"Is your child's classroom emblazoned with swooshes and golden
arches? Are you tired of insidious product placement in TV
shows and feature films? We want to hear what you have to
say about it." That was our pitch, and MediaChannel readers
came up with some pretty hideous examples of "ad creep." The
responses divided fairly neatly into ads encroaching on public
space (sidewalks, sports arenas) and personal space (clothing,
computer screens). We'll start with the public ...
Our favorite story came from Arvin Djapermal of Mauritius:
"Not so long ago, there was the boxing match between Mike
Tyson and Julius Francis (played in Manchester, Great Britain).
As usual, ads were an integral part of the live broadcasting
around the world. But I challenge anyone to beat this one:
The sponsors of Julius Francis had thought about every possibility.
They even placed an ad on the soles of Francis' shoes, in
case he was knocked out (and he was!), which allowed us to
have a glimpse of the sponsors' ... genius!"
Less genius — in fact, just down right creepy —
was the story David Moss, whose work for a Silicon
Alley dotcom "consumes most of my life. One day, though, I
was having a pleasant dinner in an East Village restaurant,
not thinking about work. I got up and went to the bathroom,
and while I was standing there doing my business, I looked
up and saw a bright yellow advertisement for the very company
that I work for. Is there any escape?"
The answer we heard was a loud and collective "no." Bascom
Guffin, who thought he had seen media overkill living
in New York, spotted an ad for "The Mummy" at a Los Angeles
supermarket on the "seemingly innocent grocery separater-bar."
Others complained about commercialism writ larger. Jay
A. Binkly laments the way "corporations are buying up
every public venue they can, so they can plaster their name
all over them ... The Pepsi Center in Denver, 3Com instead
of Candelstick Park, the Staples Center has replaced the [Great
Western] Forum ... I'm sick of it."
But corporations aren't always so overt in their take-over
of public space. From Rob Kelly: "'Twas a London Holiday.
Passing people on the sidewalk clad in vivid dress, I was
able to tune out the blaring storefront displays. I could
not, however, avoid a stenciled advertisement spray-painted
on every available surface. The stencil, long a hallmark of
the silenced political voice, was being used to promote Columbia
Records recording-artist Lauryn Hill. It read: "The Miseducation
of Lauryn Hill." I envisioned a marketing director dreaming
up ways to buy street credibility. I shuddered. Corporate
vandalism at its most obvious."
For corporate vandalism at its most subtle and frightening,
many of you noticed the creep of advertising into your private
space — most frequently onto your computer screen. "Have
you seen warning stickers in the "platinum look" of Windows
'98 on your computer screen?" asks an anonymous MediaChannel
reader. "'Warning, this software is taking too long to load!
Click here to correct!' Which click, of course, moves one
to an entirely different Web site. When advertising is without
rules — not merely bending nor buying, but actually without
— who is to say what the future will bring to your monitor?"
This is not an imagined trend. According to an interview
on Newsweek International's business Web site with DoubleClick
president and COO Kevin Ryan, his internet advertising network
saw a one 100 percent growth in ad dollars for three straight
years, and there is no slowdown in sight.
Finally, Kayode Ogunbunmi of Lagos, Nigeria, told
us a story that we may be so accustomed to in the West that
we've forgotten to notice it. At the launch of a new product,
Milo cocoa drink, Mr. Ogunbunmi received "a beautiful t-shirt
with the logo of the product emblazoned across both the front
and back. Now I was so enthralled with the shirt that I took
to wearing it around. It took a 'jealous' colleague to really
unmask my status: I was a roving billboard for the company
... I must say I can't recount here what I did to the t-shirt."
Offended and horrified by this onslaught of commercialization?
Speak your mind in our Forum.
Also, check out what the following MediaChannel affiliates
have to say:
- Edited and compiled by Elinor
Nauen and Alexander Lockwood for MediaChannel.
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