All ads which sell a product inadvertently sell another product, and that product is identity, and they sell it better than their own product. Using these images won't/can't convince you that Blackberry is cool, but they have inadvertently convinced you that these images are cool, that these are the standards of cool, of beauty, of funny, of intelligence. Pick and choose what parts you want to envy. "Not me! I think for myself!" Of course you do.
I.
I’m not even saying the companies involved are aware of what they are doing as in some illuminati, back room scheme.
This is just how advertising works. And we are the nation of billboards, game interrupting TV timeouts for and of commercials. “I watch the Superbowl for the commercials, but I’m not fooled by them.” Of course your not. Your drinking Bud light, wearing a Aeropostal hoodie and beads for bracelets because you invented that style. Lets not even mention the haircut or your dreams of being famous on... wait for it... TV.
I write anonymously so that you aren't distracted by my age or lack of manners or political leanings. They don't matter. If you want to say that narcissism didn't play the crucial role in previous posts because-- I'm white, or single, or on the run from a homicidal maniac; then you're trapped in the very problem that is the point of these posts. So I try to take that away from you.
II.
I don't blame you for wanting to attack or defend me; that's how we've been trained to think about complicated issues. We're alive in a time where the President's attackers and defenders both assume he is lying. We don't believe words, we believe identity. If Obama did it, then it's either definitely good or definitely bad, depending on what you think of him. Never mind that if you look at what he's done, it looks almost the same as what Bush did. And Bush’s actions resemble Clintons.
III.
Somewhere in the past 50 years social media accidentally constructed an artificial reality that was hidden by the on-purpose entertainment of TV shows. You look at any of these CSI shows and think, "well, of course this isn't a real representation of actual crime scene investigators. N. is an asshole." But it never occurs to you to think as they're finishing up 28 hours of straight duty, "since when did it become ordinary for professional cops in their 40s to have no kids, tons of disposable income and time, unlimited/unregulated overtime and still wing going out regularly on dates that end in sex? And what the hell happened to body fat?"
No wonder people think, feel and experience-- that they lose part of themselves when they have kids, or grow old. Next thing you know your on Craigslist trying to get a piece of the action that, well, doesn’t actually exist. Now theres a missed connection for ya. Thanks for playing. Aww...your post just got flagged.
IV.
Commercials are even worse. That attractive, well dressed woman who looks longingly at a passing two door Honda Accord is a synthesis that you resist-- you know that they're selling Hondas, and you're not falling for it. You're so clever, seeing through it-- you know owning a Honda doesn't make you an attractive well dressed woman, nor will it attract such a woman. But what you don't realize you're learning is that this is what attractive well dressed women look like. Honda is selling Walmart. And Walmart is having a sale; for the right price you can be 24 forever.
The advertising agency most likely just wanted to sell some cars today; not change the society you will want to participate in tomorrow. But there it is.
And you don’t have to watch it to be influenced by it. That it’s on in the background, always-everywhere, is good enough. When your friends discuss the new 10pm Showtime series that you missed because you were masturbating to the hot scene at the end of the 9pm guess what? now you know.
Of course If I can see it, how it changes me, you, us then you best believe the powerful see it. And I doubt they are just loitering around offices talking about the potentials.
N.
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