Anti-Advertising Agency.com wants you to understand this -

“New York City is a READ-ONLY City”

“You’re free to read advertising, business signs, and city signs. But dare you write or hang anything of your own; you will be labeled as a criminal - a graffiti vandal….If you happen to have several thousand dollars, you might be able to say what you want - as long as it’s not too political.”

The MTA hopes to bring in an additional 20 million dollars in ad revenue by selling the space on the outside of subway cars through Titan Outdoor Media Agency.  When I returned from France last year I was appalled to see the new ads. When I enter the subway, it’s my moment to myself - away from work and friends and street hawkers. I don’t want to be shouted at by prophesiers, I don’t want people to beg me for money because they just got out of the hospital (and didn’t you just get out the hospital last month and the month before that?) and I don’t want my senses overloaded by public space clutter. [Read more →]

Our entire media model is beholden to advertising. Commercials pay for network television, building billboards give extra dollars to greedy real estate developers and subway ads will give New York’s MTA transit system $125 million dollars this year. (and we all know what they’ll do with THAT………………………….oh wait….no, we don’t)
I say - those ads might as well be pretty damn funny.

MSNBC has a new blog called Ads of the Weird where you can see the funniest, dumbest, most useless commercials out there and comment on them- like this one from Boost Mobile:

“Boost Gets (armpit hair) in your face”

Study claims that Crime Dramas make you eat and shop more.

An article on MSNBC puts forward a claim that our favorite crime dramas make us more willing to lay down money for goods. Its an interesting theory. In today’s society many of us seem to use purchases as a “pick me up” or sweet snacks as indulgences and rewards for a rough day at work. But are we really so influenced by the images on TV that it makes us run for the store or fridge.

“We found that when people think about the fact that they’re going to die someday — not now, but someday — they want to consume more of everything,” says Naomi Mandel, co-author of the study

While the study explores the theory and takes Television itself out of the equation I can’t help but feel a little bit like they are putting the cart before the horse. Like my avid defense of Diet soda ( I <3 Diet Pepsi) in the face of those accusations that “Diet Soda makes you fat” I always contend that “No if you are Fat you are more likely to drink Diet soda!”. I feel theories like this while grounded in reality tend to look at things in a vacuum that does not exist in reality.

One if you are a Crime time TV fan you end up watching tons of commercials meant to get you to buy things. I’d like to see this study examine fans of the Sopranos and The Wire shows which are just as graphic (if not More so) but have no advertising running in the show.

Also if you think about the average couch potato, aren’t you more likely to go snack if you are watching a marathon of your favorite show, where its CSI; Miami or Extreme Home Make Over? I’d love further examination of this theory in regards to other types of shows. Does America’s Next Top Model make you want to buy make up, or become bulimic? What happens when you watch too many Seinfeld reruns?

“Consumers, especially those with a lower self-esteem, may be more susceptible to overconsumption when confronted with images of death during the news or their favorite crime scene investigation shows,” Mandel concludes in her study. “

I do believe that this is somehow true. That when faced with mortality and death our society doesn’t really have an outlet to express concerns and fears for these things, so we do as we have been trained “consume, and you will feel better” There is comfort in food, new shoes, new sheets, new cell phone, and new 46 inch Plasma HDTV* which will make your favorite crime dramas even MORE Graphic!!

*Santa, that last one is on my list

The rest of the article is linked here

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26513442/

I was reading my favorite hometown newspaper South Coast Today (Massachusetts!) and saw a story about the Starbucks in our lovely, little Dartmouth mall CLOSING down!

Starbucks, closing? Say what?

I have to say, when Starbucks first appeared in town, everyone ho-humphed - “How Yuppy! How Crazy!…we’re a Dunkin’ Dougnuts town through and through.” And of course, I often have a crunchy attitude towards Starbucks - too “chainy”, too capitalist, too “take over the world”. I generally seek out the independant cafe’s. I even found one “Paradise Cafe” on 8th Ave and 15th street in Manhattan which proudly boasts - “We sell - small, mediums and larges…if you use Starbucks terminology, we’ll charge you Starbucks prices.”

But in fact, according to Brian Boyd, Starbucks is closing 600 stores nationwide. That’s 600 stores full of part-time workers in need of extra cash and basic insurance and 600 stores full of over-zealous teenagers in need of some lessons in espresso-making and responsibility.

Just think of the effect on the khaki-pants industry!?

Seriously, I like those iced-coffees. I love those little golden-puffy madeleine cookes they place ominously by the register. I love that pound cake made solely with butter, sugar and flour. And they often used fair-trade coffee and lanced new albums from old musicians back into the milieu.

I hear that in addition to closing stores, Starbucks will be rethinking its image - shorter machines so the customers can see the workers, less choices for less stress at the cashier, and comfier chairs. Perhaps Starbucks is just one more story of a good idea gone too far into consumerism.

Starbucks closing - good news? I dunno?!