The reference is to a business dispute between Amazon and the publishing house Hachette that rejected Amazon's conditions for selling ebooks (low price etc.) Amazon, the 800-pound gorilla of everything on sale on the web was trying to strong-arm the publishers with threats and other unseemly tactics.
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ReplyDeleteReading the back story to the cartoon and then seeing the cartoon gave me a good sense that the company Amazon will do anything to sell products that they think will make them money. Using what to me seems like an Italian gang as the form of the "threat" though is actually pretty funny. Violence and fear will be their way of getting what they want. Now to my knowledge I would not think they do these kind of things today to enforce a threat but in this case of cartooning and making jokes, it was a good interpretation of the problem at hand.
ReplyDeleteYes they look like the stereotypical Italian gangsters. I think they were drawn like this because when we think of the Mafia in America, we think of Italians. There are many other organized crime groups in the country, but they are less well know. Sadly the stereotype of a Italian gangsters is know nationally if not internationally. The add also plays on references to "The Godfather" in the sense of making offers one can't refuse because of the muscle behind a the gangsters.
ReplyDeleteI found it comical in a sick way that in order to effectively portray how devious and crooked Amazon is being they used what looked like stereotypical Italian mobsters; they could have used anything to portray Amazon in their scheme of monopolizing and controlling all of the power but they chose that. It shows that these stereotypes are still evident because of how they portrayed Amazon like mafia members to show that they are willing to do anything thing to get there way. It sucks that I got the reference, but that proves my point
ReplyDeleteAmazon is clearly putting pressure onto the smaller Publishing company by bringing in their "mob" to see them. With that being said, we can't just automatically assume that they're referring to Italians. This could also be represented as the Russian mob.
ReplyDeleteJudging by their attire, the track suit and wife beater, these are two pieces that are stereotypical for Italian Americans.
DeleteI found this cartoon actually quite amusing. Considering how much we all use Amazon today, I think giving Amazon the stereotype of the "mafia" is very funny. Amazon makes loads of money off of the smaller companies/sellers within it and if they are losing out on revenue, of course they won't be happy about that. I think the link between the stereotype of mafias and the inferior woman are perfect to use when we're looking at the massive corporation that is Amazon and the publishing company it wants. Amazon would do anything to keep it's earnings high and so would Italian mob men.
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon is very amusing and reminds me of a lot things we see in movies involving the mob when they don't get something they want they send people to threaten the people or company
ReplyDeleteThe comic does have a sense of dry humor with what the circumstances are, however I find it a little stereotypical that amazon is portrayed as Italian mobsters.
ReplyDeleteI find this cartoon funny because the mobsters don't even look scary. I don't think the cartoon had anything to do with stereotyping Italians, The mob could have been African, Mexican, Japanese, whatever.. the point was to get the tough guy image and it kind of worked.
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