What is the most universally recognized image in the world?

IT'S CALLED A SWOOSH AND I THINK YOU MAY HAVE SOME TEXAS PRIDE STUCK UNDER YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY

Oh please the world is not USA.
About 3000 deaths, who cares compared to for example the 2004 tsunami killing over 230,000. Ask around in Indonesia or India.
Even in other heavy media-controlled nations, this image is probably only recognised among those, that were old enough to watch news 8 years ago!

I fear, it might really be the christian cross. Much of the world is Africa and South America and such areas which have no Mc Donalds or Coke.

But I would suggest another one:

Not necessary in this language but the red octagon with white letters - the Stop sign is known almost everywhere you have roads.

Actually I had quite a bit of McDonalds AND Coke when I lived in South America.

Can't speak for Africa though.

Well, it will depend. Cairo, Kinshasa, Casablanca, Cape Town just to name the first that come into my mind as "very likely great markets for any global company", will obviously know them.
I did not want to refer to all of Africa and South America, sorry.

I have to say three of these really catch my attention...

The human shape/ outline is quite possibly the most recognized shape to any other human. To call that an image though is a stretch.

The McDonald's Golden Arches are possibly the most recognized logo (up there with Coca-Cola, and for a while GE)...

The stop sign is pretty damn well universally understood. Interesting addition to the conversation.

Art, buildings, news events (like stills of 9-11 of Tiananmen Square as mentioned previously) will be generational or regional or both... making them far less likely to be recognized the world over by people young and old.

McDonald's golden arches

My point exactly(it is the worlds oldest and largest fraternity)

in my opinion, due to the horrible acts committed by them, i chose this symbol...



or was it this symbol??



eh, same thing...

This?

Something that's been nagging me during the evolution of this thread:

Folks, any sign/symbol made with the hand is very unlikely to hold its meaning across national boundaries, or even regional ones.

The extended middle finger is not remotely globally-known, and while it may be recognized in Europe, it's not a hand sign that any European culture uses for the same meaning. Just think of England and the reversed "victory" (or peace) sign.

Only a post as pompous as yours would miss the irony contained in your own words While you were in the middle of your 'no one cares about who died in the WTC' diatribe you mentioned a bunch of other countries that would find a stop sign so much more recognizable then coke or mcdonalds. Yet neglected to realize how completely undeveloped (read unpaved) they are....good one

Yeah, "much of the world is Africa and South America and such areas which have no Mc Donalds or Coke" was boggling to me.

However, I don't see the pompous irony. Very few countries are "completely undeveloped." And you don't need paved roads for there to be Stop signs.

i dont know i have friends from pretty much all over, scandinavia, mainland europe, the uk, the middle east, and north and south america (just no australia) and they all use the 1 finger salute. they think its funny, but they use it to mean the same thing we do.
mind you the people i know have been a bit westernized.

haha. yes.

i was going to say that kansas is in the middle but figured i would be fanning the flames. but yeah getting some distance makes things a lot easier to see with clearer eyes if you know what i mean.
and coke is highly recognized, so is mickey and hell in a creepy way hitler was the most known person in history for the massacres he had carried out. however, i think the most beautiful thing i ever saw (not in real life) were the 70 feet high buddhas that the taliban blew up years ago.

....Brad and Angelina have been to all those countries saving teh childrens.



No, I'm really not serious. But their faces are incredibly recognizable.


I thought the cross, the stop sign and the mention of the Buddha statues were all interesting additions. The benevolent Buddha has been around forever. But so has a lot of Hindu imagery that many Westerners wouldn't know from a hole in the wall... so never mind.

I don't mean to insult anybody from Texas.... well... yeah, anyway, my point is this: there are reasons why the high school proficiency exams were created in America (some states? do we have them in all states yet?). One of those reasons was because some graduating students didn't even know the name and location of every state in the union. Not only that, and I really don't mean to be offensive about it, but Texas is kind of it's own country. One in which is citizens think very highly of it, and those who live in other places are often suspect. So I can't really get behind the shape of Texas being the most recognizable image on Earth. Not even close, I would wager.

Every time I see this bumped I'm alternately fascinated & horrified by these responses. Some of you have a very intelligent & interesting perspective.

Some of you are just sort of there.