Instant branding

br />
Arriving in this country I was a bit surprised, since these characteristics don’t fit my country and me so well. We originate from Central Asia, as the connection of our language with Hungarian and Finnish still shows. We border Greece and have been a secular country for over eighty years. But then I realized the mechanism. Thinking back I rediscovered my own funny prejudices about Holland and the Dutch. Besides learning in school about windmills and cheese, I developed my stereotypes from frequently running into examples of the Dutch species on sandy Turkish beaches. Arriving on one of those cheaper-than-cheap, all-inclusive flights to Antalya, they seemed to be obsessed with tanning their pink skins – quite a few having big tattoos. Half of them would be named Hans or Frans. These ‘yellow heads’, as we call them, would get more and more noisy while filling their big bellies with big beers and eating funny looking ‘frikadellen’, while the women for some reason were proudly showing off their breasts – all the while displaying utter indifference towards my country’s rich culture and the abundance of ancient historical sites.

Arriving here it took me some time and effort to really understand and appreciate the Dutch ways of doing, and to notice differences with for example Belgians or Germans. Or even to understand the sometimes sensitive distinctions between regions and cities within the Netherlands. In fact, I’m still discovering this culture in a deeper way every single day. One of the things that I find ‘typical Dutch’ is the fact that one must have an instant opinion on any topic or subject. In itself this is a positive trait. But without having enough background information, it can easily lead to a quick (mis)judgement. At least I’ve learned that, funnily enough, ‘I’m Ekim from Istanbul’ seems to trigger a much more hip branding image than, ‘I’m Ekim from Turkey’.

Ikea, Diesel, Lonsdale, Nokia… We live in a world of quick-made images and fast identities. Everything has an easy code for instant use. Turkey seems to be a specific brand as well, automatically related to Arab, Islamic, the Middle East and submissive women wearing headscarves, walking behind a husband with a mustache, named Ali or Ahmet.

Arriving in this country I was a bit surprised, since these characteristics don’t fit my country and me so well. We originate from Central Asia, as the connection of our language with Hungarian and Finnish still shows. We border Greece and have been a secular country for over eighty years. But then I realized the mechanism. Thinking back I rediscovered my own funny prejudices about Holland and the Dutch. Besides learning in school about windmills and cheese, I developed my stereotypes from frequently running into examples of the Dutch species on sandy Turkish beaches. Arriving on one of those cheaper-than-cheap, all-inclusive flights to Antalya, they seemed to be obsessed with tanning their pink skins – quite a few having big tattoos. Half of them would be named Hans or Frans. These ‘yellow heads’, as we call them, would get more and more noisy while filling their big bellies with big beers and eating funny looking ‘frikadellen’, while the women for some reason were proudly showing off their breasts – all the while displaying utter indifference towards my country’s rich culture and the abundance of ancient historical sites.

Arriving here it took me some time and effort to really understand and appreciate the Dutch ways of doing, and to notice differences with for example Belgians or Germans. Or even to understand the sometimes sensitive distinctions between regions and cities within the Netherlands. In fact, I’m still discovering this culture in a deeper way every single day. One of the things that I find ‘typical Dutch’ is the fact that one must have an instant opinion on any topic or subject. In itself this is a positive trait. But without having enough background information, it can easily lead to a quick (mis)judgement. At least I’ve learned that, funnily enough, ‘I’m Ekim from Istanbul’ seems to trigger a much more hip branding image than, ‘I’m Ekim from Turkey’.