Viewing Thread:
"Pop-ups and advertising."

I said my piece earlier on and don't intend to start screaming and shouting (for once).
This topic is merely inspired by the pop-up situation here and not directed towards SR.

But I do detest pop-up ads.
I dont see they do anything.

It's hard, my immediate reaction was to be my usual "Corporate evil marketing demons!" ranty self.
But, I can see why you'd do it.
Xmas is coming, parents are scoping for a console, and the price-drop does make it a more realistic proposition.

But still...unwelcome adverts appearing on my monitor without me being able to have any say or not.
It's just me, but if offends me.
I know I have the choice of not coming here, but I enjoy posting here and annoying with my self-righteous indignation and movie-stuff.

I loathe adverts, it's part of the reason I don't watch television. I don't appreciate people trying to hock their wares to me.
Pop-ups are no different to the people that lurk on the streets and come up to you to sell you religious tracts.
You're doing your own thing, minding your own business when "HELLO! CAN I DISTURB YOU IN YOUR EVERYDAY BUSINESS TO TRY AND GET YOU TO SPEND MONEY?".

I find marketing to be an inherently soul-destroying business. To break people down into demographics and try to influence their behaviour to encourage them to spend.
Supermarkets are designed to a science, nice fruit and flowers at the front, aromas piped through the store to entice you.
Garages have tv on the forecourt now to sell you stuff even when you stop to get petrol.
Clothes are festooned with logos, adverts for companies.

And people seek status from them?
Why advertise a company for free? Why wear their corporate logo and do their marketing work for them? I don't understand that one little bit.
I'm not an advertising billboard, a space for rent.
You want me to advertise your company, you pay me.

You are not seen as a person to marketing people, you are a demographic to be quantified, partitioned into groups and sold to.
Naomi Klein's book "No Logo" is all about the idea of marketing and brand-name recognition.
Companies strive for instant recognition, to hammer that brand home into your brain.
When you want a soft-drink, what do you say?
"Coke". Not Caffeine-based soft drink with vegetable extracts.
Nike don't even put their name on their stuff, it's just the swoosh symbol.
That is a marketing dream, when your logo is instantly recognisable.
Companies spend millions on asserting brand-awareness, the dream of having someone know your product from a colour or a symbol.

And I see people walking about wearing clothes with logos and being proud of the fact they are nothing more than a walking billboard.
But that's just me. I'd rather buy nondescript clothes and retain my personal identity than look like an employee of a Nike store.
It's like those companies sponsor your life-style.
And the must amusing/disgusting thing I've seen of late is the "Skate" fashion thing, the "alternative style".

You know the one, baggy jeans and hoodies, key-chains and carefully messed up hair.
That look has been designed carefully and sold back to people that just want to look cool.
The skate culture has always been one of refusal to buy into the 9-5 marketing dream mindset.
Loud music, operating outside the normal run of things.

Except now you can go into a store and buy the clothes, as if that somehow gives you street-cred when you've never been near a board in your life.
People posing out in alternative lifestyle clothing, but they miss the point.
It's not about dressing scruffy and going to buy McDonalds, it's about being aware of things like marketing forces, trends and fashions and choosing to not partake in that.

THAT is the skate-punk ethos.
It's not about spending £50 on a top and then going down to Wembley to watch a "punk" band play an enormodome.
If you buy into that whole "Urban" image, then that means you go to local venues to watch bands, laugh at eMpTyV for asserting the notion that you need a uniform to look cool and steadfastly refuse to buy brand-name clothing, because that makes you as bad as the guy in a suit that works in a bank.

It's ironic as hell and nobody is talking about it.

Goatboy,

I was not accusing you of laying down rules for anybody else. I just wondered whether, because you make this distinctions in what mediums you think it is worth you spending your time on, you may yourself be missing out on some fantastic experiences.

I am a cinemaphile, and I don't watch TV for the sake of it, I pick the shows to watch carefully. But I defy anyone to watch The Sopranos and tell me that its not up there with the best that cinema has to offer.

TV can be great. You just have to know where to look and just not leave the crap on in the background for the sake of it.

Ah, a movie man....

Can you tell us something about the scripts, or are they 'Tip-Top Secret'

Screenplays/scripts.

Currently have 3 on the go.

And the usual mind-pap I spill here.

Loki, shouldn't you be working?

Anyway, advertising isn't all bad... you get funny adverts.... like..... ummmm.... you know the ones... yeah.

As I've said, I don't watch much TV, I love The Simpsons though. That show has me in pieces... I Laugh so much.... what goes on in the minds of the writers, I don't know... but it's damn funny.

Goaty: You said you write; What do you write?

It's not snobbery.
I'm not laying down a rule of thumb for everybody.

I'm saying what I do, for myself and to myself.
I consider television to be a massive waste of opportunity.
I haven't said anyone that watches it is a moron etc, I'm saying it doesn't work for me, therefore I choose to not watch it because I find it simplistic and offensive.

Just expressing my view on my opinion on the effect in my life.
If I think tv is a tool of keeping people stupid and indoors, then it is.
If you think tv is a great form of entertainment and escape, then it is.
If someone else thinks it's a channel for recieving space-transmissions, then it is.

We all have our own opinions on things, but I've kept my in relation to how I percieve the things in my life.

It ain't simplistic or snobbery, it's me saying "I don't like it, therefore I choose to not watch"

Goatboy wrote:
> I own a tv yes.
It's used to play video games and watch movies.

Surely that's silly snobbery. Why are movies OK but TV programmes not? Shows like The Sopranos, The West Wing, My So Called Life, The Simpsons, The Armando Iannucci Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ER etc etc often have far more depth, emotional range, action or humour than the vast majortiy of Hollywood movies.

Putting up this silly divisions into what genres are acceptable and which are junk are far too simplistic.

Each to their own mate.

I've been really careful to not attack others because they don't agree with my views.
I've stated my feelings on brand-name clothng etc, but that doesn't mean nobody should buy what they want etc.

It's when you start to say "My views are the only right ones" that trouble begins.

However, advertising is a force of evil and if you disagree?
You are a child of satan, put on this earth to lower the standards and attach a £ to every single thing you see
(Bill Hicks 1962-1994)

Just kidding.
I think

I get a lot of headaches

I haven't watched a soap since Lou and Phil tried to buy each other out of the car sales thingy. 1995?

I don't watch much TV, I watch the occasional movie, premier league football, if it's on. It's wierd, because even in normal programs, you'll see kids wearing Nike or Rockport clothes...

Now, to be fair Rockport shoes are very good, they're well made, they last ages and they're comfortable, but they've been Kev-erated by the kids @ school, the Treeline XCS range anyway.

I do have a few brand clothes, GAP, Levi's, Nike, Addidas.. and so on....... and sop forth. But for me I buy them because of the style... Nike know they'll be selling their stuff to high end or middle-upper class people, so they do make T-Shirts better than Mr. T Shurt on the Braddington Road. You can't get the same shirt for a fiver, because they're not as well made...

Nike and Levi's etc just benefit from 'economies of scale'... (bulk buying and large orders mean you save money).

24th September? Darn I missed Held in Perpetuity.

Comedy shows.

Yeah, I watch Brasseye and used to watch Have I got New For You.

Anything satirical I like, but the sitcoms with the amusing neighbour and wayward children?
No thanks.

www.tvgohome.com

Sums it up very well.