Ad Nauseum, Twitter Changes World, Merchants of Cool

Ad Nauseum 5 & 6
Three things I learned from Ad Nauseum, Parts 5 & 6:
1.Advertisers are desperate to try anything to win over consumers, as illustrated through various attempts at subliminal advertising.
2.Company mascots are designed to be “cute and comforting” simply to help sell products that they have nothing to do with.
3.Pranks can lighten the mood from the depressing outlook of advertising and corporate, consumer culture.

Part 5: My question is how can marketers actually believe they “give the people what they want” when all their efforts are put towards manipulating people into buying their products?

Part 6: My question is, pranks may be fun and cause some change, but how do we really change things?

“How Twitter Will Change the World”
Steven Johnson’s thesis: Twitter is a useful tool, allowing open conversations, real-time information, and inspiring innovation.

I agree with Johnson that open conversations through Twitter could improve previously internal discussions. Solving difficult problems can be made much easier drawing from a large variety of people with varying perspectives for input. I also agree that it has a great use in providing immediate information, especially in times of turmoil, such as in Iran and Haiti, to inform the world.

I disagree with Johnson’s minimizing of the distraction factor of Twitter. Though it may have some uses, it seems it’s most often for celebrity stalking and meaningless tweets, adding to the world’s fascination with staring at a screen.

I also disagree with the portrayal of the intimacy of Twitter as positive, when in many ways it is just misleading and creepy; believing you know someone well without ever needing to meet them or even identify yourself to them.

I am not currently using Twitter. I wasn't very interested in it and what I knew about it seemed to show it as a waste of time. After reading Johnson’s article, however, I think I’ll give it a try, mostly because I’ve become curious about it and want to glimpse its potential for myself.

Merchants of Cool
1.Culture spies are out cool hunting, trying to find the trend setters so they can sell the next new thing, allowing the teen-media connection to be a feedback loop of imitation.
2.Marketers study teens anthropologically to get their parents guilt money and give them what marketers want them to have. They even have their peers do the dirty work to better connect with the market.
3.Teen rebellion is just another product marketed and sponsored by the conglomerate media companies. Your parents and teachers are dumb, but the corporation understands you.
4.Marketers create terrible role models through the child-like “mook” and image obsessed “midriff” as well as television obsessed with sex and violence.
5.Cultural expression has just evolved into consumption and a reflection of corporate messages.