1. Ad Nauseam Ch.’s 5&6:

In the “Everything I know about life” section, I was blown away by the medical history, and the sheer flexibility these companies demonstrated in order to appeal to more consumption. Their willingness to endanger and completely fool their customers was frightening to me and made me trust corporations that much less. I think a good “prank” that could succeed in promoting public awareness would be to compile a magazine similar to “Stay free” that contains a smattering of these old school advertisements to reveal these companies’ historical character and superfluous existence.

I also found the psychological tendencies demonstrated in “Buyer Beware” to be fascinating. It actually got me excited about pulling similar pranks that were more like hands on media experiments. I Personally have felt uneasy every single time I go into a corporate superstore/ market. Something about the vast aisles and quantities of food, fluorescent lighting, and thinking about the people who have to work there everyday makes me dizzy. At home my family and I shop at a food co-op which is much easier on my stomach, even though there are some tradeoffs, the experience is much more enjoyable. Food is a very important thing in my life, not just another daily process that I zone out for and let any advertisements influence for their own benefit.

The last 5 short sections of the book were my very favorite, even though I enjoyed the whole book thoroughly. I love the guerilla anti-ad techniques, they were a riot. It reminded me a lot of a history teacher that I had in high school who first introduced me to media literacy who I admired a lot. Our school was located down the street from a gorgeous private park in the gramercy area of manhattan, and one of his many playful “fight the power” suggestions was to superglue the key holes so no one could get in, since not everyone is allowed. One kid who dropped out of my high school in one of the lower grades was apparently influenced by him in the wrong way, and took things too far. As a fore-warning… http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/teenager-is-arrested-in-may-starbucks-bombing/

My question is… How do we get rid of the stock market, so people don’t have to be brainwashed into consuming towards the solution for their never ending and meaningless insecurities and “maximizing profit for the shareholders”?

My question is… Why don’t these ad pranks happen more often? Are people afraid of the corporations? How do we overcome the fear?

2. How twitter will change the way we live

Twitter will change the way we communicate, organize, network, share, search and consume collectively in a live up-to-the-minute coverage of the world and humans living in it, especially the celebrities.

I agree with the different concepts that Johnson describes about twitter, specifically that it is more relevant and up to date because of it’s fundamental system of “reader-like” information.

I also agree that “it is strangely intimate, yet celebrity obsessed” which can be applied to “popular” kids as well, and is a complete distraction and waste of time.

I disagree with Johnson’s overall positivism. I think this type of media just promotes advertising motives, and is a self-centered world, where people are just going become more isolated and insane.

I also don’t think that twitter will succeed in ways that will promote the right kind of changes, because just like in China, the government has control over political movements, and since they banned it, it is now just that much harder for them to organize.

I am not using twitter, because I am using face book less and less, and don’t have enough time to distract myself further. After reading this article and watching that silly video, I am much less inclined to even dabble in that world. It seems surreal and awful. More extreme versions are W.O.W. and “second life”, both are really crazy.

3. The Merchants of cool

- Teens run today’s economy, spending $100 billion a year plus another 50 from parent’s “guilt money”- Growing up in nyc, I saw this happening around me all the time, and all of the ugly consequences.

- Culture spies, study teen behavior of consumption and try to keep up by imitating what the “cool kids” are doing- the ethnography screen part was scary because it was a first hand account of a human studying a consumer in order to make it consume more, while it seemed like he was just being really nice and like a curious friend.

- As soon as marketers discover “cool” it’s no longer cool- I think this is true for a small percentage, but I feel that a large portion of consumers will dwell in fads for longer periods, especially those in rural or suburban areas.

- I thought the midriffs and mooks sections were pretty accurate, and I think its crazy that there is such a big gap between the sexes and their advertising influencers even after all this time. It’s just less obviously stated than in the older ads that were in Ad Nauseam.

- I think the most interesting point that was made was the idea of media as a reflection of teenagers’ lifestyles, and vice versa. It made me feel like out entire culture revolves around this connection with media, and that one couldn’t succeed without the other, which makes me feel like culture was much more meaningful in the past, and now its cluttered with people and too many problems, so we need these distractions in order to believe we can achieve happiness.