The Musicians of Bremen
Arby’s is currently serving “meat stack” sandwiches and their employees have donned t-shirts with a pile of edible animals on the back as advertising.
I hope the designer of the t-shirt had the musicians of Bremen in mind when coming up with the idea. I like to believe we’re still cultured enough in our society to remember our folk stories.
I immediately thought of the tale when I saw the t-shirt this afternoon, and it actually took me a few moments to figure out just why the young man behind the counter had it on. It was only when I compared the silhouettes of the animals to my memories of the matchbox holder in my parent’s downstairs washroom that I realized the stack in front of me was not quite accurate. Bremen’s musicians, after all, were a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster. There was no pig, as prominently displayed on the Arby’s t-shirt.
But the shirt brought back warm memories of my mom and dad reading me the story as a child from our “Well-loved Tales” storybook copy of it.
Do you know the story? If not, here’s a translation of the Grimm Fairy Tale.
3 thoughts on “The Musicians of Bremen”
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I love the cover of our edition (the picture you posted). Brings back all kinds of memories.
I know! Doesn’t it? It got me thinking about Snow White and Rose Red, too. I loved that one.
I’m a designer and art director in Birmingham. About 6 months before Arby’s did, I developed a similar creative solution for Chef James Lewis’ Vittoria, a restaurant and artisanal butchery that specializes in slow-raised organic meats. The Grimm fairy tale was absolutely an inspiration for my illustration. You can see an example on my portfolio site at the link above.