I was at the grocery store tonight and whilst I perused the cereal aisle in search of good deals I heard this cute little girl say to her mom, "I want that cereal," as she reached for the box.
The funny thing was, you couldn't even tell what kind of cereal it was. All you could see was that it was all red with a spiderweb design and a big Spiderman logo. The little girls mom laughed and said, "you don't even know what kind of cereal that is."
I felt mixed emotions at that point regarding my chosen profession. It strengthens my position regarding the need to teach children how to intelligently decode the many media messages they come across every day. Teach your children. We don't want a bunch of media illiterate kids running around eating, drinking, wearing, reading, and listening to who knows what just because it's got [insert favorite color, logo, movie/tv/book character, etc. here] on its box.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
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10 comments:
don't we already live in that world? and it's not just kids either. but i guess i'm kind of a pessimist.
adam, you are so right. we do already live in that world, and it's not just kids.
i guess what i was saying is that we do live in that world now, and in order to stop it from continuing to get worse we need to teach people the tools needed to properly make use of their agency.
and it starts with teaching our children.
the real evil behind illiteracy (in whichever form it is manifest) is that it robs people of the full use of their agency.
thanks for the comment dude.
most definitely, most definitely. get em while they're young. haha.
and then there's the whole issue of how much of our consumer choices really are only because of image and how much are actually because of preference/choice. i mean, i love pepsi. cause i love how it tastes. it just so happens that it's also a huge, widely advertised product. sometimes it just overlaps like that and there's not really anything sinister going on. i don't know if i'm explaining that well. ah well.
I love your Pepsi example. Again, I think the key thing here is that you're aware of what's going on. You know that Pepsi is huge and you recognize the different between taste preference and marketing/design. If Spiderman was on the front of [insert soda other than Pepsi here] it's not going to change in your mind the fact that you prefer the taste of Pepsi.
You're able to make a distinction. One, because you're older and smarter. :)
and Two, because you understand media. You know about editing, shot composition, sound design, color palette, etc. You're able to make a distinction between taste preference and marketing/branding. Some people can't. And like you mentioned earlier, those "some people" are not limited to kids. Not by any means.
I think you guys are both right....too many people buy into something just because its currently in vogue rather than be their own individual selves. You know me, I have never been in style my entire life and I could care less if everyone else is carrying IPods if I can get some off brand MP3 player for a third of the price. Too many people buy into these products because they are trying to be something other than what they are....rather than take the time to figure out for themselves what they really like they let the media decide for them. Does that make your profession evil? Not really...sure a lot of money gets dumped into advertising but its not as if you are brainwashing people. Its the consumer that allows themselves to be swayed not the media that is holding a gun to their heads and saying "buy this or else!" (unless you're hiding the darker side of advertising from us!)
The best is the big billboards that show dancing people drinking brand name beer, and in the background people are biking up a mountain. So, what, you should drink and bike?
miya, that comment like half belongs here and half belongs in the Tour post, but anyways...yes, that made me laugh as well.
During commercial breaks of the Tour coverage there were several commercials that made me just shake my head and laugh, one of which was one that showed all of these bikers and athletic people and images of beer bottles and people drinking. It was an interesting juxtaposition.
I totally agree with you, Yancy. My comment is kind of off topic, but don't you love the subway ad campaign for Stoli vodka? The fascist era-esque one? I love it. The contrast is gorgeous. I also like the Vans campaign that's all over town now.
I also like you :)
I think the advertising industry at it's worst might be using breasts to sell jello.
I mean, yeah it's shallow and tasteless, and not intellectually connected at all, but what really irks me about it, is it's just so... OBVIOUS.
Yeah, yeah, they both jiggle. We know.
mooney, I was just reading over some of these old comments and had forgotten you had made this one. you make me smile friend. i miss your face and your sense of humor.
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