STREET DOGS: Beware commercial advertising
Ogden Nash: I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree
I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I’ll never see a tree at all. — Ogden Nash The stock photograph of a smiling couple was meant, presumably, to bring comfort to the viewer. If the faux couple being paid to grin while staring slightly off to the right could be happy, so could you. — Mandy Ashcraft It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase. — David Foster Wallace Commercial advertising is fundamentally an effort to undermine markets. We should recognise that. If you’ve taken an economics course, you know that markets are supposed to be based on informed consumers making rational choices. You take a look at the first ad you see on television and ask yourself … is that its purpose? No, it’s not. It’s to create uninformed consumers making irrational choices. — Noam Chomsky Unlike other major social institutions like education and religion, advertising has a nearly complete lack of insti...
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