Advertising I Hate: A Nation of Assholes

Posted by zach | it's delicious | Tuesday 30 September 2008 3:36 pm

Credit card commercials drive me up the wall - especially the ones where you’ve got a celebrity shilling for them, talking about how they promote individuality and expression and freedom when the truth is anything but that.  These people, Wes Anderson and Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen Degeneres are standing up and selling debt.  They are using their celebrity status to promote the image of these companies as cultural benefactors, despite the fact that they are clearly a cancer on this society.

This commercial is particularly egregious in that it says that "we are a nation of consumers" and there "is nothing wrong with that".  I can think of a few things wrong with that.  Consumers have no reason to uphold or respect the fundamental values of the Amercan way of life, it doesn’t fit into their job description.  Instead the consumer’s focus is on the best deal; the latest gadget.  The consumer has no reason to be part of a community, except to show off their latest purchases to an envious audience.

The other half of this commercial is that they are selling some kind of debt relief program.  The whole thing is morally bankrupt - they are promoting the practice of using debt recklessly and then offering to help the overzealous consumer get back out of debt.  It would be like Phillip Morris offering premium nicotine patches.

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links for 2008-09-29

Posted by zach | it's delicious | Tuesday 30 September 2008 6:02 am

links for 2008-09-28

Posted by zach | it's delicious | Monday 29 September 2008 6:06 am
  • The scariest thing about Sarah Palin isn’t how unqualified she is - it’s what her candidacy says about America | The Smirking Chimp
    Matt Taibbi owns the shit out of Sarah Palin, the electorate, me personally and fans of gilligan’s island
    (tags: palin)
  • Obama’s Chili Recipe
    Now this - this is how troll a comment thread my friends. "I think this chili recipe is a great idea. It will be like sitting at the table with the Obama’s and enjoying it with them. This is exciting." "With a shitty recipe like that, it’s no wonder he’s lost the Latino vote." "And what blows out their butts the next morning is called "policy"."
    (tags: obama food)
  • Sam Harris on Sarah Palin and Elitism | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 | Newsweek.com
    An excellent article on the relentless mediocrity of America. I just don’t get why people are more interested in voting for a normal person than a member of the "elite". I personally want the smartest person for the job. I like watching Bill Clinton on TV and feeling stupid because he is so much smarter and informed than I will ever be. I want the most blindingly intellegent person we can get our hands on. I like that Obama stutters when he talks because he’s pausing to consider both sides of the issues and is looking for a way to express the subtle nuance of his ideas. I like that this is a man that spent time teaching different interpretations of the Constitution. I don’t want to feel dumb because my leaders are dumb anymore.
    (tags: palin stupidity politics)
  • Frans de Waal: Nervous Old Male
    I remember reading at one point that President Bush’s body language was perfectly crafted to give him the appearance of a non-threatening leader. This is an interesting breakdown and it’s also interesting that the author manages to not make any reference to Obama as a primate of any kind
    (tags: mccain primatology)
  • The road to hell: you know what it’s paved with. (Tech Talk)
    An interesting article on airport security and screening. It basically comes down to the point that the screening process is like a really poorly built dam - there are all these holes in it and instead of rebuilding the dam, they just add another layer of poorly built dam that the water finds new ways to leak through
    (tags: security)
  • MEGO /me’goh/ or /mee’goh/ [`My Eyes Glaze Over’,
    The 3 usage is the most interesting to me. Americans seem to require as a precondition that anything that’s going on or being talked about has to be entertaining in order to be valid or important. I get this alot when I talk about really important things like resource depletion that people should really be concerned about. In order for boring material to make a splash it has to have the veneer of celebrity - for instance the success of Al Gore’s Academy Award winning powerpoint presentation.
    (tags: stupidity)
  • McCain camp prays for Palin wedding - Times Online
    I don’t know man. The whole thing comes off as creepy and exploitive to me. And is this going to be at Palin’s church in Alaska? Are those people going to be able to keep it under control?
    (tags: politics mccain palin)
  • On strategy and tactics - The Atlantic
    A particularly canny interpretation of the debates as seen through the lens of the "tactics v strategy" kerfluffle. Again it re-enforces that McCain is an in-the-moment reactionary; a reckless gambler rather than a broad strategist like Obama.
    (tags: mccain obama politics)
  • McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry - NYTimes.com
    So it turns out that not only does he have extensive ties to the gambling industry - he is also a huge gambler. Maybe that’s how he came about his "Maverick" image - by acting in a wildly unpredictable fashion, giving him the appearance of breaking with the pack. Oh and here’s a funny fact - "Maverick" was the pilot in Top Gun who was impulsive and reckless and managed to kill his co-pilot in a plane crash.
    (tags: mccain)

links for 2008-09-27

Posted by zach | it's delicious | Sunday 28 September 2008 1:01 am

links for 2008-09-26

Posted by zach | it's delicious | Saturday 27 September 2008 1:01 am

links for 2008-09-25

Posted by zach | it's delicious | Friday 26 September 2008 1:02 am

links for 2008-09-24

Posted by zach | it's delicious | Thursday 25 September 2008 3:33 am

links for 2008-09-24

Posted by zach | it's delicious | Wednesday 24 September 2008 8:05 am