Advertising has got to be one of the
most egregiously evil ideas in the history of humankind, and
somewhere down there on an ethical level with fascism and pedophilia.
Advertising spreads itself like a
fungal infection across urban landscapes, freeways, TV shows, radio
broadcasts and mailboxes. People in the advertising industry are
insatiably money hungry leeches upon the skin of society. If they
could get paid to completely cover every wall, pavement, vehicle,
tree trunk, leaf, article of clothing, rock and animal carcass with
some sort of cheesy ad or another, which would be trying to sell
useless, stupid shit to the public, then they would jump at the
opportunity in a heartbeat.
The most revolutionary way to rebel
against advertising is to simply ignore it. Sure, I look at an ad
insert once in a blue moon, but for the most part, my shopping habits
are controlled simply by walking into a store and checking out what's
available. Occasionally I will use store discount "club" cards, but at least
I can select among items that I always buy all the time. I'm a
creature of habit and pretty much know what I like at this point in
life by now. I loathe even the contemplation of using coupons,
especially since they tend to be insignificant discounts on a bunch
of useless shit that I would never normally buy. To top it off,
newspaper and mass mailing manufacturers' coupons usually are for
heavily media-advertised items anyway.
The challenge for most people who are
unable to ignore advertising, from what I can gather, is rooted in
the same self-imposed repression of critical thinking which is caused
by an amplified struggle to work and earn a living, combined with the
nonstop attempts to brainwash folks into buying things that they
don't really need (or even want that much, in many cases) with
credit, a.k.a. money that they don't really have available to spend. There may be a bigger picture to contemplate here. Perhaps the true
challenge lies in the individual to grow accustomed to trust in his
or her own opinion, innate intelligence, and personal sense of
judgment.
If advertising has succeeded in anything re: an ability to
impact and influence the modern world, it has worked wonders in its
ability to instill self-doubt, low self esteem and bourgeois
materialism in its targeted denizens.
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