>From: Steev Hise <steevATdetritus.net>
>
>this dialogue is nothing new either. it's funny, we can all sneer and
>laugh about how transparent and old and "laughable" ads are. does anyone
>not? and yet they work. as we sneer, they're boring their way into our
>brains. and as those of us who are "in the know" and "above it all" spend
>time analyzing and critiquing them, we are still GIVING THEM ATTENTION.
>Is anyone else troubled by this? The Baffler, Stay Free!, ADBusters,
>Hermanaut, etc etc. all these people spending all their time studying
>advertising. the end result is that they have subjected themselves to more
>"psychic assault" than someone who just hits the mute button, walks
>away....
>
Well, uh, I rarely laugh and frequently actually do hit the mute button
because I usually find advertising annoying rather than humorous. More
disturbing perhaps is that I usually just tune them out mentally.
But I question whether they're working or not. If we don't buy the product,
they haven't worked. Yes, we are psychically assaulted, my automatic
ignorance of portions of my environment is testament to this, but that's not
the ultimate intention of the ads. They want our attention only as a first
step towards getting our money. While my reactive shutting down of my
awareness is problematic at best, it means I'm NOT paying attention, at
least not consciously. There must be some subconscious attention (this is
getting creepier and creepier) because I know when the program resumes. But
I make my actual purchasing decisions based on the ethics of the producers,
price, and the qualities of the products, all of which I DO research.
At least I THINK I'm making logical, ethical choices. Perhaps my reasoning
has been polluted with posthypnotic suggestions...
Hey, maybe I'm actually the worst off of anyone when it comes to
advertising.
Andrew Lander
http://home.earthlink.net/~landerfam/
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