Criticizing advertising - Prison (Globe and Mail Ultimate Home Makeover)
I've been wanting to create a place for critizing advertising, so for the next few months this is going to be that place. I'm not interested in the moral-high-ground type of criticism, as important as that may be, but in criticism that sees the critical meanings underneath the obvious messages, in TV ads in particular.
To get things started: Some of you will be familiar with my text, Prison, presented at the Banff Centre last May. Well check this out; seems I'm not the only one who thinks the middle class is a form of prison, or that prison-culture is the reality of the future. And we thought debtors prison was a thing of the past.
Globe and Mail newspaper, Ulimate Home Makeover, February, 2007
the above TV spot is online here.
There are three TV spots all together in this series, accessible from here.
other resources:
Dr. Christopher Johnson's insightful criticism of corporate names:
TheNameInspector.co blog
about it
The kind of criticism my posts won't be like:
Suicide prevention group protests Superbowl ad.
The ad they are protesting and where you can also view and rate other Superbowl ads — about the ad: a poignant reflection on the current grim conditions of work (we are robots) and how self-esteem is wrapped up in employment (lose your job and you're going to want to commit suicide) and what motivates people (your daydream of failure, ending in suicide will drive you to become a perfectionist). As if that were not enough, the anthropomorphising of the robot, which is given an imagination (tries to find other work) and emotions (experiences despair), reflects something very creepy about technology.
defenders of advertising, essay
advertising and social values, esssay
To get things started: Some of you will be familiar with my text, Prison, presented at the Banff Centre last May. Well check this out; seems I'm not the only one who thinks the middle class is a form of prison, or that prison-culture is the reality of the future. And we thought debtors prison was a thing of the past.
Globe and Mail newspaper, Ulimate Home Makeover, February, 2007
the above TV spot is online here.
There are three TV spots all together in this series, accessible from here.
other resources:
Dr. Christopher Johnson's insightful criticism of corporate names:
TheNameInspector.co blog
about it
The kind of criticism my posts won't be like:
Suicide prevention group protests Superbowl ad.
The ad they are protesting and where you can also view and rate other Superbowl ads — about the ad: a poignant reflection on the current grim conditions of work (we are robots) and how self-esteem is wrapped up in employment (lose your job and you're going to want to commit suicide) and what motivates people (your daydream of failure, ending in suicide will drive you to become a perfectionist). As if that were not enough, the anthropomorphising of the robot, which is given an imagination (tries to find other work) and emotions (experiences despair), reflects something very creepy about technology.
defenders of advertising, essay
advertising and social values, esssay
Labels: advertising criticism
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