JKR

Looking ‘round the excellent photography exhibition “Beatles to Bowie” at the National Portrait Gallery (amongst other things it’s a visual history of the branding of British bands, though such a term was probably never used at the time), the famous image above struck me. Partly because it was the perfect encapsulation and launch of the band’s Fab image, in an era long pre-dating Photoshop, stylists and marketing teams. But also striking, seeing the picture circled on a contact sheet, because even without such resources the band and photographer (Fiona Adams) intuitively set the template for a thousand “will this do?” copycats.

Whereas with other groups the inter-band jollity generally appeared rather forced, and typically at least one group member would have looked more at home working on a building site rather than cavorting in front of the camera, The Beatles managed to make being in a group look natural. None of these bands quite pull off the same trick…

…and in the face of this generic prating about for the camera, that other great gang the ‘Stones offered the logical response – slouching and scowling, apparently too cool to play the game:

Both Beatles and Stones feel like closed clubs, with their own private languages, jokes and styles. It would be a bit naff to extrapolate this observation to the general world of branding, but it’s easy to think of super-brands whose ranges feel powerful because they stand apart and talk their own language rather than metaphorically mugging for the camera. The exhibition closes Jan 24th and is well worth a look if you get the chance.