Re: Advertising

[joanna bujes <jbujes@xxxxxxxxx>]

That's funny, I was going to take up this thread again -- to reply to
some well considered posts from Jurriaan and Yoshie -- and then I kind
of fizzled out. (I'm nursing an ulcer from my last deadline at
work...and feeling kind of down...and also there's a lot of pain.)

Anyway, I agree with what Juriaan said, to wit, that on some level
advertising provides information and that if it is not intrusive, if it
is presented in a way which does not interfere with the public space,
then it might offer some service. I am also a great admirer of the
Soviet propaganda posters of the 20's, which Yoshie reminded me
about...so, I am revising my original screed to say: "OK. If you don't
interrupt my reading, the landscape, the radio programms, the films
....with advertising...if it is used to disseminate information...and if
it's available to people, rather than imposed or pounded into
them...then, maybe it's worth a shot.

Ah, but the joke was on me. No sooner had the bits on my
anti-advertising email made their way across the net, but my ten year
old daughter walked into the room, announced that she was running for
student body president at her elementary school, and asked me for help
in desiging campaign posters. Now, I've always thought the divine spirit
had a wicked sense of humor....and this was just more proof,....so
muttering softly and shaking my head...I got down to it and helped my
daughter design some campaign posters. We thought we should do the
old-bash-them-over-the-head-tell-them-what-you-want-them-to-do-stuff,
spiced up with a bit of ...whatever... You all know advertising well
enough to see through the strategy below.

We started combing the quotations websites...looking at stuff from
Wilde, Dorthy Parker, Einstein, Groucho Marx...the ususal suspects. And
we came up with the following:

1)
Katharine Mayer
for
President

...got votes?

2)
Katharine Mayer
for
President

The cure for boredom is curiosity.
There is no cure for curiosity.
       -- Dorothy Parker

3)
Katharine Mayer
for
President

Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.
   --Dr Seuss

4)
Katharine Mayer
for
President

I always pass on good advice.
It is the only thing to do with it.
It is never of any use to oneself.
       --Wilde

5)
Katharine Mayer
for
President

Time flies like an arrow;
Fruit flies like bananas
       --Groucho Marx
_____________________________________________________________________
We printed one poster for each "message" on purple paper, and the next
day she pasted them all over the school.
Election results are due this Monday.

I have to admit the exercise was kind of fun. My daughter took a
particular liking to Dorothy Parker and Oscar Wilde. In fact, she liked
one Dorothy Parker quip so much, she memorized it instantly and recited
it to the boy-she-most-likes-to-torture (secretly likes) the next day at
school. It was "I require only three things in a man: that he be
handsome, ruthless, and stupid."

As she enthused over this, repeating it over and over to commit it to
memory, I was asking myself "what have I wrought?"...but mostly, totally
howling with laughter.

So, you see, I'm just a mom-without-principles after all. But I still do
most sincerely hate advertising.

Joanna



Kenneth Campbell wrote:

> joanna bujes wrote:
>
>
>
> > I dont' want ANY messages, healthy or not, being
> > broadcast about. I was never exposed to any form
> > of advertisement until I emigrated to Paris in
> > 63...and then to the US in 64. My immediate
> > reaction to it was that I felt manipulated and
> > insulted. I still feel that way.
>
> Sorry I missed this exchange back when. I have a relaxed weekend now, so
> read through some posts from people whose opinions I appreciate -- like
> you and Andy Nachos there.
>
> You _should_ feel manipulated and insulted.
>
> Advertising is not like free speech. It is a monopolistic control of the
> media. I do support the right of Ernst Zundel to write his little
> pamphlets about the Holocaust. If anyone wants to pick them up, fine. I
> do not support the licence of the airwaves to private interests. And the
> use of that licence to peddle shit and then claim some constitutional
> right.
>
> But, if accepting the above, I do agree with what Justin notes: how you
> draw the line at what is and is not okay is the point.
>
> I prefer a wide margin. I'd let in everything rather than set up rules
> about what can't enter. I think the Russian formulation of censorship --
> and that censorship was Russian, not socialist -- sunk socialism in
> North America more than any CIA fantasy of conspiracy.
>
> Ken.
>
> --
> Call this war by whatever name you may, only call it
> not an American rebellion; it is nothing more or
> less than a Scotch Irish Presbyterian rebellion.
>          -- Hessian officer, 1778