Ads
and other forms of brainwashing
Marketing dictates our culture. Through advertising, what was
once unacceptable becomes acceptable from bell-bottom pants
to monopolies. Why do you think the Bush administration hired
Charlotte Beers a marketing whiz and Rendon, a top PR Firm,
to market the war in Iraq? It works! And it happens subtlely.
The most effective advertising is the kind that you don’t
consciously remember. You see the logo somewhere, remember you’ve
heard about it, figure a friend endorsed it and they have you.
I’m not saying it’s all-bad, in fact I am going
to apply those same strategies to market this web site! I just
think we need to be aware of what our phenomenal minds are exposed
to on a daily basis, of the diminishing amount of free space
that surrounds us. Parks, freeways, supermarkets (many of which
now have TV commercials at the checkout stand), buses, bathrooms,
bars, etc… all are plastered with ads. Don’t you
think we deserve to have a break from bad breath and flabby
abs? All day long we are pullied through the world on a perpetual
roller coaster of cravings and inadequacy MMMM Big Mac and buy
the new ab-roller- you fat ass! Advertising gives us the Internet,
the TV, and the radio. But, as your grandfather said, “There’s
no such thing as a free ride.” Let’s be aware of
our price and learn how to spot the free space.
Corporate
Rule
How I realized who was really running shit...
I am a lay person- TRULY! I don't know much about anything,
but then I noticed my coffee was getting expensive. That led
to a realization that the standardized coolness” of
the green décor was making me forget that each glass
of coffee was marked up something like 300 percent- and that
was before I noticed they were on every other block. Every
other Block! That's just a little overboard, right? Sad but
true, there is such a thing as too much…Eventually we
notice. Eventually we ask for change. That was my introduction
into the corporate maze that we call America. From there I
learned we only have a handful of influential companies running-
well, it seems like- our world. I didn't vote for G.E., but
companies like them get laws changed. I think the government
relies on our apathy in order to conduct their self-aggrandizing
agenda. They proclaim: "Less tax for you!" hoping
we won't notice their “tax-break” only benefits
the elite 0.9% of our nation (CEO's and their billion dollar
companies), while the rest of us pay for it. They rely on
our short memory. But we don't forget.
Media
Monopoly
Why we all know the words to the songs we hate...
During the war,
I was watching NBC News. I wanted to get some facts, you know,
causalities, where we were bombing. Just some basic information.
Instead I saw a flag, superimposed, as a fighter-jet plane
soared into the air. An orchestra swooned in and I thought
for a second they had interrupted the news for a movie, but
no, it was our unbiased media telling me what to think about
the war. No messy numbers of innocent people dying, no faces
of the victims, just flags music and a voiceover. What happened
to our news!? The media monopoly began with the deregulation
of the media in 1996. Caught in the tangled Lewinsky scandal
we all slept as they slipped it by. Now there are only six
major media giants and they control what we hear, what we
see and what we believe. In all those end-of-the-world books
we were forced to read in high school there was always one
recurring theme: The oppressed were denied the tools to communicate
their dissent. Those that control our information, control
us. I find it a scary trend that makes me think 1984 isn’t
just a story.
