Ad Nauseam Part 5 and 6, Twitter, and Merchants of Cool

Ad Nauseam: Part 5
One of the things I found really interesting in part five was the advertisements that made use of famous quotations from deceased icons. The book gave quite a few examples, one of which was a quote by Einstein that was used in ads for Apple Computers, Nikon cameras, and the like. The quote read, “The trite objects of human efforts-possessions, outward success, luxury- have always seemed to me contemptible.” Maybe they just don’t know what the word contemptible means or they hope the consumer doesn’t know what it means, but it sounds to me like they insulted themselves. In my opinion, if they were trying to associate themselves with the great Einstein, they certainly picked the wrong quote.
I found the concept of subliminal messages in advertising to be quite… interesting, as well. I do think that advertising companies engage in what could be considered sneaky activities, but the word sex embedded into the dough molds at the Ritz Cracker factories? Sex orgy and bestiality in a clam plate placemat? Really? I’m going to have to disagree with Wilson Brian Key on this one. What, no one else has the ability to pick up on these things but him? Has he been bestowed with some great subliminal message debunking power that none of us happened to get? Furthermore, I understand that advertisements play on our emotions and basic human desires and what have you, but I can honestly say without a doubt in my mind that a donkey licking a long mustached man does not make me want to by a clam plate… Not even a little bit. I don’t think the whole concept of subliminal messages is to be disregarded, but the way Key interprets the concept just don’t seem quite feasible to me.
Upon reading the Idiot Consumer section, I felt somewhat offended by the advertising companies. “Stupid people…hogs…illogical mess…” Really? I feel like they should be describing themselves rather than the masses of people that make up the consumer body. I guess advertising is important for our economy and keeps it up on its feet, but if you think about it, those ad companies are the stupid ones. Using Kurt Cobain in an advertisement. What did they think was going to happen? They (as a generalization) just sound like an office of blundering idiots running around trying to be the first to use subliminal messages and then not because they are supposedly ineffective. And then be the first to advertise to the supposed fourteen-year-old consumer mind of the thirty year old adult, etc…
My question is what’s next? Advertising has evolved quite a bit over the years to bring it to the point we are at today. So we’ve gone through the subliminal message scare, and now there are apparently special codes that will make us buy more things. What else can they throw at us? (As a side note, the PANEXA ad was absolutely hysterical!!)
Ad Nauseam: Part 6
In part six, one of the quotes that really stuck out for me was when they said, “Public outrage has a shelf life: people can protest an issue for only so long before surrendering and getting on with their lives.” Sadly, it’s true. The majority of people are only fired up about something so long as it’s being covered in the news. Other than that, all you’ve got is the minority vote. For the vast majority of the people, their beliefs and passions fluctuate with what the media tells them they should be outraged about. It’s sad, really.
It’s crazy that none of the people who had foreign objects appear in their shopping carts did anything about it. Are people just blindly walking through life, not really giving any care to what they spend their hard earned money on? One would have thought that at least one person would have questioned the object. I would hope that I wouldn’t purchase an obscure item such as a meat thermometer just because it happened to be in my cart.
The credit card prank, although quite funny, was also appalling on the part of the credit card companies. No wonder so many people’s identities get stolen. The fact that he actually got away with an actual balance by completely BS-ing his mother’s maiden name and mumbling is amazing in a scary kind of way. Then the operator told him his mother’s maiden name! As if pretending to understand a mumble wasn’t bad enough, let’s just inform the kind gentleman of what he failed to be able to come up with the first time, shall we?
My question is how do we get more people to socialize in ways that don’t “…center around consuming stuff…”? I think the pranks, and “grocery store research,” if you will, are great. However silly it might be, at least people are thinking outside the box and using the brains they have been given by whatever higher force(s) they may answer to. Versus, being fed how to live and how you should live by the media and advertisements etc… So advertising has successfully created blind consumers, how do we deconstruct this and resurrect the independent thinkers?



Twitter:
Thesis:
Twitter, although it seemed to have some negative connotations is actually a social platform for people to not only feel connected to others but also take advantage of various discussions and educational conversations but also to organize and implement social, political, and intellectual change.
Agree:
I definitely agree that “…a whole new empire of distraction has opened up.” People can now continuously text other people they aren’t with while supposedly hanging out with the people they are with as they compulsively check Facebook, and Twitter one their phones. At the same time they can surf the web ,while watching TV, just to throw in some more media before the day ends, only to wake up the next day and the first thing they do: locate phone…www.twitter.com…just woke up, going to shower and then have breakfast! P-lease, we have enough media connections. Twitter is just one more thing for people to be ridiculously obsessed with.
I also agree that Successful businesses will have millions of Twitter followers, and will most definitely pay good money attract them. I’m not sure I see this as a good thing though. It’s just one more way for people to be reached by the advertising agencies. As if people aren’t connected enough to them. It’s just one more way that advertising is becoming part of our atmosphere, as was mentioned in The Persuaders.
Disagree:
I disagree with the amount of praise and accomplishment that is given to the concept of end-user innovation with regard to Twitter. Yeah, great, so we now have another way to talk to each other and snoop into each other’s lives. Wow, somebody had the genius idea of creating the ‘hashtag’ to better organize Twitter conversations and now lots of Twitter users do it, it’s called a trend. But have they cured a disease etc..? No, I don’t think so. Obviously communication is not a problem that needs to be solved. We’ve solved it already, at least six times. We can communicate in pretty much every form except maybe telepathy, depending on who you talk to. So leave communication methods alone for a while. Focus on something more important to society. Focus this end-user innovation into something more productive. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but it seems like a waste of this so-called wealth of innovation that America supposedly has as demonstrated by Twitter.
I also disagree with this whole concept of ‘following’ people. First of all, it’s kind of creepy. Everybody ‘follows’ everybody else. It creates a society of followers; where are the leaders? Last I heard, there was no lead button on Twitter. Yes, it is just a word, but as far as I can see, it can’t help the human psyche any.

Relationship with Twitter:
I do not have a Twitter account. I do however, have a Facebook, and in all honesty, it can be kind of annoying. To be honest, the only reason I have a Facebook is because senior year of high school my best friend convinced me that it was a good idea and set it up for me. I can definitely say that if Facebook somehow exploded, I wouldn’t miss it, not even a little bit. But one social networking site, or whatever you’d like to call it, is enough for me. Between using the phone, texting, emailing, facebooking etc… I feel overly connected. If I were to get a Twitter account, something else would have to go, and at the moment I don’t see it necessary to put the time into actually get the account and get rid of something else. My life is much better spent elsewhere.


Merchants Of Cool:
1. Seventy five percent of teens have a television in their room, (is this really necessary?!?!) and one third have a personal computer.
2. Paradox of cool hunting: It kills what it finds. As soon as marketers discover cool, it stops being cool. There is no solution. By discovering cool you force it to move on to the next thing, only to be discovered again.
3. It’s called Market research, not human or people research. This begs the question, is more about understanding who people are as a customer, versus understanding who someone is as a person. Advertising companies listen to the people not so they can give them what they want, but so they can give them what they want them to have.
4. “The most advanced form of marketing today comes in the form of a three hundred pound body slam…professional wrestling.”
5. TV shows kept getting edgier and edgier, channels keep trying to one up the other on the sex scale to keep up with the demand of the audience. “Teenagers are consumed with sex.” “Sex is part of teens lives, so it should be portrayed in the media too.” The media sells kids an image of what they should be like, the kids then mirror that, and the media is there to see it. Feedback loop.