Daniel Rigney
- Location
- New Texas, USA
- Birthday
- August 01
- Title
- free-range writer
- Bio
- In this writing workshop and citizen's
blog I'm exploring various short forms, often from a satiric angle. My
interests include politics, culture and the human comedy; old and new
media; social theory and urban life; the commercialization,
corporatization and tabloidization of everything; sustainability;
Unitarianism (UU); coffee; and writing (sorry, I mean providing
content). Turtle stamp is from Tandy Leather.
Interested in republishing a piece? Contact drigney3@gmail.com.
MY RECENT POSTS
- Dispatch from Houston: Jill
Stein and the Green New Deal
February 24, 2015 05:15PM - Introducing the Tangible
Hologram
February 19, 2015 11:59PM - Introducing the iMaster
February 09, 2015 11:22AM - Human Error
February 06, 2015 04:13PM - Suburban Studies
January 25, 2015 03:32PM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “The mayor of Los Angeles
replied that he doesn't want
to
appear rude, but De
Blas…”
March 10, 2015 01:11AM - “I've just seen the video
of the OU frat chant. Its even
seems
to include a
refere…”
March 09, 2015 06:42PM - “I note with interest
that the less hawkish
alternative to the
right-wing
Likud Pa…”
March 09, 2015 06:29PM - “I love that picture of
Hillary at the top. Was
that
photoshopped, or is she
just…”
March 09, 2015 06:10PM - “"Don't Stop Thinking
About Tomorrow" -- Fleetwood
Mac. Oh,
wait. You
re…”
March 09, 2015 06:07PM
Daniel Rigney's Links
- MY LINKS
- The Metaphorical Society
- Matthew Effects
AUGUST 26, 2014 4:06PM
How Advertising Makes America Grate
By Daniel Rigney
Ben’s Conjecture (proposed by our younger son) holds that if current trends continue, every square inch of the earth’s land surface will be covered in advertising by the year 2100.
The corollary is that each additional gigameme of advertising will result in two additional megaunits of aggregate human annoyance. In short, advertisers will continue to make the world grate.
These trends are perhaps most evident in the United States, home of the Mad Men. But my limited travels abroad convince me that the ad nauseum virus has spread to other countries and continents as well, and is fast reaching epidemic proportions on a truly global scale.
Have you been infected by the ad nauseum virus? How many of the following symptoms do you recognize in your own daily life?
Check all that apply.
_____ Popup ads, and especially popups on top of popups on top of popups. Are these turning your screen life into a video game whose object is to click your way to the screen you actually came to see?
_____ Product placements in movies and television shows. Some movies now manage to sneak silent brand-name product messages into nearly every scene. (Good moms and dads apparently now serve their kids sugar cereal and caffeine cola for breakfast.) The more you notice these subliminal ads, the less you’ll enjoy the movie you paid to see. Try not to notice them from now on.
_____ Movie Previews. Enough is enough. Our local multiplex is now showing nearly 20 minutes of movie previews before the main feature. Who should be paying whom to watch these?
_____ Courtesy calls. These jangling intrusions interrupt whatever you’re doing to let you know you’ve been selected to receive an opportunity to send someone money.
_____ Unfunny comedy ads. We have nothing against laughter, but if they’re trying to sell us a product with humor, it should be humorous humor. (I'm looking at you, talking animals.) And even the most amusing ad won't be as funny the twentieth time we see it.
_____ Restroom advertising. Gentlemen, have you stepped up to a urinal recently and noticed an ad posted right in front of your face? What’s next? Commercial loops running on screens inside the stalls?
_____ Unwanted clothing logos. It’s one thing if you really want to become a walking ad by sporting corporate logo-wear. (Look, I’m wearing Polo by Ralph Lauren! See, my Victoria's Secret bottom says PINK!) And I know that some of us like to wear corporate logos ironically (like the hipster in the John Deere cap who’s never been within a mile of a tractor). But shouldn’t these iconettes be easily removable for the benefit of those whose souls have not yet been consumed by consumerism?
_____ Billboards are usually eyesores. They diminish the aesthetic quality of our driving lives. The rare exception is the billboard that actually informs or entertains without distracting us from the road ahead. We’ll wait while you try to think of a real example.
_____ Disguised advertising includes not just product placements, but infotainment programs, magazines made entirely of puff pieces and ads, late night talk shows in which an endless train of synthetic celebrities “move product,” and entire sections of newspapers (real estate, automotive) that pretend to be something other than sales promotions.
_____ Volume, Volume, Volume! Commercials and movie previews that are louder than the show itself should come pre-muted. Sometimes they’re more effective when watched in silence than when they’re blaring. Will someone in the ad biz please get John Cagey and go minimalist for a change? Thanks.
_____ Stadium Naming. Now that sports are thoroughly corporatized, and most stadium naming rights have been sold to the highest bidder, is it just a matter of time before Yankee Stadium becomes Goldman Sachs Field, and Fenway is rechristened Amway? (Wrigley, thankfully, will forever be named for a traditional, historically significant chewing gum.)
For temporary relief from any or all of these symptoms, some may choose to withdraw entirely from modern communications media. More practically, most may simply learn to accept pervasive advertising passively, as an immoveable fact of modern life. Passivity won’t stop the epidemic, but it will numb us to it. If we don't notice it consciously, maybe it isn't shaping our minds.
A few of us will go on hoping that resistance is not futile and continue to practice critical watching. We'll see ads for what they are: cynically calculated attempts to manipulate audiences by exaggerating positives, concealing negatives, and injecting corporate messaging into every tissue of our brains.
Someday, technologists may discover ways to insert ads into our dreams at night. Then even our interior screens will be pimping products, and Ben’s Conjecture will have reached full saturation and perfect commercial fulfillment. But until that day comes, for some of us at least, the omnipresence of advertising will continue to make America grate.
Danagram
Disclosure: This blog post was brought to you courtesy of Salon.com, the thinking person’s Daily Beast.
Ben’s Conjecture (proposed by our younger son) holds that if current trends continue, every square inch of the earth’s land surface will be covered in advertising by the year 2100.
The corollary is that each additional gigameme of advertising will result in two additional megaunits of aggregate human annoyance. In short, advertisers will continue to make the world grate.
These trends are perhaps most evident in the United States, home of the Mad Men. But my limited travels abroad convince me that the ad nauseum virus has spread to other countries and continents as well, and is fast reaching epidemic proportions on a truly global scale.
Have you been infected by the ad nauseum virus? How many of the following symptoms do you recognize in your own daily life?
Check all that apply.
_____ Popup ads, and especially popups on top of popups on top of popups. Are these turning your screen life into a video game whose object is to click your way to the screen you actually came to see?
_____ Product placements in movies and television shows. Some movies now manage to sneak silent brand-name product messages into nearly every scene. (Good moms and dads apparently now serve their kids sugar cereal and caffeine cola for breakfast.) The more you notice these subliminal ads, the less you’ll enjoy the movie you paid to see. Try not to notice them from now on.
_____ Movie Previews. Enough is enough. Our local multiplex is now showing nearly 20 minutes of movie previews before the main feature. Who should be paying whom to watch these?
_____ Courtesy calls. These jangling intrusions interrupt whatever you’re doing to let you know you’ve been selected to receive an opportunity to send someone money.
_____ Unfunny comedy ads. We have nothing against laughter, but if they’re trying to sell us a product with humor, it should be humorous humor. (I'm looking at you, talking animals.) And even the most amusing ad won't be as funny the twentieth time we see it.
_____ Restroom advertising. Gentlemen, have you stepped up to a urinal recently and noticed an ad posted right in front of your face? What’s next? Commercial loops running on screens inside the stalls?
_____ Unwanted clothing logos. It’s one thing if you really want to become a walking ad by sporting corporate logo-wear. (Look, I’m wearing Polo by Ralph Lauren! See, my Victoria's Secret bottom says PINK!) And I know that some of us like to wear corporate logos ironically (like the hipster in the John Deere cap who’s never been within a mile of a tractor). But shouldn’t these iconettes be easily removable for the benefit of those whose souls have not yet been consumed by consumerism?
_____ Billboards are usually eyesores. They diminish the aesthetic quality of our driving lives. The rare exception is the billboard that actually informs or entertains without distracting us from the road ahead. We’ll wait while you try to think of a real example.
_____ Disguised advertising includes not just product placements, but infotainment programs, magazines made entirely of puff pieces and ads, late night talk shows in which an endless train of synthetic celebrities “move product,” and entire sections of newspapers (real estate, automotive) that pretend to be something other than sales promotions.
_____ Volume, Volume, Volume! Commercials and movie previews that are louder than the show itself should come pre-muted. Sometimes they’re more effective when watched in silence than when they’re blaring. Will someone in the ad biz please get John Cagey and go minimalist for a change? Thanks.
_____ Stadium Naming. Now that sports are thoroughly corporatized, and most stadium naming rights have been sold to the highest bidder, is it just a matter of time before Yankee Stadium becomes Goldman Sachs Field, and Fenway is rechristened Amway? (Wrigley, thankfully, will forever be named for a traditional, historically significant chewing gum.)
For temporary relief from any or all of these symptoms, some may choose to withdraw entirely from modern communications media. More practically, most may simply learn to accept pervasive advertising passively, as an immoveable fact of modern life. Passivity won’t stop the epidemic, but it will numb us to it. If we don't notice it consciously, maybe it isn't shaping our minds.
A few of us will go on hoping that resistance is not futile and continue to practice critical watching. We'll see ads for what they are: cynically calculated attempts to manipulate audiences by exaggerating positives, concealing negatives, and injecting corporate messaging into every tissue of our brains.
Someday, technologists may discover ways to insert ads into our dreams at night. Then even our interior screens will be pimping products, and Ben’s Conjecture will have reached full saturation and perfect commercial fulfillment. But until that day comes, for some of us at least, the omnipresence of advertising will continue to make America grate.
Danagram
Disclosure: This blog post was brought to you courtesy of Salon.com, the thinking person’s Daily Beast.
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