December 26, 2005, Is nothing sacred (as if you didn't know the answer)
Happy Boxing Day, and welcome to the official national secular celebration of the day of birth of the Lord and Savior (and The One True God TM). (Oh... it's also been one year since that tsunami, but it's not as if that happened in your neighborhood...)
As part of your ongoing present, we give you this WaPo article discussing the co-option of street art (which we used to call "graffiti") by good old corporate America to sell their wares.
You see, today's target demographic, the young, edgy urban male is too busy playing Grand Theft Auto to do his fair share of shopping. Hence, in order to reach a consumer ever better at tuning out the crap that Madison Avenue is trying to pump into his (its usually a "his", but I'm sure there are plenty of "hers" too) head, creative measures are in the offing, such as the apparent defacing of buildings and sidewalks actually being paid ads.
The article notes some occasional absurdities, such as an actual "graffiti artist" (who, again, we used to call a "vandal") trying to deface an "ad" in Chicago and being arrested for it. Unclear, of course, as to whether he was improving it, or worsening it. Doesn't matter, though.
Given advertisements over urinals in men's room, in movie trailers, on cereal boxes, on taxi cabs, on the internet (though thankfully not on your favorite blog the talking dog because, well, there just aren't enough of you reading to get an advertiser's attention... thank The One True God TM for some small favors)... one realizes that finding untaken ad space becomes more of a challenge for today's aggressive and abusive businessman. Hence, what had been perceived as "someone's private property," or better, public property, becomes the perfect canvas for the art of subliminal commercial persuasion.
I don't know... has someone said something about all this before...?
Comments
"Oh... it's also been one year since that tsunami, but it's not as if that happened in your neighborhood..."
Umm - yes it did. At least it happened in my old neighborhood. Where I still have friends, although 1 fewer than I had one year and a day ago.
Happy Boxing Day.
Posted by Kathy K at December 26, 2005 5:52 PM