I, Consumer? | Truthout

It will take ex­pert sleuth­ing to un­earth the mys­te­ry of when ex­act­ly peo­ple were no more, when their whole­ness and com­plex­ity were dis­car­ded to be re­placed by mere con­sump­tion. Who can an­sw­er how it hap­pened? Who can ex­plain what it means, will mean for the form­er peo­ple’s fu­tures?

This is a really good article in the same vein as Naomi Klein’s No Logo or Benjamin Barber’s Consumed. Sadly, this is the same thinking that would have human beings as consumers and corporations as people with all the rights and protections a person in our republic would be afforded. Yes, we are more than just consumers or taxpayers or the many other classificatons we may fall under. At least for me until the Singularity is real and I can become a machine or an online consciousness of some kind I am just a human.

The Eyes Have It: P&G Explores Eye Tracking

Traditional web tracking techniques provide data on clicking and scrolling patterns, while eye tracking analyzes user interaction, i.e., what’s literally most eye-catching, in between the clicks, as well as what’s confusing or ignored altogether.

Philip K. Dick’s world becomes a reality somewhat. The neuro-scanning was bad enough now this. I’ll make sure to avert my gaze more.

This Book Brought to You by… — Commercial Alert

As publishers look to incorporate more advertising in books, Mr. Hurt, a journalist and longtime fixture in Manhattan and East End social circles, has beat them to it. His e-book, to be released May 3, is among the first to feature both advertising accompanying each chapter and significant product placement woven throughout its narrative.

When I buy a book I really do not expect to have to view ads as I turn the page whether it is a traditional book or the digital version. I don’t really read fiction and it would seem that these ads would most likely appear in fiction books for now. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t do this to non-fiction books as well.

Behold fairytales don’t really come true but nightmares oh, my child they are all too real. Your little girls are being exploited.

Disney princess narratives have long been a staple of modern girlhood. But Cinderella Ate My Daughter emphasizes that princess culture is a 21st-century phenomenon, the result of marketing executives seeking some consumer magic to boost the corporation’s limp product sales. In 2001, the revenue generated by such Disney-branded princess paraphernalia as dolls, costumes, and room decor was about $300 million. Eight years later, that number had risen to a whopping $4 billion. Little girls are no longer consumers of Disneyfied fairy tales; in the new millennium, they have become the consumed.

It is only going to get worse.

That situation has placed huge pressure on advertisers to get their products in front of viewers’ eyeballs in more subtle ways. American Idol judges now sit with Coke in front of them. Car chases have the hero driving certain makes of vehicle. Actors wear clothes from particular fashion labels. Key scenes take place in well-known coffee stores.

People aren’t watching television commercials so now marketers are aiming to get all of their products placed in front of you in other ways.

David Sirota actually pointed this out and made the comment “and you wonder what is wrong with our country.” He’s right and this has been happening for years now. Benjamin Barber has talked about this in his book Consumed. Naomi Klein made us aware of this in No Logo and I’m sure there are other books to cite as well. Oh hell I’ll throw Affulenza in there too.

Why do you allow corporations to tell you when to wake up and go somewhere just to make a purchase? Can’t the prices be had on other days–not just one day known as Black Friday? Can’t you simply go online these days? Why are you so desperate to get into the store on that day that you would trample over people and in some cases kill someone?

Also what are you buying?  Are you on that line hoping to get some new piece of electronic equipment or toy that marketers are telling you that you must have? In the past it’s been the Playstation II, iPhone, Wii, Xbox, Furby, Tickle Me Elmo, Beanie Babies, Pokemon, Cabbage Patch and I could go on.

There’s always going to be some “hot item” that marketers are going to convince the public that they must have or that their kids must have.  I’m not against buying a product that you want but I’d rather people want things that they’ve come to realize on their own that they want not through advertising and marketing. I’d also wish that low prices would not drive people to such extremes to acquire things. There’a whole other line of thought on low prices and their negative side you could get into.

In the end just don’t trample on someone. OK?

Earlier this week, the L.A. Times ran a fake front page — chock full of stories intended to sell NBC’s new L.A.-based Law & Order franchise — and guess what? Readers of the paper weren’t exactly pleased with the bit of crass badvertising.

via L.A. Times Replaces Front Page With Fake ‘Law & Order’ News; L.A. Times Readers Really Pissed – The Consumerist.

This is really sad. It is almost as bad as the video news releases that some news organizations run as real news.

A MA elementary school is selling ad space on the backs of permission slips and notices sent home to parents. It’s better than another bake sale, say officials, who have pledged to keep the advertising appropriate for families. No ads for alcohol, tobacco, political causes or tattoo parlors will be allowed. Is this any different than ads in the back of yearbooks? Or one more tumble down the slippery slope of commercial encroachment in our public schools?

via School Sells Ad Space On Letters Sent Home To Parents – The Consumerist.

First there was Bus Radio now this. If you don’t stop it now then it will only get worse.

In March, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) – the chair of the trade subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee – became one of the first members of Congress to call the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to account for its inclusion of financial services deregulation-promoting provisions in WTO agreements and various U.S. trade deals. These terms were included at the behest of lobbying of big Wall Street banks, and sharply limit the kinds of financial regulations countries can enact without facing WTO challenges and other claims for compensation.

via Eyes on Trade: Ongoing WTO-Wall Street Snow Job Continues.

This is why they need to be regulated. Their precious derivative trading needs some sunlight.

Remember those bailouts? Uh yeah..

When the financial industry tumbled, Greenwich’s fortunes fell with it. Now, as the federal bailout has helped lift investment banks to surprisingly robust profits, the news that major financial firms will dole out billions of dollars in salaries and bonuses this year came as welcome relief here, even though the rest of the country is still grappling with 10 percent unemployment.