The overlaying of traditions by brands, with some interesting resulting friction as EMS unconsciously (?) colonizes the common act of adhering a “double happiness” paper decoration to a wall through a customer’s use of its free packing tape. Consider the many small ways a firm can occupy the adjacent mental space around it – like a shipping company that turns itself into a “getting things done” company. Seems like a move that almost every company presently playing in the smart city space understands quite intimately. Consider also when one’s customers take over that responsibility, and, inevitably, when it runs off the rails.

See also this and this very deliberate colonization of a holiday/cultural tradition by a large (albeit American, this time) corporation in China, and an interesting repurposing of packaging by a clever restaurant in Yangon, Burma/Myanmar.