As is everybody. I don’t watch TV very attentively. But it’s still there and a loving God in His infinite wisdom and mercy somehow neglected to give me earlids, so I can’t insulate myself from it and still remain in modern society. Who in the world now has not seen that lizard representation of an insurance company? Just for instance. They’re branding us. and that’s their exact word for it. When I was a kid branding was usually an exclusive term about livestock. Branding a calf is your way of declaring ownership.
My short time working at an advertising company, just doing the trained monkey work, like putting cans of soda on doors in the midst of the Cola Wars of the 1980s (we had a contract with a very large conglomerate which among other other things involved a streetcorner table exhibit with cans of two competing brands of soda called “Take the BLEEEP Challenge”) changed my perspective away from Madison avenue which I never saw and Wall Street which I also never saw…
See, that soda pop promotion was the one time in the company’s history in which the workers were required to wear advertising.
And the rest of the time we were forbidden. Concert Tee Shirt? Sports Team Logo? Unpaid advertising. The company was PAID to advertise, right down to those of us who put grocery store weekly ads on doors.
You might love the team or band a whole lot, but the fact is that shirt is YOU paying THEM to work for them in their advertising campaign. In most jobs it’s the other way around, you get paid for your work. Even in sub-minimum wage contract work. How about a national or local Don’t Work For Free Day, wherein each participant refuses to wear advertising (and yeah, that includes shirts and pants with a tag or even a large print of the manufacturers name on them).
Take it further, don’t talk about your favorite band or TV show or sports team (which is really revenue generating entertainment, not an actual contest of skill) or supporting the Army or any other Corporate Government entity. Try, for just one day.
Fat chance any corporate information (buy our products) medium or media will let anybody know it’s happening. (buy our products damn it)
This is an example of the struggle of actual social activism, writ small.
So the seeds are planted. Let’s see if anything grows, other than the corporate weeds.
