that make them blow up. Links: post, video. 

The most beloved film character

According to the survey presented last summer the old beggar woman from Mary Poppins was chosen as the most beloved film character. Congratulations, Mrs. Grandma.

This woman sells bags of breadcrumbs on the steps of Saint Paul's Cathedral. She has everything pigeons like: tenderness, food provisions and close contact. For this commendable action pigeons will love her forever.

Links: post, video

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The pigeons in my pocket

I was wrong when I thought that the only pictures that I kept in my wallet were of my wife. Two days ago I discovered two whole 3D holograms of a flying dove on the back side of my VISA cards. I've been using Visa credit card for more than one year and I hadn't noticed this little holographic image. The following days I enjoyed asking my friends if they had unexpected birds in their pockets. It was very funny to see their surprise reactions when they saw the dove flying accross their credit cards.

What I see in this collection is a flock of doves flying in the same direction.

After that, I wondered if this was the only pigeon/dove-related symbol to be found on common products, or if more could be found. After some searching, I discovered that many other companies also employ pigeon/dove representations for their logos. This is the summary of my research.

A Beauty with a dove, example of harmless peaceful dove

Firstly, it is interesting to observe that using a pigeon/dove as a symbol is a difficult tradeoff. On one hand, pigeons are hated by many people, but on the other, for many other people they have a great social -and emotional- role. In both cases they exhibit an interesting property: pigeons and doves populate everywhere on Earth, except for ultra cold or hot environments (the driest areas of the Sahara Desert, Antarctica and the Arctic), thus everybody, from almost every part of the world, recognizes them. This means that using a pigeon/dove provides an easy-to-recognize, pancultural symbol.  When you combine this idea, with the innocent appearance of an angelic bird, you get a very powerful marketing tool that can be efficiently exploited to diffuse your company's image. Note that the dove is commmonly used as a symbolic representation of peace and calmness. Pigeons are employed for communitation as homing pigeons. In this case, they are used to conceptually represent speed and reliability in a courier service.


One bizarre example of dove logo is the 2012 plane design of British Airways. The idea was to paint the complete plane like a huge dove and use it for celebrating the London 2012 Olympics. According to the logo designer, a dove was chosen because it represents the symbol of peace and social unity, and because they were also used in previous Olympic Games ceremonies. Here is a picture of the pigeonized airplane:

It is very interesting to see the details of the cockpit and the engine. I can't say that it looks like a dove. I would say that it seems more like a feathered suppository.

 

Another good example is the personal care brand Dove. This company is responsible for introducing one or multiple doves in many houses.  It is a good example of how, a peaceful and calm icon can induce the custumers to buy a given product brand.

In the figure below be can see other dove-related logos. We can see (from left to right) double-dove, a couple of  loving doves that are probably going to have an accident because they are too interested in each other and don't pay attention to their flight path; in the centre we have a bird that doesn't look like an actual dove; and to the right a more abstracted dove representation, which is influenced by the peace symbol.

Columbus, a bicycle company, presents a dove with a confusing name. It is not a Columbidae (the pigeon and dove bird family), but the Latin version of the company founder's surname. I remark on this logo because it is one of my favorites.

Moving onto regular pigeons, here I summarise several logos including (from left to right and top to bottom): ePigeon,  an instant communication company, Pigeon, a baby care product firm which actually doesn't use a pigeon logo but its name, Pigeon VoIP, a telephony service of an Indian Telecom company and Pigeon, a Korean a manufacturer of household products.

All these symbols represent pigeons in a very schematic way, showing the silhouette or a simple representation of a flying bird. If we actually want to see pigeons in all their splendour we have to see more specialised sources from people that not only want to employ these animals but they actually love them.

So now, as a final consideration, let me ask you: how many pigeons do you have?

The five characters that pigeons most love or hate

This is a summary of the five characters that have most contributed to pigeon welfare and another five that caused them the most offense. If you know of any other character that fits in this ranking please, write it as a comment. It will be considered for the next edition of this ranking. There is also a survey where you can vote for your own most-loved and hated character.

Beloved characters	Hated characters
Old beggar woman from Mary Poppins She sells bags of breadcrumbs on the steps of Saint Paul's Cathedral. She has everything pigeons like: tenderness, food provisions and close contact. For this commendable action pigeons will love her forever. Links: post, video.	Sandy Bates from Stardust memories A first class pigeon maniac and anti-pigeon propaganda maker. He is specially hated for spreading the expression -rats with wings- which currently is widely used when referring to pigeons. Links: post, video.
Terry Malloy from On the waterfront Marlon Brando plays the part of a dockworker that raises pigeons. Pigeons love him for taking care of them and for a remarkable characterization, where he uses a pigeon for attracting a woman. This is the best example of pigeon-based seduction. Links: post, video.	Silas from How High Behind this funny looking guy resides a cruel pigeon murderer. He planned and executed the worst pigeon massacre even recorded in a film: he fed pigeons with a mix of laxatives and birdseed that make them blow up. Links: post, video.
Roy from Blade Runner Roy is a replicant that decides to die with a dove in his hands. At his finest hour he pronounces one of the most memorable speeches in Sci-fi in this feathered company.  Mr. Roy, you deserve plenty of pigeon gratitude for this preferential act. Links: post, video.	Alien ambassador from Mars Attacks He and his alien fellows came to conquer the Earth. They enjoy killing humans, which is always disturbing for pigeons. But the straw that broke the camel's back was the murder of a peaceful-innocent dove. Links: post, video.
Barca from Spartacus On one hand, Barca is a enslaved gladiator that fights to the death on the arena. On the other, he is a tender pigeon raiser. His absolute dedication to pigeons under extremely violent conditions is well appreciated by the feathered community. Links: post.	Motorbike pimp from Hard Target First Pigeon Rule: never poo on a bad guy armed with a machine gun. Unfortunately, an absent-minded pigeon didn't obey this rule and suffered a cruel and bloody reprisal. Too much pigeon blood for a mere dropping. Links: post, video.
Chance from Hard Target Before starting (in self defense) a killing rampage, and wiping out more than a dozen men in many original ways, Chance devotes some of his valuable time to establishing a friendship with a pigeon. Pigeons recognise the friendly gestures of this nice tough guy. Links: post.	Lee Adama from Battlestar Galactica Lee is a successful public figure. At the beginning he is captain of the colonial fleet but later he was elected Vice President of the Twelve Colonies. However, his career has a dark secret in the past that pigeons will never forgive and forget: he was a hysterical pigeon tormentor. Links: post, video.

Research Report: pigeons in videoclips

In this new section I summarise research activities in different pigeon-related fields. The first study is a summary of pigeon appearances in music clips. I have selected three relevant complete clips and three short non-professional clips.

Dansette Junior - "Paranoid"

In this dub-electro-pop videoclip the pigeons play synthesizers. The special effects are remarkable.  Link to the band's myspace site here. Click on the picture below to watch the videoclip.

Girls in the Boy Scouts - "Pigeon Pigeon"

This clip is a collection of recordings of cameras attached to pigeons. Despite the fast movement of the camera, some of the filming is amazing. The relaxing song is a nice soundtrack for the videoclip. Band home page here. Link to myspace here. Click on the picture below to watch the videoclip.

Nonsensione - "Fancy Pigeon"

The music is less relaxing than the former clip and the clip imagery is more abstract. Unfortunately I couldn't find the author homepage. Click on the picture below to watch the videoclip.

There are some other amateur clips that I think are also interesting despite not being proper music clips.

 

An interesting synchronisation between pigeon head movement and music. Warning!. Some people were hypnotized watching this clip

A pigeon spinning on a chimney with techno-industrial music. I don't know if the pigeon is enjoying.

Inter-tribal pow wow music combined with pigeon-mating dance. A bizarre video clip.

King Pigeon Jr.