WHAT ABOUT THE LITTLE COW?
Branding Serbia 2
author: Olivera Batajić
December, 2006

translation into English: Danijela Tomazović
November, 2009

In the beginning of the past summer, the groceries were overwhelmed with many flyers inviting to participate a giveaway contest: “Draw your Little Cow and win 5000 EUR” or “How can your Little Cow become Imlek 's?” The contest lasted from July 2 nd to August 15th 2006. As far as most of us can remember (flyers cannot be found anywhere, because the one that was displayed on Imlek 's webpage is still there under the same name but with a different picture and a different information, so we cannot confirm our suspicions, and no one is replying to Imlek 's email) the contest was for children, but as we found out later, “everyone” participated. The contest received 11000 Little Cows, and only 202 entered the selection. Those most beautiful ones out of the bunch were exhibited in the Belgrade o3one gallery in Andricev Venac Street , from August 30 th to September 4th 2006. The Gallery visitors could vote, and on September 4th, the most beautiful of the beautiful ones was announced.

The invitation to the exhibition and the voting stated “the popular Imlek 's Little Cow decided to become younger and more beautiful…”

Aleksandar Kocic, 6 th grade pupil of “Pavle Savic” Belgrade elementary school was awarded with 5000 EUR, Dusan Pavlic also from Belgrade took second place and 3000 EUR. The authors Aleksandar Bugarin, Boris Stanic, Dragomir Ninkov, Lidija Delic, Ljubomir Babic, Milos Rajkovic, Nikola Korica, Stanko Josimov, Strahinja Popovic and Vanja Vikalo received digital cameras. The rest of 190 participants of the selection received bicycles.

Everyone was surprised by the decision made by majority and the jury. People wondered whether it was some kind of joke. Why? After the break during which we thought that the jury members maybe changed their minds and were looking for another Little Cow – although the critics of this decision could have been found only in design dedicated forums (lead by DizajnZona) or in individual conversations, while the public did not react – the new Little Cow as well as the photo of Aleksandar Kocic emerged on Belgrade billboards. The winning Cow slowly began to conquest the ether. And then we could see it as large as it was and study it to details. We wondered what exactly was different and assigned it all to the Imlek 's additional promo campaign (maybe things were getting rough for them). Except for the fact that the Cow was more polished or in the words of the author himself: “ – whenever I drank milk, it seemed to me that the Cow on the package looked old. For retirement home. I wanted to make it younger. My Little Cow is actually its sister.” (source: Politika, September 13th 2006) – it actually remained the same. It was added a flower which a couple of years ago, in those times of dictatorship, all of the sudden silently disappeared [1]. I am unable to find the photo of this package now (if someone has it by chance, please forward it to us so that we can add to documentation), but the Cow had that same flower on the ear and it was shown as such on the illuminated ad in Terazije. Then someone suddenly thought of it, realized the similarity, and the flower vanished for good. There, it is back. Same way the Cow gained political importance by the prompt disappearance of the flower, maybe its comeback could have gained it that same publicity back (but there is no reaction whatsoever).

A lot was written about the talented boy in the forums. Some claim that his father is a designer, and the article dedicated to him in Politika September 13th issue regarding the contest won, seemed more like a praise and justification of his victory, with mentioning his daily activities (he has his own television, makes commercials, seems to be a passionate viewer of Zoran Kesic and his Dezinformator [2] show on Metropolis Television, etc.) more than actually writing about the contest and the design themselves.

Then we could barely wait for the Little Cow to show up in the store. But the season would not let the Little Cow to go out for pasture. Somehow there was an impression of a hole in the galore of redesigned products, a phenomenon that overwhelmed us this summer and fall. The whole Serbia was redesigned. I discussed this with a designer friend of mine, who works in one Belgrade advertising agency, so is in the well of information, and he found the justification in the large amount of foreign investments inflow and thus the market inclination to transitionally adjust to “the majority” whoever that was, probably “that” Europe. He told me that foreigners participate in all projects as the ones you ask for advice and the ones who decide on design quality – whether it's a go or a no go. Here we have no clue so we need the external ones who know how it's done. And now this became the general trend. Everyone is being redesigned and everyone has an external advisor.

And so, while waiting for the Little Cow, a lot happened. Prima got snacks also with peanuts (a few days ago I ate the regular ones I critiqued in the previous text and I don't know whether it was by an error, but the snacks slightly came to taste as the old ones). Griski got a larger bag with different design, but the small bag kept the old one (whether they did not know how to adjust a chubby bag to small and much thinner format, or they did not have enough resources to perform detailed design polish – I would like it much better if this was a transitional phase because this new Griski design is not much), and Voda Voda, already a prize winner for package, made a step forward technically so the bottle is now more stabile. It got sharper and stronger edges. From what I saw on their website, Voda Voda has more different packages, but none of us ever saw them, so I suppose that it was all made for export.

Yet, last month (November) the rejuvenated Little Cow was starring in our stores. The package was changed and besides the new Little Cow, there are new colors and a new meadow. Indeed, more colorful and more cheerful. More plastic and more polished. It is also packed in a longer lasting package of better quality. For now, we only saw the package for milk, and are yet to see which direction the other products will take. If they are all as colorful as the milk, they will definitely become leads in the market because nothing besides them will be visible in the stores. We are somehow accustomed to gentle and neutral colors as a choice for milk. Maybe we relate that to natal period, when all the colors are as gentle as the baby itself. Although I do not see that principle applied today. Today parents dress their newborns in explosion of colors (the girls still lead in pink variations, but this time it is ultra pink, and there is not so much insisting on colors on boys but apparently something needs to be done for the future of girls, and it is easy for boys, we will buy them guns – and there you go Serbia). Why shouldn't milk then look like gummy bears as well?

In the end, I ask myself in fear: in November we read the news stating that all C-markets and all Pekabeta stores will be taken over by Maxi (and the rest of Serbia) owner, famous Miskovic (this does not seem like the above mentioned foreign investments inflow). You could have for sure noticed around the city that this is correct when the Good morning neighbor slogan written in Zapf's typeface disappeared as well as those yellow C letters. They are all called MiniMaxi now (Maxi trademark colors are yellow and blue, and MiniMaxi took over the now current color of the most visited supermarket Idea or better known Croatian Konzum, so it is now also red and green). I don't know what will happen in my neighborhood where we have one large Maxi, 100m from there one C-market (former Centroprom), and right next to it Pekabeta (competitive market blossoming). As soon as I read the news, I ran and bought all dear C-market packages, which were here for many decades. Who knows where they will disappear to for good, and what will be sold instead of them or under their name? Since Serbia as well is slowly becoming delta shaped.

[1] The flower on the ear was a “trademark” of Mira Markovic, who was the first lady and a leader of influential left-wing party at that time, contributor to the dictatorship of her husband, Slobodan Milosevic

[2] Can be translated as “the person who provides misleading information”

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