I've always said that advertisement is pollution, and I stand by that. Isn't anyone else tired of being told what to do? Of being told what to wear, what to smell like, what to eat-even what we have to look like?! I am so sick and tired of opening up a newspaper and seeing this airbrushed embodiment of sex in lingerie. Not that I'm hating (well, maybe a little, but who doesn't?), but I feel this has gotten way out of control!
Don't get me started on how much these advertisements go for. Just a couple of weeks ago, one of the superbowl ads went for almost $6 million!! My GOD!! Do they have ANY idea how many students can pay for their tuition with that kind of money?!
But regardless of my disdain for advertisements, I must say that it does pay the bills. There are so many people that benefit from sponsors and advertisements-from bloggers like Perez Hilton, most radio stations and even students sometimes when these big companies offer scholarships.
Recently, I landed a job at a radio station, and realized just how much we depend on sponsors and advertisements. It's the only way to keep the business running and the only way to make money! So I'm going to have to love this advertisement business. Well, at least learn to FAKE to love whatever the hell they want me to sell. Hell, why not? I have to learn to fake an orgasm once in a while. That's a pretty big feat in and out of itself. Isn't it?
Still, I think these people should tone it down a notch. I get so angry sometimes because the only way they can sell stuff is by promoting sex. Some of these ads are so close to being pornography. In the LA Weekly, I pass page after page of models in skimpy clothing with their big breasts and overall desirable body (to men ofcourse, I'm not a lesbain), promising "Hot Asian and Latin women willing to do whatever you want them to do." And, it works. They sell-it's true, sex does sell, which I think is degrading to both women and men. Women because they're percieved as being easy and slutty, and men for being gullible horndogs.
One of the best examples I can think of is Gabriel Iglesias. In one of his comedy specials, he mocks the Spanish Commercials for always having to integrate sex with whatever they're trying to sell. He jokes around about a commercial for Pepsi that is all sex appeal for the first 28 seconds of the commerical and it isn't until the last two seconds that we know what it is they're promoting. He says "Ooh, I better get me a Pepsi now!" And I think there's nothing wrong with that-I'm not going to be a prissy little bitch about it, but godamnit!! Enough is enough!
Everyday on my way to school, I pass at LEAST 50 billboards and advertisements and logos. All of them telling me to do one thing or another. I'm not that stupid to be swayed by these, but there are people who are; children.
All these fast food chains are so clever in appealing to little kids, which I think is absolutely disgusting. These are little kids for fucks sake! Then there's this growing epidemic of obesity; "we're the fattest country in the world!" Well, maybe they could start by cutting down on advertising of all this fat food, and stop putting all this shit on the food so that it can stay fresh and make people addicted to it.
I don't mean to be a hypocrite since I find myself on ocassion on the drive-thru of the Jack in the Box 5 blocks from my house. And I'm not trying to place ALL the blame on the advertisements of these unhealthy things. What I'm trying to point out is that I think all this is fucking bullshit and it definetely needs to have a limit of some kind.
Kids aren't the only ones targeted though. Teens like you and me are also their main source of income. All this glamour they try to put into alcohol and cigarettes is really something else. I think that for every 100 ads and commericals for cigs and alcohol, there's one truth commerical giving us the REAL effects of these.
Have we become so greedy and money hungry that we have to kill off half the population with addictions and unhealthy things? Aren't the big CEO's rich enough? Do they need to add a 10th porshe to their collection? A 5th mistress? Another 100,000 acres to their multi-million dollar homes? At OUR expense? Will they be there to help when you get lung cancer, when you get diabetes or when you need to get a triple bypass surgery?
No, ofcourse not. They'll just target your kids. And then they'll target your grandkids
Advertisement is pollution.
Excellent blog. It was very insightful and I agree with it completely. Our minds are being polluted by the garbage that we see everyday on the internet, in magazines, and on TV. It is being forced down our throats and we witness these things everywhere we go!
And yes, its sad that all this shit is forced down our throats. All because these assholes in a suit come up with this shit they get paid millions. It is absolutely ridiculous!