Ernesto Che Guevara: making of a cult brand?

It’s surprising to see how cult brands are formed. The Che Guevara photograph taken by Korda, adjudged as the world’s most famous photograph of the 20th century, has lived to a give a surprising meaning years after his demise. Che Guevara is almost a house-hold name now, and all of us would’ve seen some of our friends wearing a Che-powered high contrast T-shirt. I got to note here that I too am really fascinated by the looks and power of the photo decorating the T-shirts.

I recently read an article in the The Hindu/CNN about the legal suit filed against the rampant usage of the photo for ‘capitalistic’ purposes. The 'cult' following supposedly started during the 70s when Che was regarded as a symbol for revolt and communism. What is used right now as a quintessential capitalistic brand in T-shirts, jeans and other products was an anti-capitalistic icon of the 60’s, which, according to the article, is little known to most of the users: “It is customary for followers of a cult not to know the real life story of their hero, the historical truth.”

The 2004 released movie titled The Motorcyle diaries speaks about how Che travels around the whole of South America in his motorcycle and how he's slowly transformed, but it stops right there. I've seen the movie and it is anything but 'revolutionary'. Infact, the movie kindles the adventurous spirit in one. Che is an anti-establishment symbol yes, and it’s probably cool to wear something that stands for ‘revolution’, but I wonder how many people really know that Che was an architect of the Cuban Missile Crisis and that he’s regarded as a killing machine.

Following are the excerpts of the Wikipedia entry:

Guevara met Fidel Castro and Fidel's brother Raúl in Mexico City where the two sought refuge after being exiled from Cuba.

Guevara believed that the installation of Soviet missiles would protect Cuba from any direct military action against it by the United States. Jon Lee Anderson reports that after the crisis Guevara told Sam Russell, a British correspondent for the socialist newspaper Daily Worker, that if the missiles had been under Cuban control, they would have fired them.

Che Guevara maybe a quasi-cult brand now, and if it’s indeed true that not many users know what he stood for, it would be interesting to know if people would still be buying Che-endorsed products. In other terms, is Che’s background driving the ‘brand’ or is the picture driving the brand?

For the record, I still like the photo and would most likely buy the T for kicks-sake.