Aaron Manire (amanire@indiana.edu)
Wed, 28 Oct 1998 15:48:03 -0500 (EST)
I'll try not to stray too far from the Acid Jazz design of this list but
I must follow-up. (I just subscribed last week and I've been loving the
informative tastes on this list (I'm also a DJ, at WFHB, a local community
radio station, www.wfhb.org))
On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Eric Fisher wrote:
> Then, I must ask more questions. What is the purpose of advertising?
Quoting my earlier message, it serves the function of informing the
marketplace. A vitally important function, I might add. Further, there's
quite a bit of advertising that I do like. For example, the (Doublemint?)
gum commercial with Milli Vanilli singing until the record starts
skipping, and they look at the camera sheepishly and shrug. That was
good. What more can they say, they're selling gum!
> If you were trying to sell a Pontiac or VW, how would you go about doing
> so?
Generally, I like advertisements that really toy with their medium. Let
me stand next to your firebird, is hardly creative. Shit like that just
insults your intelligence. Some car commercial, might have been Pontiac,
ran a cut by Crystal Method in the background. I forget the name of the
track, but whenever I heard it, I thought of a car driving through dry
salt bed flats. I don't listen to much CM anymore except while playing
boring but trippy video games.
> Do you have a problem with capitalism?
In principle, I don't. In practice, I love it and sometimes I despise
it. But we're not really talking about capitalism here. We're talking
about a particularly malignant form of advertising. The kind which
appropriates meaningful culture through some sort of underhanded tactic
(usually $$$$$) and completely banalizes it, stripping the work of its
original intent.
> Do you believe in censorship?
No, but, I do believe in tact, creativity, and learning.
Have you considered the fact that advertising is a de facto form of
censorship? Think about how much it costs to run an full-page spread in a
magazine or newspaper. Think about TV. How many artists get the coverage
they deserve?
Aaron
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