Kalle Lasn’s book Culture Jam takes a different approach of the norm and discuses the other side of America culture that we don’t hear about. He goes on to talk about how media directly impacts the American citizens on their thoughts, fashions and actions. On page 12 it states that “the commercial mass media are rearranging our neurons, manipulating our emotions, and making powerful new connections between deep immaterial needs and material products”. This goes on to show how something that you may think is harmless such as the media is actually taking over your thoughts and personality. A example of this that I thought was very interesting was on page 18 were he goes on to say that because we see violence on TV and we are so use to seeing it, that it makes us feel like violence is going to strike you throughout your daily life. He then goes on to talk about the true America being bought out by advertisements and logos. You cannot go anywhere without seeing advertisements such as in bathrooms, on gas pumps, billboards and etc. We are being brainwashed by advertisements every day you see 3,000 marketing messages. This advertising makes you feel like you need the latest products out there in order to fit in but really this is just the marketing companies brainwashing you from always seeing the newest products. This made me think of the Apple Iphone commercials how it makes you feel like if you don’t have an Iphone you are out of date and left behind from others who have one. Link to Iphone Commercial. The quote on page 24 “ads stretch the truth, news bites gives only part of the story, and the White House press releases are carefully tailored to make the president look good”. This really made me think more about how most people feel like they get the full story from the news but really most of the time it’s only the half that the media wants you to hear about. And you get even less of the story when the media is not diverse. This happens when big media businesses take over a big area and wipe out the smaller ones making the news only source of news for this area. However, so far from reading Culture Jam it has made me society in a whole different way.
I completely agree with you. The commerical clearly stats that you are out of the "loop" without the latest technology. Also media does influence are thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many companies that are pretty much fighting other companies through commercials.
ReplyDeleteYou see a Verizon commercial slam an AT&T commercial, then you see AT&T slam Verizon. It even happens with food companies. I just saw a Pizza Roll commercial make fun of a Hot Pocket.
I think it is wrong how ads will hide the bad and glorify the good for what they are advertising just like Lasn said on page 24. Especially when it comes to the president and our country. We can only understand something if we know both sides of the story and its wrong if the government only gives us their side just to increase national pride and trust. I also do not like medicine ads for the same reasons. They say all the good things but at the end of the commercial they say a whole bunch of negative things about it. Who would want to buy something that will cause more damage than good?
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