According to him Andersen often added erotic undertones and metaphoric phallic imagery in his tales.
The first grandson, of his second son, was Richard Payne Knight (a specialist on phallic imagery).
Add to that the recurrence of phallic imagery and the exclusive presence of men, never women, in the photos, and it's no wonder that some critics describe the work as homoerotic.
These series mascots are the personification of phallic imagery.
Despite the slapstick, Arlecchino is not malicious, but mischievous, the slapstick being a classic example of carnivalesque phallic imagery (see also the commedia masks' noses).
What do you think about Bob Herbert's observation that the ad is also full of phallic imagery?
You can be sure the McCain ad makers quite consciously included the phallic imagery, but they didn't have to import it from Italy and the District of Columbia.
Deliberate phallic imagery is found in ancient cultures and in the links to ancient cultures found in traditional artefacts.
Squishy eye balls, phallic imagery, animalistic tendencies.
He dedicated it to Brancusi and his "Endless Column," and called it a "diagonal of personal ecstasy," lest anyone miss the phallic imagery.