Good Gnome, Bad Gnome

Noticeable by their absence you may have been wondering what had become of our little gnomes…

Well worry not they are still alive and well and, it would seem, have been doing a bit of beer promotion over in Belgium…

Our research has found that in the Walloon dialect (a district of Belgium) the word Chouffe means Gnome and the Brasserie d'Achouffe have adopted the gnomes for the labels on their range of beers, a play on the town name Achouffe.

Clearly the image of the jolly little industrious gnome is viewed as a particularly positive and fun way in which to promote their beers. This has even generated a fan based web following usually involving strange looking folk with red hats. Nonetheless it continues to popularise the Chouffe brand and broaden its market.
Now this contrasts markedly with that particularly negative and somewhat disparaging description of the Swiss banking industry as “The gnomes of Zurich".
An expression coined originally by Labour politician George Brown in November in 1964 and more recently reported again in the media in light of the global financial crisis amidst the role of the bankers as the “inventors” of apparently miraculous new products like derivatives or sub-prime loan packages, they are viewed like those medieval gnomes conjuring gold.
These gnomes emerged from medieval fascination with the secrets of wealth, especially gold, buried underground and mined by mysterious beings
The literary types amongst us will, of course, recognize this from Goethe’s classic Faust the epic tale of ambiguous characters creating wealth which others, depending on their morals, use for good or evil….

Deputation of Gnomes – to Great Pan
When the treasure rich and shining,
Winds through clefts its thread-like way
And naught but the rod's divining
Can its labyrinths display,
Troglodytes in caverns spacious,
Under vaulted roofs we bide,
While in day's pure air thou, gracious,
All the treasures dost divide.
We discover here quite near us
Treasure rich, a fountain vein,
Aptly promising to bear us
More than one could hope to gain.
This thou mayst achieve at pleasure,
Take it, Sire, into thy care!
In thy hands doth every treasure
Yield the whole world blessings rare

So good gnome, bad gnome? It’s all down to marketing!