cbs cries foul on peta, moveon super bowl ads (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040116/tv_nm/media_superbowl_dc_1)

according to one of their spokespeople, "We have a policy against accepting advocacy advertising,"

what the hell do they think they're airing every day?

yesterday we saw a commercial for a new schick quattro 4 blade razor that is coming out, newer and better than the three blade razors that exist for your close shaving. the news just reported that in response to this 4 blade razor, gilette is starting production of a battery-powered razor that will come out in may, and will sell for $15. (credit to kevino for predicting the razor blade wars so many many years ago) now, how the hell is that different from spending a few extra bucks on an electronic razor? a battery-powered razor? what kind of sick disposable culture are we living in? it just gets worse and worse and worse. (don't give me 'the people want it, and that's why it exists' argument, i will argue you to the ground).

meanwhile, there's this newer field of psychology (amer. psych. assoc. division 23) called consumer psychology (http://www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_52.asp), which in addition to studying consumer behaviors can also lead to many a profession providing consultation to companies about how to get consumers to buy and how to sell better. too bad that this ends up being a field that 'buys into' the buying selling paradigm.

lloyd dobler: i don't want to sell anything bought or processed. or buy anything sold or processed. or process anything sold, bought or processed.

anyways its pretty interesting since advertising and psychology have been tied together since their respective roots. a few years ago i saw this excellent documentary called 'the ad and the ego' in where media critics and educators argued that advertising calls for more and more products to be sold, playing on the psychology of consumers to feel that they need the newer, bigger, badder product. equating love with products, playing on human insecurities, etc. maybe it doesn't seem harmless given the isolated commercial or ad, but when you see and think about the larger message and context it's quite frightening.

and the kicker is..

and then they make the link to the impact that this will have. imagine it, if everyone in china foregoes their bicycles and had an suv instead, where would this get us in terms of global warming? (and yes, they are advertising suvs in china, and have been for a few years now). and those disposable swisher mops, i've heard so many people rave about them... all of this will keep going and going indefinitely, we will fill all of our landfills and keep finding more places to dump.

television turn-off year

since i've been home i have been getting more than my usual dose of television (usual dose = none). and i'm super annoyed by the use of music in tv commercials, especially car commercials. advertisers are using music to play on nostalgia and invoke emotions. this has bothered me for a long time. i mean everyone remembers when nike used the beatles revolution song to sell sneakers right. the list is endless, pepsi's singing rock star endorsements, tarzan boy to sell listerine, modern english to sell burger king food, you all can think of 50 examples off the top of your head, it's by no means a new thing. but the reason im so annoyed. hearing 80s music or indie songs being used in commercials, i just feel like i am that 18-35 year old they're trying to get. by applying just the right formulas of music genre, musical era, to the target demographic-- just play the music that appeals to target population to lure them in, you get the idea how it works.

modest mouse to sell a nissan car (i tell myself it's the damn record company selling them out!), forever young by alphaville for that prom night reminiscence car commercial (to appeal to all of those teenagers who knew the song when it came out and who now presumably have enough $ to buy the car they're selling, plus the young'uns who've heard the remixed dance version who might buy into the image of the cool car), the cure's pictures of you to sel
l
he

wlett packard printers. the rolling stones for shell oil (ok, i haven't heard that one, but mike's angry letter will speak volumes about the injustices about this one).

i could go on and on, but not right now. but in searching for more about psychology and advertising, my google search came across an article called salesnoise: the convergence of music and advertising which features a timeline of the intersections (http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/15/salesnoise.html). too bad the lines here are just as blurry as it was with psychology and advertising.

(ps i want to comment so badly about tv propoganda but later...)

this sign used to be outside the house we'd play at. my cousin decided one day to make the sign more realistic, and added a few brown spots coming from the dog's behind. for good measure, he added a few brown spots coming from the person's behind as well. to my 7 year old self, that was the funniest thing ever. the sign is gone, but the memory lives on.

my song of the day.. fight test by the flaming lips
"I don't know where the sunbeams end
And the starlight begins
It's all a mystery"

tomorrow dotty and i are going to see unicorns play

(this is a comment on paul's post about the adult suicide girls site (http://suicidegirls.com/))

in today's hypperreality, you can find just about anything out there, no matter who you are or what you're into. suicide girls is one of those examples. they tout themselves as an alternative porn site, the difference they claim is that it's an expression of each suicide girl, since they can post their own words and choose their own photos. but is this just playing into the dominant paradigm, or are these folks really breaking barriers? you decide. but here's an interesting article written on the site in bitch magazine (http://www.bitchmagazine.com/archives/12_02sg/sg.shtml)

the finalists (chosen from over 1000 ads) in the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest have been announced.

"Due to popular demand, we're also adding three new categories for the contest: Funniest Ad, Best Youth Market Ad, and Best Animation. If you register, you'll be able to vote on the finalists in each of these categories starting on Thursday. You can register at: (http://www.bushin30seconds.org/runoff/index.html)"

Without further ado, the finalists are:

CHILD'S PAY by Charlie Fisher of Denver, CO
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

IN MY COUNTRY by Harry Katatsakis, Derek Rittenhouse, Chris Wight of NY, NY
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

POLYGRAPH by Rich Garella, Adam Feinstein of New York, NY
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

BRING 'EM ON by Mike Cuenca of Lawrence, KS
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?
by Fred Surr, Ted Page, Janet Tashjian of Needham, MA
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

IMAGINE by Mark Vicente of Los Angeles, CA
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

HUMAN COST OF WAR by Brian Wilkinson of White Plains, NY
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

WAKE UP AMERICA by Lisa M. Rowe of Hollywood, CA
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

DESKTOP by David Haynes of Dallas, TX
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

ARMY OF ONE by Penny Little, Nick Green, Michael Stinson, Julie Stigwart of Isla Vista, CA
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

BANKRUPT by Adam Klugman, Dave Adams of West Linn, OR
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

HOOD ROBBIN' by Nathania Vishnevsky of Foster City, CA
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

LEAVE NO BILLIONAIRE BEHIND by Andrew Boyd of Brooklyn, NY
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

BUSH'S REPAIR SHOP by Eric Martin of Silver Spring, MD
High-Bandwidth Version ; Low-Bandwidth Version

GONE IN 30 SECONDS by Eric Blumrich of Montclair, NJ
High-Bandwidth Version
ht
tp

://www.bushin30seconds.org/view.html?id=17&size=large ; Low-Bandwidth Version

there is way too much going on here, im on overload. i need to get grounded again, so i don't forget things. quick, send me some words to remind me of who we are.

i also just discovered: taking place every week in bklyn- degrassi junior high, 4 episodes during happy hour. how can you beat that?

also, street theatre in the best city to do it: the surveillance camera players. (http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html) they've mapped out the surge of cams (http://www.notbored.org/times-square.html) all over nyc, (http://www.notbored.org/scp-maps.html) which of course we all know is today's reality but still when you hear the numbers.. there's something like 4 cams for each city block at the rate they're popping up. there are cams everywhere, between the atms, stores, private residences, subways, etc. even if you and i don't know where i am at any given moment, someone knows.

"sometimes two people will regard each other over a gulf too wide to ever be bridged, and know immediately what could have happened, and that it never will." (r. ebert)

there's quite a soundtrack for this

• ding*

new years eve is always a lot more contentious for me than i would hope. maybe some new year in the future it will work out. but i hope that you find yourselves surrounded by the people you want to be surrounded by. i'm sorry i wont be there, if i happen to be one of those people for you. have a wonderful beginning to 2004 and i will see you soon maybe

"
I die fast in this city
outside I die slow

everywhere i am is just another thing without you in it
"