bender

Sorry to go back to this but flashing lights, and repatition thing that Art mentioned with the camp fire thing, and well isn't that the path to hyptnoism ? hyptnoism / trance and wouldn't that be the greatest result of all, for any advertiser, a trance caused by what you see and the message planted by whomever can afford the network time ?

SecretMethod70

A prime example of mass media mind control, and a prime example of why I refuse to ever look upon a diamond as anything more special than any other gem (along with the fact that I think gems with color are more beautiful).....

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/82feb/8202diamond1

perhaps the most successful ad campaign in history in my opinion. You should find it interesting.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

ARTelevision

Anyone who has an interest in just exactly how deeply our minds, our culture, and our very personal lives can be influenced by hucksters - to put it mildly- ought to take the time to read this very good report. Thanks, SecretMethod, for posting it.

Yeah, right in there in the bonding, love, and marriage ritual. It pretty much guarantees an endless line of docile accepting customers. Too bad we allow things like "love" to be commodified into baubles, mere tokens of love.

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create evolution

ARTelevision

This thread proceeds along at a nice pace. People tell me it has opened their eyes a bit to the nature of the cultural environment we inhabit. It's serious in some ways, but it's also funny in some ways.

Here are examples of the fine art of manipulating us marketing-wise that have gone awry.


Ten Marketing Flops

http://www.lang-plus.com/news/flops/flop_names.html

Products that Bomb

http://www.lang-plus.com/news/flops/index.htm


Seeing how mass media mind control can fail miserably is another way of seeing through it, I think.

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Fly

there is alot of interesting things on this site......


http://www.infowars.com/


great thread Art.........thanks for the eye opener

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BASTARD

SterlingStudios

ARTelevision

Fascinating stuff there, flyman. Thanks.

If you want to check out a super excellent flick that has a lot to do with all this plus is kick-ass entertaining, check out:

THEY LIVE (link)

It's an early John Carpenter film in which all is revealed !
...heh heh...

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create evolution

Fly

that is a good movie.

i think i just might go grab that tonight to watch........and with different eyes too.

once again ........great thread.

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BASTARD

SterlingStudios

Eldaire

Phbbbt. Who want's to be like them? They don't seem very happy to me. I mean, I could be wrong.

ARTelevision

This story appeared today on internet.com. It's obviously intended as a smart strategy piece for, in this case, web/internet marketers.

It says a lot about the gloss put on advertising by advertisers and those who study and promote and it also reveals how blithely ignorant they are of how it makes them sound to everyone else.

The talk about seducing and snaring potential customers by hitting them where they live and penetrating the deep recesses of the brain is the sort of thing tossed around all the time by these guys.

I think I'll check out this book...

.........................

Seducing the Hippocampus

November 17, 2003

Body of Truth

By Dan Hill
267pp. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. $29.95.

There's to be a perennial discussion in marketing over whether to appeal to consumers' intelligence or emotions. While the simple answer may be 'both,' it proves difficult in practice. Marketers have instead adopted an approach based on the product. Purchases that demand a high level of consumer involvement generally receive in-depth treatment, while impulse sales get emotional bells and whistles.

Starting with a scientific discussion of the brain, psychologist and marketer Dan Hill argues in Body of Truth that all good marketing should push the emotional buttons. Long copy and rational appeals may be of interest to a select few, but the average consumer reacts better to less subtlety. The key to all this, Hill argues, is the part of the brain that creates a "sensory-emotive connection with consumers."

"The hippocampus is vital," Hill writes. "It's the screen door to a person's psyche. It lets in what it deems to be shocking, novel, emotionally significant, or networked to the familiar. Therefore, successful marketing seduces the hippocampus." That's all well and good, the marketer may say, but how exactly do we go about targeting that lump of gray matter?

The value of emotional advertising is hardly novel in marketing. The old saw that kids-and-dogs will appeal to any consumer is time-honored. Some may remember soda commercial of years back that combined a toddler and a pack of puppies. Heart warming and memorable, to be sure. But did it move the product?

Hill spares no effort detailing the steps required to engage in what he calls "emotional positioning." Entire chapters are devoted to discussions of images and colors that will best snare typical buyers. At times, Body of Truth reads more like a psychology textbook than a marketing manual. It begs the question, what small business marketer is likely to absorb all this interesting advice?

To be sure, Hill makes a valuable point. In an increasingly cluttered marketplace, it takes more than a celebrity and a smile to create effective advertising. Whether or not marketers can consistently penetrate deep recesses of the brain in the manner Hill advocates remains to be seen, but it's worth the attempt.

....

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create evolution

Fly

here's another very interesting site ART.

mind control is everywhere.

what do "they" want?

http://davidicke.com/

sorry to go a little off of topic,but,i thought you'd be interested.

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BASTARD

SterlingStudios

ARTelevision

Well flyman, I'd say there's a sucker born every minute.
We are very conditioned to believe the unbelievable, especially when it is packaged and marketed to us and looks like every other marketed and packaged useless commodity in our lives...

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create evolution

tangledweb

Keep up the good work, Guys. This is without a doubt my favorite thread on the boards. For years, I have been facinated by the continual bombardment on our senses to Buy, Buy, Buy anything and everything without giving much thought to the motivations behind them.

People who are continually obsessed with buying the latest and greatest gadgets and keeping up with the 'Jones' don't really have time to notice that their rights and freedoms are systematically being taken away. It is a lot easier to manipulate people when their attentions are focused on other things.

Oh well, as long as it doesn't affect me... America's new anthem

ARTelevision

November 14, 2003

Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble Collaborate in Spying on Consumers
P&G, Wal-Mart store did secret test of RFID (11/9/03 - Chicago Sun-Times)

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Shoppers in a suburban Tulsa, Okla., Wal-Mart were unwitting guinea pigs earlier this year in a secret study that two of America's largest corporations never expected you'd know about.
In the study, uncovered by the Chicago Sun-Times, shelves in a Wal-Mart in Broken Arrow, Okla., were equipped with hidden electronics to track the Max Factor Lipfinity lipstick containers stacked on them. The shelves and Webcam images were viewed 750 miles away by Procter & Gamble researchers in Cincinnati who could tell when lipsticks were removed from the shelves and could even watch consumers in action.

The study involved a new technology, known as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), that enables retailers to use radio signals to electronically track products in warehouses and on store shelves, a technology critics fear ultimately could be used to track people once they leave the store.

Manufacturers and retailers are looking at ultimately putting the tiny chips into everything from soda cans and cereal boxes to shoes, clothing and car tires.

This worries privacy-rights advocates who envision tags in shoes and other personal items being linked to credit-card information so that retailers and government agencies could spy on the public.

Experts on RFID said the four-month study in Broken Arrow, Okla., was the first of its kind in the United States. Up to now, industry leaders have denied such testing had been conducted in this country.

The Sun-Times learned of the trial from a disgruntled Procter & Gamble executive and also from the firm that designed the "smart shelf" system. Researchers concealed "readers" in contact paper placed under the shelves and embedded RFID antenna chips in Lipfinity packaging.

Kevin Ashton, executive director of the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, downplayed the trial. "I think that the idea that someone's privacy is at stake because there are a few RFID tags in a few lipsticks in one store is silly," Ashton said.

The Auto-ID Center was founded in 1999 to develop RFID technology.

But Katherine Albrecht, founder of CASPIAN [Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering], a privacy rights group, said, "On the surface, the Broken Arrow trial may seem harmless. But the truth is that the businesses involved pushed forward with this technology in secret, knowing full well that consumers are overwhelmingly opposed to it. This is why we have called for mandatory labeling of products containing RFID chips."

Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Jeannie Tharrington reluctantly confirmed the Broken Arrow test.

She said there was a sign at the Lipfinity display that "alerted customers that closed-circuit televisions and electronic merchandise security systems are in place in the store."

She said there were no specific warnings about RFID tags in the lipstick packages.

Tharrington said the tags had a short read range -- about a half inch. That meant that once the packages left the shelves, researchers could not track them or the people carrying them.

Albrecht said: "Customers do not go into a Wal-Mart expecting to be used as research subjects. And they certainly don't expect these companies to slip tiny tracking devices into the products they buy."

Tom Williams, spokesman for Wal-Mart, initially denied that the study had been done, only to call back the next day to say he found that indeed the test had been conducted from late March until mid-July.


According to the Sun-Times Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has required that its top 100 suppliers tag their products with RFIDs by 2005.
........................

We are so defined by the products we associate with, it's not funny. In many ways we are the sum total of what is marketed to us and what we have purchased...

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txlovely

This is one of the better questions, guthmund. I think the two work in harmony. The sad fact is, the majority of the "viewing public" is easily bought. We all want things quickly and succinctly, even when it is at a cost, which in most cases means lacking of quality or factual information. A good example of how we've been "bought" is Madonna. Listen to her first couple of albums. She is no Rosemary Clooney or Kiri Te Kanawa for sure. She has reinvented herself to appeal to whichever demographic has the most money to spend. Consequently, this woman of, in my opinion, very little musical talent and many brains has had the last laugh. I personally don't care for her music, but I admire her wherewithal and her moxie.

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Cruel words erode self-esteem like the ocean eats away the shore.

Conclamo Ludus

This is truly one of the best threads I've come across. Its filled with great discussion and a plethora of information. Nice work to all of you who contributed.

Although I am a victim of US public schooling, from an early age I had some great teachers. As early as fifth grade we were trained to see these images and be aware of what they were trying to drive into our minds. We even had a project in which we had to come up with a product and market it using these subliminal techniques.

One of the more ridiculous recent ones I noticed the other day was the slogan "every kiss begins with Kay". I laugh my ass off every time I see that ad. Jewelry ads are famous for appealing to your romantic side. I spent about six months recently shielding myself from television. When I started watching tv again I burst out laughing at every advertisement I saw. My roommates constantly asked what I was laughing about. This is a fun experiment to try. Obviously television is hardly the only source for advertising, but it can be one of the most intense.

I find that I am particularly attracted to products that don't seem to have any brand at all. This could be their cute ploy of advertising though. It appeals to the sense that you think you are above advertising messages, so you will buy this generic-looking thing.

Great thread guys, thank you for all the interesting material to add to the discussion.

I'm one of those people that pulls off the insignias on things. My car, refrigerator, stereo, etc. I get a lot of compliments and questions from people about it. Where did you buy that? What brand is that? Irony...it kills me.

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Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul
I wouldn't mistreat you baby, for my weight in gold.
-Son House, Death Letter Blues

shakran

This is an interesting thread, but so far (unless I missed something) we're focusing on the techniques and not the results. Advertisers can put "sex" all over their ads, but if it doesn't effect people, then so what?

The example with the snowboarding don't smoke controversy struck me. The article said the snowboard looks like a lit match (well, and it also looks like a snowboard), the clouds look like smoke (don't clouds almost ALWAYS look like smoke of one sort or another? Those clouds don't look like cig. smoke to me), and the mountains look like mounds of tobacco at an auction. It's that last allegation that irritated me the most. OK, so let's say they do. Exactly how many students - much less people - do you think know what a mound of tobacco at an auction looks like? I certainly don't, and I'm almost 30.

So if the majority of students aren't going to know what the stuff looks like, then how can a picture that's supposedly mounds of tobacco in disguise possibly influence them?

Let's look at the sex-in-the-ice-cubes picture in the gin advertisement. OK, so they wrote sex in the ice cubes. What evidence do we have that the technique worked? If people saw the ad and bought more gin, how do we KNOW it's because of the word "sex" and not because the gin in the picture looked really tasty?

I'm not saying subliminal advertising doesn't happen - it does, and there's lots of documentation to back that up. Where the documentation falls short, however, is whether or not the technique is effective. In short, is it really something to get up in arms about?

ARTelevision

For me, it isn't really about the specific instances.
They are posted as signs of something, indicators to the larger issues involving the total and overall effect the mediated and thoroughly saturated cultural environment may be having on us.

The real intention behind this for me is for us to examine ourselves individually in the interest of answering your questions. How much of an effect does the type of world we are living in have on us - our thinking and our behavior?

My personal opinion is that we vastly underestimate, even deny the most obvious things...

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txlovely

Forgive the length, but here is a perfect example of attempting to utilize marketing for society's betterment:

The New York Times
November 23, 2003
When Nations Need a Little Marketing
By JIM RENDON

IMON ANHOLT, a British branding expert, spent a career developing international campaigns for Coca-Cola and Nestlé. Now he is trying to put his image-making skills to work for a very different kind of client: countries with struggling economies, like Croatia and Slovenia.

"I was getting bored with spending my life making already rich companies a little bit richer," said Mr. Anholt, who is 43 and based in London. So, earlier this year, he opened his own agency, Placebrands, with one clear goal: to help countries develop themselves as brands, with a carefully managed international identity, as recognizable as any consumer product. He has worked with Germany, Britain and New Zealand, in addition to Croatia and Slovenia, and is now in negotiations with Mongolia.

"When it comes to economic development, everyone talks about transportation, technology and civil service," Mr. Anholt said. "No one talks about marketing, which is bizarre. Marketing is at the heart of what makes rich countries rich."

Mr. Anholt said he believed that helping countries develop and communicate strong brand identities could help speed up development by attracting foreign investors and tourists. That, in turn, could increase political influence and help a country's corporations grow.

Mr. Anholt is not alone in seeing the possibilities in nation branding. The idea has been generating more interest in recent years as countries including the United States, Germany, France, Portugal, Estonia and Poland have brought in experts to help them tinker with their identities.

Next year, Finland will start a campaign to enhance its image as a center of high-tech innovation, with the hope of helping its technology companies fare better in the United States. Branding is also seen as crucial to many Central European countries that have realized that their timelines for acceptance into the European Union, and their ability to compete against their neighbors for investment, depend in part on how they are perceived by more developed European countries like France and Germany.

Changing the image of a country is no easier than changing the image of a company or an individual. While branding may be able to help a country improve its communication with the world, it won't work if the country sends out lies or hype, said Erich Joachimsthaler, chief executive of Vivaldi Partners, a four-year-old agency that specializes in branding. Mr. Joachimsthaler said that when working with Germany, he had run into a perception gap that is common in such work. His German clients wanted to portray themselves as a passionate, emotional, flexible people, an image that he said was "a whole bunch of baloney."

Charlotte Beers, the former chief executive of the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, served for a year and a half as President Bush's under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs - and part of the job was the task of selling America to the Middle East.

Jennifer L. Aaker, an associate professor of marketing at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, said that task was almost impossible. "One of the reasons that effort failed was because of the underlying product - our policies were not perceived as pro-Middle East. We failed to understand the media, the culture, even the language in that region. It is difficult to garner favorable perceptions of the American brand in that context."

While most countries have complicated identities, Croatia, one of Mr. Anholt's clients, is a particularly vexing case. To the extent that people in Western Europe think of the country at all, they associate it with Nazi complicity in World War II, Mr. Anholt said, or with the bloody conflicts in the 1990's between the Serbs and the Croats. Stjepo Martinovic, editor of Croatia's national heritage magazine, Matica, and a former adviser to the Croatian government on European integration, said that because Croatia is scheduled to join the European Union as early as 2007, it was particularly important that the country project a positive image.

"We are trying to present Croatia as a normal country, a market economy, a democratic society, a Mediterranean country," Mr. Martinovic said. He argues that Croatia can be made attractive to the rest of the world by letting people know about its inexpensive work force, its livable cities and its schools that offer classes in English - as well as its ballet, theater and contemporary artists.

Mr. Anholt's job is to assess these qualities, understand what outsiders may think about the country and then work to coordinate the messages from various ministries, private industry, cultural institutions and even sports teams. But Croatia cannot focus only on its assets and pretend that there are no negative associations, Mr. Anholt said. He is in the early stages of his work for Croatia but has come up with a one-liner for the country: "We're trying hard and developing quickly."

Slovenia, another country that Mr. Anholt has advised, presents a different set of problems. The country is small, largely unknown and often confused with Slovakia.

"We're a country that recently got its independence,'' said Rok Klancnik, the former director of communications for Slovenia's tourism board and now the director of communications at the World Tourism Organization in Madrid. "We're striving to reach higher levels of economic, social and cultural development. Branding is not only useful, it's necessary."

For Slovenia, sending musicians and artists abroad is one way to communicate. If someone enjoys a performance of the Ljubljana Symphony Orchestra in, say, Chicago, that will reflect well on Slovenia, Mr. Anholt said, and may encourage people to visit it or buy its products.

Because he regards branding as something that can take 10 or 20 years to achieve, Mr. Anholt does not recommend advertising as a solution. In the case of Slovenia, he argues that schools there should teach English, Italian and German. In 15 years, when some of those students are working in hotels and can greet visitors in their native languages, those visitors will be more likely to leave with a positive impression of the country.

Wally Olins, a visiting fellow at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University and a founder of the branding firm Wolff-Olins, said a country's brand involved messages from dozens of agencies and private companies. Everything from its Web site design and trade show materials to its stance on complex issues like international trade agreements can give clues about a country's identity.

For example, Mexico's decision to sign the North American Free Trade Agreement did more to signal its readiness for foreign investment than any other single event could have, according to Robert Z. Lawrence, a professor of international trade and investment at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Similarly, Mr. Anholt said, Slovenia's generosity in foreign aid - it is a donor to countries in its region - sends the message that the country is both stable and economically prosperous.

WORKING with countries can be exasperating. Corporations have top-down structures that require employees to get behind new projects and often have chief executives with long tenures. Nations have political factions, sudden leadership changes and vast bureaucracies. Branding programs may be seen as superfluous. Advertising firms and corporations may have different goals than government agencies.

Mr. Anholt said he had started and stopped work with Slovenia many times. "Every time I get involved, I make friends, create a good impression, some of my advice is taken, some is not, and then I have to start all over again," he said.

Whether branding is as useful as Mr. Anholt believes, however, is the subject of some debate, at least if the goal is to help a country's corporations expand internationally.

Many branding experts point to the success of Japan and Japanese corporations as an example of how national and corporate identities can benefit each other. After World War II, Japan became associated with poor-quality products, but in the 1980's, with the emergence of successful Japanese corporations like Toyota and Sony and Honda, the name Japan became synonymous with quality and technology.

But to think that Mr. Anholt's branding efforts can do the same for Slovenia's companies may be wishful thinking, said Desmond Lachman, an economist and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization. Japan had high regulatory standards and a relatively large domestic market that helped its corporations develop, Mr. Lachman said. Slovenia, on the other hand, has a tiny domestic market. It will not become another Japan no matter how it is branded, he said.

The most efficient way for Eastern European countries with emerging economies to promote growth is to pursue policies that encourage investment from companies in France, Germany and other European Union countries to help develop a manufacturing base, Mr. Lachman said.

Although Mr. Anholt says a better international image can have long-term international benefits, he does not argue that it's the right thing for every country. "Money should not be taken away from essential nation-building activity to do branding," he said. "If the roads need fixing, they are probably better off using their money to fix the roads."

__________________
Cruel words erode self-esteem like the ocean eats away the shore.

Cynthetiq

txlovely, wonderful!

that's the reason why people flock to USA. They heard that the streets were paved in gold, etc. etc. When I travel I always ask what people think of the US, and it's subtly marketed via simple influences of Movies, TV, Music....

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

txlovely

Thanks, Cynthetiq.

Intersting to think of branding in terms of a country, isn't it? I do wish the US wasn't so closely tied to Terminator, Rocky and Dallas reruns. Maybe we need a branding campaign ourselves...

__________________
Cruel words erode self-esteem like the ocean eats away the shore.

Sleepyjack

nice, i've spent ages reading through this stuff and just thought i'd give this a bump. Unfortunatley i don't have anything profound at the moment as i am still absorbing and digesting.

cheers, great thread!

ARTelevision

Thanks, Sleepyjack.

I do regular searches for this stuff. Your bump moved me to update the thread with two items from The Australian , Austrailia's National Daily Newspaper:

Here's the first:

........................

Endless game of Where's Wally

For TV and movie viewers alike, spotting product placement can be like an almighty game of Where's Wally.

Product can find itself on screen for any number of reasons: from the standard product placement model where a company has paid for its brand to be featured, to deals where the production company is supplied with free product in exchange for its appearance – a model often used where cars are concerned – to incidental placement where no money changes hands and a brand just happens to make it on screen.

Fans of reality shows in Australia will be in little doubt about many of the sponsors of recent hits. Australian Idol leveraged its need for a make-up room and L'Oreal brand Maybelline came to the party, with t-shirt-adorned stylists getting contestants ready for their moment in the spotlight. McDonald's found its brand emblazoned outside the Sydney Opera House for show's finale.

On The Block, Black & Decker tools were always handy for the contestants as they drilled and hammered their way to stardom. Sharing the limelight were Panasonic, Masterfoods and the Commonwealth Bank, all of which were generously identified during the show and their products used by the contestants.

Stick around and watch the credits of an episode of the Seven Network's All Saints and you might spy the names OPSM, Sarah Jane or Roses Only headlined with the statement "Products and/or services provided under commercial arrangement". Over on an episode of Stingers on Nine, the producers give "thanks" to Siemens and Coffex Coffee.

But when it comes to product placement, TV is small beer – it is in Hollywood where the real deals are done. In the 1990s Mike Myers used his movie Wayne's World to lampoon just how big and blatant product placement had become, but even he could not have envisaged the master of the medium, super-spy James Bond.

From the moment he penned his first Bond book, Ian Fleming made sure brands had a prominent role to play, believing that the inclusion of real brands gave his books an air of reality. When producers committed Bond to film, they too cottoned on that a well branded Bond was a bankable commodity.

In the most recent Bond bonanza, Die Another Day, Ford handed over Aston Martins (after three movies featuring BMW placement), Jaguars and Land Rovers. Bond sipped Finlandia vodka and 7-Up, while a dozen other products vied for attention.

Simon Canning

........................

More on the same there:



The subliminal sell
By Simon Canning
11dec03

Production of the 2004 television season of blockbuster reality shows is well under way and the networks are casting for talent. Over at Network Ten, still swooning from the success of Australian Idol, executives are looking for dozens of contenders to decorate the small screen in its latest series, The Resort. Those who make the casting cut are almost guaranteed stardom and riches. But it is not just actors and contestants the network is hunting for, it's products. Products to perform for the camera and products to help underwrite the rising costs of giving Australians their daily dose of reality TV. Ten wants soft-drink makers, brewers, spirit companies, airlines and travel agents to sign up and get their brands on screen. This time, Ten even wants viewers to book their holidays at the Fiji resort while the series is being filmed. Welcome to the world of product placement, brand insertion or brand integration in the new millennium where advertising is fighting to break free from the 30-second TV commercial, and the networks are only too willing to help.

Product placement has been around in one fashion or another since the days of the radio soaps – so named because they were funded by the soap companies. In radio and the early days of TV it was a simple concept. The company funded the production of the show and was allowed to append its brand directly to the title, BP Pick-A-Box is perhaps the most famous example, but other shows to grace the TV screens in the 1950s and '60s included The Frigidaire Show, The Tarax Show and The Mobil Show. As the '70s arrived such overt branding fell from favour, but product placement remained alive and well in the movie business in the US.

Steven Spielberg is largely credited with ushering in the new era of product placement when he convinced Reeses Pieces to pay for a place in his hit ET. In the wake of the film, sales of the confectionery shot up 65 per cent and the future of product placement was assured. Today estimates from the US suggest the product placement industry in movies alone is worth $US360 million ($488 million) a year.

Now the advertiser-financed insertion of a brand into a TV show has turned into a burgeoning industry in its own right in Australia. All three TV networks have created dedicated divisions to look for opportunities to get advertisers into shows. Each idea for a show that crosses the desks of network programming executives is analysed for the opportunity to earn revenue through the inclusion of paid-for advertising within the show's content. A small industry of companies brokering product placement is also emerging.

If you have recently watched All Saints, The Block, Australian Idol, Big Brother, CrashBurn or any one of an innumerable collection of shows, you may have been aware of product placement. But then again, you may not have – and this is where critics are becoming increasingly concerned about the networks' desire to expand advertising revenue opportunities beyond the 13 minutes per hour now allowed by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.
Now some observers fear the Australian advertising industry is heading for a cash-for-comment-like crisis as advertisers meld more and more advertising into programming.

Charles Britton, technology officer with the Australian Consumers' Association, questions just how savvy to embedded messages consumers really are. "Do people know they are being promoted to?" Britton asks. "It's coming in under the threshold. I think in the 1960s there was a big debate about subliminal advertising. It was sort of like invasion of the body snatchers. If people don't know they are being sold to, then they don't have their own street wisdom up and running." Britton also questions how the Trade Practices Act applies when products are used within the confines of programming as a result of payment to the network or program producers by the advertisers. "There is the Trade Practices Act and the notion that representations need to somehow cohere with what the offering actually is. When you get to these alternative channels where is your guarantee that, in fact, the way it is being promoted is in any way related to what it actually delivers? And then if not, how do you get redress?"

In the US, the issue of product placement has reached boiling point after a consumer action group, Commercial Alert, which numbers consumer advocate and political activist Ralph Nader among its patrons, lodged a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission. The complaint has accused the principal networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, of failing to comply with sponsorship identification requirements. "It is a basic principal of law and common morality that advertisers must be honest with their viewers," the complaint says. "Advertisers can puff and tout and use all the many tricks of their trade. But they must not pretend that their ads are something else."

Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, says that in the US rules are no longer keeping pace with the scale of brand insertion in TV programs. "During the last four years the scope, sophistication and intensity of televised product placement has increased dramatically. It has emerged as a kind of parallel industry to conventional advertising," Ruskin says. "The rules in the US as they are written are not adequate to the new challenges posed by embedded advertising, such as product placement, product integration and plot integration. In essence some programs now resemble program-length ads. Allowing broadcasters to identify the sponsors only once during an entire program, if at all, is wholly insufficient to match the subtle and complex efforts to persuade viewers to buy products via product placement."

Consumer advocates might be wary of product placement and the manner in which it is growing, but from the networks' perspective, they have discovered a small yet substantial seam of gold, which they are mining for all it's worth. One network that has been at the forefront is Ten, which was a leader in linking the content of shows with ad breaks from the early '90s.

Brian Gallagher, strategy and development manager, network sales, at Ten, is in charge of helping sponsors make the move from the commercial breaks into the shows and says it is a time-consuming process few advertisers are actually willing to embrace. He says three key factors need to be in alignment before an advertiser can successfully migrate into the environment of a TV show – the concept, consumer interest in the program and the product, and its connection with the consumer. "If we can actually find products that align those three things then we know we are going to have a successful campaign," Gallagher says. "With all of that, only a small percentage of the advertisers we work with give us enough time and scope to be able to address their marketing issues in an integrated manner."

Gallagher also warns that relevance is a key factor to successfully embedding a brand within a show. "We can formulate an idea to work brands into our format in a relevant way. Because if it's not relevant to the content that we're producing, it will certainly not be relevant to the consumer and the consumer won't recognise it as a valued part of the program."

With The Resort, where teams of couples will vie to win the right to run a tropical holiday destination, Ten is hoping to take the integration of advertisers into a show further than ever before, Gallagher says. "We needed to find people to help us fly people into Fiji," he says. "We need to find people to help us market the holidays, and in this case the resort is a business where we will be selling those holidays through retail channels." Such is the level of brand integration the show aspires to that a sponsored bar will be built in the resort. "The bar has the naming rights of a spirit company and they will be involved in setting it up. They will own the bar and will be able to run consumer promotions with a trip to the resort as a prize. We will give them two shooting days to make a commercial, which in itself will form part of the program."

Product placement can work in curious ways. Rice cracker company Sakata is rumoured to have spent a substantial part of its marketing budget simply to buy into Australian Idol. Ten then pitched in, getting the show's contestants to shoot a short ad singing the brand's monotonous tune.

A recent survey by advertising agency George Patterson Partners revealed that 78 per cent of people claim to have noticed product placement in programs. Further, 55 per cent said they did not like the idea of product placement, while the remaining 45 per cent said they did like product placement. Brands identified by those surveyed as taking part in product placement in programs included Coca-Cola, which boasted an unprompted recall of 33 per cent. Pepsi achieved a recall of 12 per cent, with respondents saying they had seen the brands in various shows. Mars and Pizza Hut's association with Big Brother paid dividends, as did Optus's inclusion in the latest series of the reality show. By comparison, sponsors of the Nine Network series The Block achieved recall of between 1 and 2 per cent. Those surveyed identified Black & Decker, Freedom, Dolmio and Masterfoods as having a role within the show. The figures might seem low, but marketers say the impact of such strategic placement of brands is worth far more than the initial investment.

The Block has been one of the most overt examples of product placement seen on Australian TV this year. The network partnership with Freedom furniture and Toyota has been hailed by both as a significant success. Freedom committed 30 per cent of its annual budget to the show as the main sponsors, while numerous others also jumped on the bandwagon.

Toyota was one company that was so happy with the impact its presence on the show had on branding and sales, it wasted no time signing up for the second season. Toyota's Nick Sadlier says the way the brand was integrated into the show was a vital ingredient. "I think the key thing for us was not just going beyond advertising into integration, but real relevant, targeted integration," Sadlier says. "The fact (is) that The Block was based in Bondi, the couples were all in the range of the target audience, and the uses of the car were actually in a competitive environment so the benefits of the vehicle could actually be communicated through the show without it seeming unnatural."

But while Sadlier is delighted with the outcome of The Block, he is unsure that the car maker will take every opportunity on offer to integrate its brand. "I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of this over the next 12 to 18 months," he says. "We get a lot of proposals, but I think The Block was unique in terms of the opportunity to integrate – we were much more involved in the production and that was the key to making it work." GETTING brands into TV shows can be half the challenge and product placement broker James Grant Hay says the Australian product placement industry is embryonic in comparison to the US. "We saw a niche opportunity in the Australian marketplace following the American example," Grant Hay says. "The product placement processes in America are well and truly 10 to 15 years ahead of Australia. The shift has come about due to media fragmentation, and from where we are standing the consumer or the viewer is more or less in the driver's seat. You have an incredible number of different forms of competing media out there and really it's no longer a case of interruption to the viewer, it's about engagement and that's what is driving product integration and branded entertainment."

But are viewers going to turn against the concept of product placement and the idea that advertising is no longer restricted to the advertising breaks? Grant Hay thinks not. "There is no end to its limit," he says. "However, it must be done in subtle form if the viewer or consumer is to respond favourably to it. That is why we are choosing to not participate in this style of, as I call it, blatant product placement which is somewhat intrusive."

Even so, he says that even blatant product placement has a high rate of acceptance with viewers at this stage in its life.
"I believe they will continue to accept that this is the way that programming is headed. Let's just look at the ratings for something like Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, which is the American model, but there will be an Australian version of that, and that has been incredibly well received."

Australian TV has learned many of its tricks from the father of product placement, the US movie studio – as ET demonstrated. Movies and product placement are an economy in themselves and the vast number of American movies coming into the Australian market means movie-goers are subjected to a form of cultural imperialism. One of the expected hits of the summer season is expected to be the movie adaptation of Dr Seuss's The Cat in the Hat. While there are no products placed within the movie itself, critics in the US have railed at the number of endorsements producers have attracted. In all, more than 40 different brands belonging to 12 companies have tie-ins with the movie. They range from Kellogg's to Burger King and Nabisco. Experts describe the film as having the highest level of promotional support ever seen in Hollywood.

From an advertiser's standpoint, product placement can provide an opportunity for branding and product demonstration, but the risks are high. Networks and producers need to bring advertisers in at the beginning of the process and the long lead time means it can be months before the results are seen. And if the show is not a hit, there is no way to recoup the investment.

Ten's drama CrashBurn was given substantial support by spirit brand Bailey's Irish Cream. The advertiser bought air time in the ad breaks, and when scenes in the show were filmed in some bars, the Bailey's logo was often prominent. But the show failed to set the ratings on fire and Bailey's distributor Diageo is said to be disappointed with the numbers the drama attracted.

The networks are also aware of the storm brewing in the US about levels of product placement and how such deals are identified. An amendment to Australia's Commercial Television Code of Practice now under review requires for the first time the disclosure of commercial arrangements in factual programs, but gives the networks the chance to consider each case individually. The code will not relate to entertainment programming such as Big Brother, but will apply to shows where people could be induced into buying a product featured, such as The Block. Disclosure can be by way of on-screen sub-titles or appear in the end credits. The code is expected to be adopted early in the new year.

But what is product placement in Australian TV worth? The reality is, no one knows. Last week in the US, ratings provider Nielsen announced it would be adopting a system of measuring product placement for the first time as networks and advertisers demand to know what the real impact of their investment is. The system could be up and running in Australia within a year.

James Parkinson, investment and development director with media buyer Carat – which was responsible for Freedom's investment in The Block – says Nielsen's move recognises the importance of product placement in today's TV environment. "At the moment it is incremental and you don't change a $2 billion industry by buying a few incremental placements. But it's not about bludgeoning commercials into shows. There has to be value for the advertisers and the viewers."

.............................

To reiterate my basic theme in these posts:

We tend to want to believe we are not manipulated. We need to feel we are free agents acting with rational decisionmaking skills. We have a vested interest in denying the extent to which we are mindless pawns in multi-billion-dollar marketing strategies.

This doesn't help us much. In my opinion, we are like fish who are unaware of the water in which they are swimming and who do not question the wholly circumscribed nature of their existence within its container.

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Cynthetiq

Art, what'sgreat about the product placement stuff is that sometimes producers and directors forget about these crucial tie ins to keep their budgets in check or to even make them go into the black.

When I was working at the VH1 Studios we had a show where there was a computer on set. I had to make the monitor appear to be connected to the computer, but I also had to make sure that the engineering could be able to do what the director wanted to appear on the screen.

I convinced them to talk to Compaq to get them to "give" a computer system and a back up system for on set shooting, in exchange for prominient displaying of their logo, and a end credit, of "Computers provided by Compaq"

While they do this for the wardrobe department in making sure that the VJs and hosts look great and exchange clothes, they forget that they can do the same for furniture, computers, and other props.

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ARTelevision

Thanks, Cynthetiq.
It's always important to hear first-hand behind-the-scenes reports from the ranks of the mega-media corporate giants.

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Cynthetiq

I was just thinking about the masses and how we're hearing only mass produced music instead of jingles.

Jingles of course can be hit or miss, but I do recall that there was a time where the jingle was at least a familiar song but with changed lyrics, ala "I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair" became "I'm gonna wash that grey right outta my hairt" and the like

Recently we've been seeing EBAY commercials with songs as MY WAY, AMORE, and I forgot the middle commercial.

IMHO I find these more interesting than just using the Beatles, Revolution or Pink's Get the Party Started.

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Sho Nuff

Reading this thread and thinking about my reaction to media reminds be of the Infinity G45 "The muscle car with brains"

The slogan immediately appealed to me because it directly related to the image I associate myself with and portray to the public. The body of the car also has a blend of luxury/class with extended lean side panel as well as muscle car bravado with the bulked front end and accented hood.

By the end of the day when this ad first ran I had the G45 as the background on my computer at work and had all of the stats memorized. What eventually negated this ads effect on me was fiscal responsibility. Television and radio only exist because of advertising. Whatever show you like is only packaging for attempts to get your money. The effect of media is negated by fiscal responsibility.

Effective media identifies the aspects of your psyche closest to your ideal then positions itself as indispensable to that image. But all it takes to combat these images are fiscal responsibility and independent thought. We may be exposed to these images on a regular basis but even if the media is successful at making me desire an Infinity G45 they can't make me buy it.

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Sho Nuff

The human brain has the potential to actively process so much information but the majority of us of intellectual bums. We are so mentally lazy that our brains rapidly fall into disrepair. It is because everything is spoon-fed to us. Our media is so infantile that we often know the result of a movie before its even halfway over. Our sitcoms are the same shows over and over again often with the same punch lines. Even our jobs are often designed to be as routine as possible. There are standard operating procedures whenever possible. Very little original thought or detailed attention is required on a daily basis. We spend the VAST majority of our lives “going through the motions.” Most of us even read passively. Instead of pausing in the middle of reading to digest what we have read or mentally play with the story line and consider alternate developments or analyzing the writing style of the author we just allow ourselves to be lead, entertained or inundated with the authors interpretation of information or just his/her opinion. Even in intellectual conversation such as those on TFP most of just regurgitate the same opinions that we’ve held previously without even stopping to fully consider the point of others. I am guilty of all of these things. Most of our "knowledge" is reduced to the mindless repetition of what others have told us or what we decided long ago when we had less information or access to information. It is because we have allowed our brains to be so dummied down that we are so easily influenced by media.

The solution is to train ourselves to have a warriors mind. Pay attention to everything and maintain a constant focus. Next time you pump gas, analyze every motion. Cut down all unnecessary motions and make the process as fluid as possible. Pay attention to the mundane details in everything. When you are walking, remain completely aware of your body posture and notice everything that happens around you. Train your brain to constantly process every bit of information you encounter. Teach yourself to be sharp and analytical. Use your brain as much as possible. Seek perfection and focus in everything you do. Act, don’t react. Don’t go through the motions. Don't allow society to dummy you down and make you a good little consumer citizen.

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I know Nietzsche doesnt rhyme with peachy, but you sound like a pretentious prick when you correct me.

thingstodo

This is a good thread!! I've always been facinated with the subliminal.

It's only lately that I've really begun to understand that the real weakness is emotion. When we become emotionally engaged in something, we unleash a hidden powerhouse of passion. That's why some people do exceptionally well at jobs and others don't. Some fall into the perfect role and become emotionally engaged in what they are doing while others struggle to get up each morning.

Every purchase you make is done so with an emotional motivation. You want to look good, feel good or gain an advantage. And if you consider this fact, sex is one of the most powerful emotional connections. The only one possibly more powerful - because human nature is most responsive to avoidance of pain - is the avoidance of the negative. But if you want to lead people, toss out that positive emotional connection and people will follow - with serious buy-in of their own. And that is the perfect environment for motivation.

So I go back to my original point: the weakness is our need to fullfill an emotion.

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ARTelevision

It's always worthwhile to think about the millions of bucks that are weighting the choices we make in the marketplace - especially some of the choices we hold near and dear. Our very self-images are involved - and we take those very seriously indeed:

...........

Ford, Toyota set sights on hip hop crowd
GM steers clear: Ford concept 'has a lot of downtown Detroit in it'

Robert Thompson
Financial Post


Wednesday, January 07, 2004

TOYOTA'S SCION XB: The new model used guerrilla marketing and has created its own magazine about "a look at life at the intersection."


DETROIT - With a pumping sound system kicking out the latest beats and flashy models dressed totally in black, it is almost possible to overlook the European-looking cars spinning in the middle of the room.

But unlike many of the cars at the other booths at the Detroit auto show, Toyota Motor Corp.'s new Scion isn't being marketed to middle-aged men.

While its sporty features, European styling and ability to be customized makes it stand out from other cars at the crowded North American International Auto Show, the Scion is also unique as being one of the first automobiles in recent memory to be targeted at younger car buyers utilizing an urban marketing style.

From jeans to soft drinks, savvy marketers are borrowing from American urban culture to sell their wares to those in their early 20s. According to Business Week magazine, one-quarter of all discretionary spending in the U.S. today is influenced by hip-hop music.

Toyota is only the latest company to try and capitalize on the trend. As part of its campaign, Scion has used non-traditional marketing to try to attract a younger crowd. The company has rented night clubs and hired disc jockeys in order to entice potential buyers.

And while most car manufacturers hand out glitzy brochures with glamorous photos of their cars, Scion used guerrilla marketing and created its own magazine about "a look at life at the intersection."

While the car is not available in Canada, Toyota has sold 10,000 of the cars in California since they were first launched in June, 2003. "The product evokes a higher degree of emotion than other cars," says Brian Bolain, national marketing and promotions manager for Scion. "And we've been very successful in allowing personalization. We don't define the car -- we let you do that."

Part of the move by carmakers toward the hip-hop/urban market has happened organically, as celebrities found themselves drawn to certain vehicles. For example, Los Angeles Lakers' star Shaquille O'Neal can be found driving a Cadillac's Escalade with its 24-inch designer wheels, while Big Boi, of rap duo Outkast, prefers an even larger Hummer H2.

At the auto show yesterday, the biggest indicators of the trend toward urban culture could be seen in the so-called "tuners" exhibits where manufacturers displayed accessories that could be used to enhance the performance and look of many cars.

North American carmakers are still trying to find a way to hook into the urban crowd. J Mays, vice-president of design for Ford Motor Co., says that while his company has not created cars specifically for the hip hop crowd, the gritty urban feel inherent in many of Ford's cars means they have been a hit with those on the cutting edge. Mr. Mays points to Ford's 427 Concept, debuted at last year's auto show, as an example of a car that grew out of an urban setting. "It had a lot of downtown Detroit in it," he says. "You could imagine that hip hop crowd driving that car through downtown with smoke coming out of manhole covers or Joe Pesci driving the car with a body in the trunk. Is that actually going to happen? No, but it is a very appealing fantasy."

While General Motors Corp. has seen its Cadillacs and Escalade SUVs take off in California, Bob Lutz, the company's vice-chairman of design, says: "There is no point in creating youth cars because even if the car costs US$16,000, 18-year-old kids can't afford that," he says. "And 18-year-old kids don't want really goofy looking cars that say I'm young so I buy something crazy looking."

He says teenagers and those in their early 20s buy used cars because they are more affordable. With that in mind, Mr. Lutz says it makes little sense to use hip hop culture to market automobiles to the over-40 set.

"They are not going to go buy some crazy thing that is advertised with hip hop stuff," he says. Mr. Lutz points out that Honda Motor Co.'s Element, which was aimed at the twenty-something crowd, has actually largely been sold to traditional car buyers who are in their 40s.

"It is also so fast changing. By the time a trend finds its way into suburban culture, it has already moved on," says Mr. Lutz. "I don't think you can market your way into the cool culture. As we imagine from our teens, our most embarrassing moments were when we had our friends over and our parents tried to sound real cool."

Mr. Mays agrees, saying that design authenticity will create the sort of viral marketing that sells cars to a younger generation.

"I'm not suggesting we are going to start hanging out with hip hoppers and saying, 'Hey guys, we want to be part of your lives,'" he explained.

"I'm saying there is a certain urban toughness in the vehicles that we do that appeals to those people. I'm saying some of the values that are inherent in our vehicles -- like the Mustang -- will appeal to that crowd."

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dinkmun

Great Thread, Love it. When you control the "NORMS" of society you can manipulate the way people think and feal and in doing so you have a herd of sheeple that are cought in the head lights of a on coming CNN.

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powerclown

Pretty involved subjects here, interesting thread.

In my own efforts to comprehend, I'll share some of my thoughts. Im not saying I'm right or wrong, just emoting. Incidentally, I believe a lot of what Freud had to say about human behavior, in particular, that we are driven by unconscious motives. Not that we can't identify what these motives are, just that these things are what characterizes our behavior.

Ok, so you've got lots of people living together on the same piece of real estate. What to do about that? Should some of them live? How are they going to live? What are they going to wear? Will they be cold? Are they just going to scrape by on the bare minimum needed to sustain them? Will they be a little warm, barely warm, or very comfortably warm? They have to eat, too. So what do they eat? Do they feed themselves or are they fed? How do we feed all these people?

I guess what I'm saying is, how do we run a society? All these people with all these needs, what do we do with them? In this part of the world, its Democracy. We, this great mass of people living together and amongst eachother, first decide that out of this mass we need a little law and order. If we don't have law and order, we have lawlessness and disorder (this is where Freud comes in, for me anyway). Are you going to smash all your neighbors, horde all the food for yourself, enslave and rape the women you choose to, take a dump in the middle of the street like a beast (I've tried this in college once btw...)? Kill or torture those that anger you? Steal the food that your neighbor worked hard to get and feed to his family? Ok, so there's your reason for order.

Order. I think thats the long and the short of it. How to control, how to MANAGE (less sinister) a huge group of intelligent, bipedal mammals, homo sapiens.

The first thing you don't do is piss them off. You piss them off, and we've got a bloodbath. We've all seen what we are capable of doing to one another when we get pissed off. So, keep the order, keep things calm, orderly, make some rules that if they don't follow, they will somehow be punished for.

As far as what the media's role is in this, well I think it's a very, very powerful one. First of all, its mankind's most powerful bullhorn, so to speak. Its the way the message is communicated to the group. Ever see those wildlife movies where they show a large group of, say, zebras. They cover the savannah to the horizon. Here comes a lion or 10. Suddenly, one or two of the zebras spots the lion, and bolts, which triggers the rest of the group to do the same. The zebra method of mass communication. Our method of mass communication is the media.

And the media is not only concerned with promoting base survival. Once that is taken care of, it spreads out like the fingers of a river. Its like that one dude's hierarchy of needs chart. Once you can stop worrying about surviving, you have the luxury of thinking about satisfying the 'other things' that make up Freud's homo sapien. How you wanna 'be livin'. You wanna appear appealling to the opposite sex? Do you want to look fierce to the competition? Do you want comfy socks on your feet? Do you want your hair to shine? Do you want to travel to point A, way over there!!, as fast as possible? Comfortably? Stylishly? Maybe in a vehicle that would be able to crush anyone who got in the way? What are you going to eat? Hell, its being served to you, you might as well have a choice. Its not like its limited to only what you can catch yourself. So the media gives us our choices, communicates to us what is available to satisfy all our secondary needs, which are now 'wants', 'luxuries', etc..

So, in my opinion, you can call it 'media mind control', but that seems too ominous; I wouldn't give the media that much power, that much credit. As omnipresent as advertising is, its just a suggestion after all. Its like, "hey bud, i just got this thing in (whatever the advertising people are putting on tv)...you interested in it?" You can choose to ignore it. As fucking banal and useless the media can be, I try to see it as something perfectly natural, and in order with things. Naturally curious? (Freud says yes). Check out this bit of news! Check out whats happening OVER HERE!! You'll like it and come back for more, even!

Sorry so long...and again just sharing my POV. Great thread...

ARTelevision

Thanks to both of you for your thoughtful comments.

powerclown, I'd say we have a very deep need to believe we have the strength of will necessary to resist the most powerfully persuasive technology ever imposed upon the human mind. We can not accept we're nearly powerless against it.

I pretty much see this as our endless capacity for denial.

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Fly

...but ART..........if WE see this.....why don't more people try to stimey the fact that this is going on.

i see it .....you see it..........quite a few people in this thread see it........

why does it have to be a problem if we ignore it?

if we go about our lives as if "IT" weren't there....then things should eventually right themselves....no?


i'm not one to think that ignorance is bliss but,...........why even worry about it ,if it doesn't affect us,and we are aware of it,...... then........no need to let it be a concern right?

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SterlingStudios

ARTelevision

flyman - my opinion is that it affects us so deeply that we are virtually powerless against it. I do not trust our protestations to the contrary because they are suspiciously self-serving.

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~springrain

well said ART... and i agree... i however, wish i had your more positive, hopeful outlook on the situation...

lurkette

I don't know that admitting our powerlessness is a negative, hopless outlook (reverse engineering your statement above).

I guess I'd like to finesse the word "powerless" a bit. I'm not sure we're powerless; but I do think the power of "IT" (as ART calls IT - reminds me of the villain from A Wrinkle in Time - very fitting) is pervasive and there's no way to opt out. You could run away and be a hermit but your identity has still been formed within the system. You might be able to re-shape yourself over time and with absence from society, but what fun is that, isolating yourself for the sake of (purported) complete self-definition?

I think a more hopeful outlook starts with being aware of IT, and then asking how we can operate most powerfully within the parameters defined by IT's influence. The frustrating part is that there's no real "outside" of these parameters - for the most part, IT absorbs and co-opts any attempts to operate outside IT, and that, IMHO, is the only influence we have - shifting the discourse by making the system so uncomfortable that it has to expand itself or change directions in order to accommodate opposition.

I'd like to hear your explanation of the "virtually" (as in virtually powerless, but not completely, I'm assuming) in your sentence, ART.

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dinkmun

http://searchlores.org/realicra/sublimi.htm http://www.subliminalworld.org/full1.htm Here are a couple of links you might like.

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If you allways do, what you`ve allways done, you will allways get, what you`ve allways got.

ARTelevision

lurkette,
yes.
1 : almost entirely : NEARLY
2 : for all practical purposes

What's apparent to me is we do have an ability to be aware of it. It's not clear to me that it is possible for a human being to actually overcome his or her cultural context.
As "social beings" our identities are, in very essential ways, social constructs.

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ARTelevision

dinkmun, thanks.
they are also on this list I put together:

mass media mind control

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Cynthetiq

I just got out of a meeting that the adsales manager told us that Honda had pulled all of it's advertising at the start of the Iraqi war. The only recently started advertising again on our channels.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.