Might the jingle be a very old thing, pre-dating radio and television? Here is Bakhtin trying to explain the type of orality featured in Rabelais through the medieval and early modern cris, or street cries: “The cris were loud advertisements called out by the Paris street vendors, and composed according to a certain versified form; [...]
There are, it would seem, two kinds of novelty: the one that breaks from tradition, ushering in a new order, and the one that perpetuates the same under the guise of change. The latter, associated with fads and trends, marks the logic of consumption, whereas the former, querying the new and indeterminate, suggests a revolutionary [...]
In a thought-provoking post on I cite, Jodi Dean describes the proliferation and popularity of ‘tag clouds’ as capturing “the shift from message to contribution characteristic of communicative capitalism”. That is, in place of meaning and context, which in actuality govern discourse, tag clouds display information in terms of repetition, frequency, and intensity. “The meaning [...]
“The alabaster bosom that seventeenth-century poets celebrated in their poems was to be found only in dolls, whose fragility often cost them their existence.” Walter Benjamin, “Cultural History of Toys” 115 Taken together, three short essays by Walter Benjamin on the subject of toys outline a novel approach to the cultural meaning of toys, the [...]
In a story related to yesterday’s post on the new NYC Transit window ads, it was noted that the semi-transparent film on which these ‘wrap ads’ are printed is manufactured by 3M for specifically that purpose. Paul J. Fleuranges, a spokesman for New York City Transit, said the agency hoped that the film, called Scotchcal, [...]
I’ve been racking my brain trying to recall other instances where advertising has been used as a crime deterrence strategy – or at least this is what NYC Transit authorities are giving as the reason behind their new ad policy. According to Jennifer 8. Lee of the New York Times: “Despite the M.T.A. budget shortfall, [...]
Remember layaway? If you don’t, you will. With the credit crunch now in full swing, it’s making a comeback. Ben Popken over at The Consumerist summarizes its return: Layaway is back this year. What’s that? It’s where you buy an item at a store, but don’t pay for it completely right away. The store puts [...]
The placement of the above anti-obesity ad – on the seats of swings in a children’s playground – is wholly inappropriate. Even if obesity is a problem amongst children, the last thing in the world you should be doing is putting signs where they play that say, in effect, ‘you are fat’. Eating disorders, after [...]
Advertising Agency: Germaine, Antwerp, Belgium Creative Director: André Plaisier Art Directors: Alexis Bellavoine, Jeroen Goossens Copywriter: Pieter Claeys Photographer: Kurt Stallaert Retouching: Edwin Veer Published: October 2008 Now I may be wrong about this but I don’t think the World Wildlife Fund explicitly promotes vegetarianism. (They were in fact recently caught selling fish sticks to [...]
From Soviet montage to the Memorex mix tape, leftist Western thinkers have proudly declared their membership to a “sample culture.” Remix theory, the latest version, keeps the candle burning bright. Like its predecessors, it attempts to found an aesthetic regime on the claim that the explicit selection of texts – sampling in music, collage in [...]
Documents & Studies