Inside the box: a plastered explosion of cut-out advertisements, cluttered, in-your-face. Highlighting a laptop in the centralized bottom with .coms emphasizing commercial motives of confusing emotions that the ads portray. Combining images of greasy large portions of fried food and sex, reflected with images of bewildered and unhappy child models.
Outside the box: spray-painted natural colors, with wild animals in natural environments. Simple beauty of MN.
Ad Nauseam (Parts 3&4):
ReplyDeleteThe chapter “How do kids read commercials?” reminded me of The Persuader when they described the marketing tactics of cults and applying their methods to brands, by portraying a meaningful belonging and connection with others like a corporate family. Supporting old time values of community that schools and churches were once central for in a community. The fact that commercials on channel one costs twice as much as on prime time network news shows how easily influenced children’s minds are, and these cult tactics are much too powerful to not work on them. They are so effective that kids are just as interested in the commercials as they are the actual programming. It reminded me of consuming kids too, especially the part where a 9th grader “enlisted the help of his grandmother” to buy a $160 pair of Jordans that he “saw in a commercial”.
The list of holidays in the “I’m dreaming of a white national cheese day” was preposterous, and made valentine’s day seem all that much less meaningful to me. It’s pathetic how all these corporate stores are with the constant “seasonal decorations” because there is never a time without them. Another thing I found to be over the top was the interview with Richard Sherwin who described the behavior of court jurors as emulating that of televised court cases. This made me incredibly more partial to alternative dispute resolution.
Get Smarter:
Thesis: Augmented awareness will prevail in gradual increments and constant connectivity will be attained in approximately 50 years through drugs and technology, which will expand cultural divides and be prone to disaster from system failure.
Agree:
1. I share the same uncertainty that Cascio has for the stability of the technology companies that are already so flawed. I would never trust an economically run company to control my brain in any way, it’s outrageous.
2. I also really agree with the author’s point that divergent paths exacerbate cultural divides, and would add that there are not enough resources and money to service A.I. or any technology for that matter to every individual on the planet, therefore it would be considered an elite privilege, and cause further economic divides.
Disagree:
1. I don’t think there’s “no going back” from these pressure induced crutches that we are becoming more and more reliant on, because I think in the end it just makes everyone more fucked up, so it won’t succeed.
2. I also don’t agree with the idea that A.I. will result in more intense and intricate arguments or educational gains, because it relies heavily on information that is spat out repeatedly, and without question therefore it could end an argument quickly. Also since we are so heavily reliant on it, I don’t think future progression will have to do with retaining knowledge on our own, so it will eventually dumb everything down.
The Persuaders:
1. Products as “social lubricants”, the more you have and promote these material items through online social networking, the more popular you are.
2. Pseudo spiritual marketing has become inversely effective, first marketing products through spiritual standpoints, and more recently developing ritualistic relationships between consumers and brand names.
3. It doesn’t matter what you want to express to others, you have to listen to their desires, in order to tell them what they want to hear.
4. Resulting from #3, Acxiom political campaigning, demographic tribes, economic placement.
5. The secret to all persuasion is to get the persuaded to become persuaders themselves.
Good reflections. Lots to ponder and grapple with. (try not to use the 'f' word in your academically related blog!)
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