Exposure to Ads

I ran into a very interesting advertisement today. I was playing a video game earlier today and realized that one of the billboards in game was for an actual product! Monster Energy Drink. The add itself was pretty subtle. If I wasn't thinking about advertisements at the time, I would have probably missed it. However, this shows a disturbing trend in the video game market. I do not want ads in my games. The ad itself had a very specific target audience. Gamers. Who else would buy an energy drink for gamers?

The Corporation vs. Ad and Ego

I have not lived in America for a long time. Before watching both of these documentries, I had forgotten just how pervasive advertising is. I tend to aviod Israeli TV (Its terrible) and I surf the internet with AdblockPlus running to avoid flashy embeded ads, so I guess I had a more sheltered perspective.

What these two documentaries have given me is scale. I always knew that big business would do what ever it could to get as high profit margins as possible, and that ads where specifically designed to try and get around any mental defenses against them. However, I never knew exactly how much of American society is controlled by business and surrounded by ads.

I feel that in an environment similar to the one America lives in today gets in the way of people staying informed. With so many messages, almost all of which benifit big buisness, being directed at our minds, I think that its going to be very difficult for people to make informed choices about what they want (or dont want) to buy.

How Everything Came From Nothing

Probobly the best lecture I've ever listened too. Definitly worth the hour of time. Watch it.

Youtube Consumption Log

The following vid is filled with blood, guts, gore, and the like. Watch at your own risk. Really. Its pretty disturbing at the start.

I am not an Avenged Sevenfold fan. I personally think there sellouts to big media. However, they have one music video I really really like.





Why do I like this video? Its just so.... hysterical. The entire thing is presented in both a shocking and, quiet frankly, disturbing manner, yet the thing still feels very comical. Overall, I give it a 10 out of 10

[Edit]: A few hours ago, I finally figured out what I really liked about this video. I know its directed and marketed to teens (you know, its EXTREME). But, despite this, the video itself is really original. While it does play off of many music video stereotypes, it does so in a comical manner, as if pointing them out to us, the viewer. The song is basically saying 'Generic Love Story Song. With Zombies.'

Media Immersion Level: Still laughing...

Supersize This

Well, we read two articles on Super Size Me. Honestly, I feel that the one that was more critical about SSM based its entire argument on the Straw man Fallacy. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawman. Morgans position in SSM was that fast food was not good for you. That was the entire point of his experiment. However, the article critical of his production never addressed this point. Instead, it talked about irrelivant facts and set up a straw man argument that fast food was not the only thing leading to the obesity epidemic (Other factors that are adding to this epidemic are actually addressed in SSM).

Media Immersion Level: Riding on the Electromagnetic Gamma Waves

Merchants of Cool Question - Stories

I do believe that who ever controls societies stories can control society itself. American teens are bombarded with thousands of advertisements, messages, and stories daily. Each one of these messages contains a value and message that it tries to impart upon its viewers. While each individual piece of media might have next to no effect, when you add up the cumulative effects of thousands of ads, we begin to see a completely different picture.

I myself avoid a lot of modern television and movies, simply because they seem so shallow and, quiet frankly, stupid. Not since the end of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1999) have I seen what I would call a truly original show. And because of this, I have a deep seated disdain for lots of modern media.


Media Immersion Level: In the not to distant future...

Fail Fox

Welcome to my Youtube Consumption Log. Recently, I've had trouble doing my media consumption logs, as I don't consume much of the standard media. I dont watch many TV shows, movies, or go on facebook, thus leaving me stumped on what to blog about. Then, it dawned on me.

Youtube.

My first video in this log is about the growing issue of media idiocy. Watch as the amazing Thunderf00t picks apart the logical fallacies of Fox News.



I like Thunderf00t. This guy is an outspoken free speech and rational world view advocate. I think his efforts to fight back at the media show exactly what youtube has the potential to be. A truly free place.

Media Immersion Level: EXTREME!!!!111one


I've also been listening to this:




Best. Song. Ever.