Saturday, January 07, 2006

On Advertising and the Media


According to Martin Avis, publisher of the e-zine KickStart Daily,
"By the time the average Western person has reached the age of twenty, they will have been exposed to over one million television commercials."
Jeez, I wonder how it is we in the West have this problem with materialism?
"Whoever controls the media - the images - controls the culture."
-- Allen Ginsberg
Do we have a new ally that might allow us to change this dynamic? Or rather, to help turn it in "our" favor. Via the web. Can we take back control of the media, and the message? That is, can we influence the "culture"?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just be careful. The media are the folks that fuel the furnace of the companies that are going to fund your retirement. Besides, that bllboard made a cool photo!

Steven Crisp said...

Grasshopper,

I think that is part of our problem -- sand castles on the shore, or a house of cards. And as such we have in the back of our minds a latent fear that the music will stop and we won't have a seat (to mix too many metaphors).

It goes a little with Right Livelihood. It must be based on a firm foundation -- one that respects all of life, and does not exploit others for our own gain. Deep inside, don't you agree?