Written around 9:21am 2/13/06 at the rent pay job,
I find myself being this contradiction to points of thought and find as the reasons why being that I do not really fit well into activist groups or any organized group for that matter being it a club, religion, union, or fan club of the best sci-fi series ever and which has its new series premiering on SCI-FI CHANNEL ON MARCH 17. WATCH DOCTOR WHO. Hey, that cannot be called advertising? I am only talking to about 4 or 5 people who go to my page? And only one I think reads my blog? Not like I’m company product placing? I will leave that to political pushers who push their wares for the betterment of their own pockets… and The O.C. That show is nothing but one big product placement and it makes me wonder how people like watching a long commercial like that. Though to be honest the acting is better in the Coke commercials with the polar bears and that’s coming from a Pepsi man.
A whole paragraph just raced through that mentioned 4 products. That paragraph was praising two and going against two others. Lets think about this for a moment. Think about the old saying, “No publicity is bad publicity.” You sit in front of your televisions and computers and you love the commercials or television shows that promote the things you like and down grade those things you do not like. When you watch do you ever think that the mouthpieces speaking to you from that box or screen are hired or paid or as some say flattered into speaking those brands? And that is what it is, speaking a brand. News agencies, talk shows, hosts of said shows, individual celebrities. Some receive payments or freebies or chances on future endorsement deals all for the simple mentioning or pushing of a brand that fits their show or lifestyle or goes totally against them…
I love Coke, I hate Pepsi, I love CNN, I hate FOX NEWS. Do you really think inside the offices that do the advertising for those companies or personalities that they care one way or the other as long as the brand is spoken. Remember the whole attention span thing when it comes to modern humans who live the technological lifestyles we all tend to live today? We remember bites of information and I do mean bites.
PEPSI,
COKE,
DOCTOR WHO,
CNN,
Good news,
Bad news,
I love it,
Fuck it,
Whether on television, print, or on the web people should honestly look at how easily they can be manipulated by brand placement. Who knows maybe the next big blog or online journal or website should be looked at a little closer. If someone wanted me to sale something to the young or independent or lets say underground culture one of the first things I could do is create a fake blog or of the sort site. I would hire a young model to pose as the person who created the site… something punkish but Goth. Someone who gives off a Loita sexuality. Then lets see…? …. How about we have professionally done amateurish in appearance pictures taken to show her totally personal style against this company owned world. Yes, that sounds good and I would have the site written by a good research writer who handles youth culture keeping it updated on random issues for a few months until it got popular, then after releasing the product locally first the blogger can comment on it and then we can release it national. ..
But that’s not it. Oh, not by a long shot. You cannot have anything worth having in today’s market media world without having a few people who hate it. I would have the blogger say something bad about the product one day and then hire someone for the one job of sending the blogger a really nasty e-mail. Hire the person as a actor under a non-disclosure contract. After the internet community attacks our company for about a week or two we fire the actor hired to be this attacking employee to make it appear we care and ask this “blogger” to help us reshape our product into something for her generation. So after two months of her talking about the ins and outs and good and bad of dealing with this big company we have her take a job. This is a pulling away from the ad campaign start. This will piss off many online who will say she is saleing out and then we have her doing about two months of boring blogs before she moves on with her life and her site goes away.
You think this is just me talking? I had some friends once in advertising who said one of the happiest things they saw was how the online community helped sale certain books like Prozac Nation and The Virgin Suicides on the word of mouth of the individual sites people had. What really got their blood going was how easy it would be to use that. Fake websites for movies and such have already popped up the past few years. I say in a couple of years or maybe sooner there will be a big story, Someone will find a file or decide to blow the whistle and a lot of people will be surprised by how many sites, blogs, and e-mail lists they were involved with that might as well had been sewn with a trademark implanted right on the page… and you know what? Nothing anyone can do about it. From the government to companies there are no laws saying you have to be who you say you are on websites, blogs, or e-mail lists unless you are trying to do something illegal. We of the Internet generations may not like it but it’s a fact of the creature that is the internet. Web mining for information, fake websites for promotion, and other uses for product placement, advertising, and manipulation are a tool for all. ..
Here is a fun little game for home. Take any magazine and for each article highlight each time they mention a product. Highlight each time a photo within this magazine has someone wearing some kind of product shirt or jacket with the brand clearly seen.
I have always said take what you read and see and hear with a grain of salt but then again this is coming from someone who is just a struggling factory worker trying to get a career started as a writer…..?
Do not look directly at the person in the boa picture he may not be who he seems to be,
C.
When I originally wrote this some people were mis-lead by some of the things I wrote. I love capitalism-computers, DVD's, TV, and DOCTOR WHO and advertising is not that bad a thing. I don't apologize or feel bad for the things I have because I've earned them but just wonder about some peoples sense of seeing things. What I hate is when people put themselves out there as puppets of the powerful, the same way with government propaganda and act all "Duuu George" when something is revealed. I know marketing, One of the few things I do know and the only reason I am not getting paid big money to do it right now is I know how easy it is to twist people and I really do not like that side of it.
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2 comments:
Most days I DON'T have an original thought in my head and when one is given to me I don't know how to use it!
I miss my old diaryland residence...I think I wrote some pretty kewl stuff in that. Remember convos' from work! Well, I really can't do that now cos well...look at WHO I work with. Not enough to have fun with anyways.
The writing prompts I'm finding hard some days to write anything of substance even if it is a one liner. I'm struggling. I used to be more original and I'm finding these days I'm not.
Well, I'm off to a good start I guess...I think I've written more in LJ this month then I did all last year.
Keeping writing. I have found that it helps me when I'm writing daily either in a blog, journal or whatever. You have to feed that beast for it to run with you.
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