[ExI] Big Media is turning into Big Brother

[William Flynn Wallace]

Product placement started long ago (though I have no data).  Marketing
through films and TV started there.  Even though a lot of us fast forward
through commercials, I can still tell what they are advertising (and to my
knowledge I have never bought anything advertised in films, TV, etc.).  It
seems highly likely that a company wants the shows it pays for to do
something for its bottom line.  There must be pressure from them on the
writers and producers of the game shows, dramas, comedies and so on to
include some references to their products if at all possible.  You won't
see pantyhose references on Monday Night Football - you will see beer, fast
cars, etc.

Well, they are paying for it.  What's wrong with it?  It is just
advertising, though many people may not be aware of it.  Are people duped
into buying stuff they don't need, want, can afford, and so on?  Are they
being manipulated?  Every second of every day.   We have a Consumer
Protection Agency but you cannot protect fools.

This reminds me of the flap in the 50s about subliminal advertising, which
never did prove to work.

I simply don't see anything sinister here, though many of them might be
left-handed.

Oxymoron - marketing ethics

bill w


On Tue, Nov 9, 2021 at 8:55 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> ...> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat
> Cc: BillK <pharos at gmail.com>
> ...
>
> >...‘We just want to nudge you towards cleaner, healthier ways of living’
> sounds better than ‘We want to re-engineer your thoughts and habits to
> bring them into line with what we consider to be correct moral
> behaviour’....
> ------------
>
> >...Remember - Big Brother knows best what is good for you!
>
> BillK
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> BillK, is this just now coming to Britain?  We have been doing that in the
> colonies since always.  The popular press mostly instigated the war which
> broke us away from Britain to start with.  Our current cultural civil war
> is being fueled by the popular press.  Freedom of the press means that
> cannot be stopped.
>
> Regarding Big Brother, I was thinking about something on which you might
> have insights.  George Orwell was a British guy who wrote his most
> important work in the late 40s.  By that time, he would perhaps recognize
> that the biggest audience was in the states.  The USA is really tuned into
> the notion of growing government power and influence, which is why the
> constitution is written the way it is.  70 years later, Orwell novels are
> literature classics, being studied in American high schools to this day
> (thank you, may your memory live forever St. George.)
>
> BillK, or anyone else, do you suppose Orwell himself realized he was
> writing novels specifically to appeal to Americans?  If so, it worked.
>
> spike
>
>
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>
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