The thread title immediately caught my interest.I would agree that the phenomena of advertising is neglected; I would disagree with the author that it is the central agent of cultural decay in western society. But only because I think it's a matter of emphasis; I think advertising is simply one head of the capitalist hydra that is ultimately the subject we must contend with when attempting to analyse possible misdirections and unhealthy drifts in our glorious radiant and wonderful - and, apparently, terminal - lifestyle.
I've only glossed the article, but it is good to see. I've always been surprised at how innured people in North America are to the ubiquitious propoganda of their system. Part of me thinks, ah, well, they've developed filters to block it out, but part of me also thinks this cannot be the whole story; there remains a deep distrust of it for me.
Notwithstanding the obvious irritation of constant bombardment with banal and superficial observations, ersatz observations about life in an attempt to manipulate my spending power. A waste of time with me since I have no spending power.
Here in Germany there seems to be tighter control of the shit in public space. No billboards along the autobahn that I can recall; but still lots of signage on the sides of buildings, walls, bus stops, the sides of trams, etc. Visual noise.
I flew to London last year and was met on arrival at Stansted with an overpowering wall of advertising, denser, more vulgar, louder, than the Dresden airport of my departure. The English, I thought. Yech. And I'm half English. But it really drove home just how much energy is invested in perpetuating a system that must be anything but natural to judge by the propaganda effort required to sustain it.
Anyway; I'll get back to reading the rest of the article.
Yeah...nice summation of the current state of the world. A bit too earnest for my taste, but thats youth for you.
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posted 08 December 2005 02:20 AM
