it must stop
By anders pearson 19 Feb 2002
i was walking home from work last night and was appalled to see a truck coming up Broadway with giant screens on the side and blaring loudspeakers advertising some kind of health club membership. i guess advertisers have decided that the 70 foot tall calvin klein ads on the sides of buildings, ads on the tops of cabs and sides of buses, 20 minutes of ads before movies in the theatre, 15 minutes of ads at the beginning of DVDs that you can’t skip, product placements, super imposed animated ads in televised sports, banner and flash ads on the web, popups and popunders, ads in magazines and endless commercials on tv aren’t enough anymore. time to try something even more annoying.
<p>i remember hearing that after sept. 11th no one was buying ads anymore and all the advertisers were going out of business. i thought “wow, maybe some good will come out of all this after all.” apparently the ones that are still around have just gotten even more desperate to grab our eyeballs and control our minds. </p>
<p>there’s no escape anymore. i think we’re reaching the point where nothing is too sleazy for advertisers. i remember seeing King’s “I have a dream” speech turned into a commercial and getting mildly nauseous. how long before footage of sept. 11th makes it into an ad? maybe greyhound or amtrak advertising a “safer” way to travel? how much do you think McDonald’s would have paid to have their logo on the side of the <span class="caps">WTC</span>, clearly visible to every eyeball in the world as we sat, hypnotized, watching over and over again for months? the TV networks are already cashing in on it with endless exploitative “news” shows that they know are guaranteed to bring in the ratings and it’s been a wonderful propaganda vehicle for promoting “patriotism”, censorship, and racism. U2 incorporated the names of the victims in their superbowl half-time show.</p>
<p>i’m going to go throw up now. then i’m going to have a Pepsi Cola <small>TM</small>.</p> Tags: rant advertising assholes