Advertising
I enjoy Adbusters Magazine. It is a Canadian publication, edgy, transgressive, full of social criticism. I find the writing stimulating, even when I do not happen to agree with the writers point of view. I also enjoy the graphic elements within the publication. I willingly pay $14.95 for a copy.
Here is an excerpt from an article by Robert Bohm, a poet and political activist. The authors thesis is that advertising is more influential than formal education upon decision making.
Raised to be a cog in a machine
in a time of capitalist excess,
the individual arrives on the scene
as a player of no consequence
in a game in which she or he has been deluded
into thinking that they’re the game’s star.
Far from being the star,
this person weakened beyond repair
by the surrender of too much potential,
is so without ability
that she or he has no impact whatsoever on the game.
Consequently, this individual is, for all practical purposes,
an absence.
The ultimate invisible person, a nothing
in the midst of players who don’t take note of this absence at all.
And why should they?
The full-of-potential individual
who eventually morphed into this absence
is long gone,
remembered by no one,
except as a fading image
of what once was.
