catapult magazine

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Media

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mwooten
Jan 17 2003
12:52 pm

Thanks for the good questions. I read Culture Jam a few years ago and found it very helpful as well. hmmm, lets see where to start. How about some concerns…

While I think that the American media/adv machine is very very powerful, I don’t believe that it is the impossible demon that we sometimes make it out to be. Instead, perhaps it is more like the wizard in the Wizard of Oz…once the cutain parts you realize that it is really a sad, spin doctor. At times I think we incorrectly percieve adv as being a force that creates desire. And while this is certainly true at many levels, especially with certain segments of our society, I think that it would be more helpful to view adv/media as a cannibal of sorts. And I think that it is just as hungry as the rest of us for something new. In many ways it seems as if this cannibal does little creating and more exploiting. I see it as being just as desperate for new ideas and trends as the average high schooler. My perception is that it watches us closely and then, when finding something new, it takes it, spins it, puts make up on it, and then sells it, and then it sells it again and then continues until it has fully consumed what was percieved as new. I find that there is very little new out there but much recycling being done. And so, my concern is not with the over powerful adv/media machine but instead with the lack of creativity that we have. There are few places on earth that allow for the sort of freedom that we enjoy in the West but instead of creating we have allowed ourselves to be bought. For a price, you too can look, think, act, and smell like everyone else that you interact with.

And so, yes, lets part the curtain on the wizard, but we are the mindless cosumers And if we are captive, it is only because we have allowed ourselves to be by our lack of creativity and passion.

Media/adv doesn’t create it follows.