Sunday, March 03, 2013

IGNORE ALL ADVERTISING.


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.