Cheerleader: Commodity fetishism and false gratification debate

Wemboy

New member
Personally, i'd refer you back to a quote from the late, great Bill Hicks, the greatest stand up comedian to ever live. He said to his audience, "if you work in advertising... Kill yourselves! No really, that's not a joke, kill yourselves."
I think it's disgusting how advertising companies spend their whole time thinking up ways to manipulate small, impresionable kids into making their parents spend money that they often don't have. Or marketing foods that are full of salt and fat to kids so young they don't realise what it's doing to their health. That means we all grow up thinking that we aren't complete unless we buy the newest hi-tech black box with sony written on it, made by slave labour and sold to us for hundreds of pounds.
Rant's over now, but back on topic, Hal often gets drawn into this kind of thing, with the cookies at the end and also during Smunday when he comes very close to buying a porsche. Also, in Smunday (i watched it yesterday, that's why i know all this stuff) the boys use the doll in question to wake Lois up before they chuck the stuff off the roof. So obviously Dewey's "pester power" worked in the end. By the way i'm a total hypocrite because i willingly buy into almost every piece of advertising i see, so all that stuff i said at the start of the post is really just me being mad at my own weakness:) , ah well...i think i'm gonna go buy those new trainers i saw now
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
@wemboy:
Well, you admitted it. That's a good start ;)
I'll admit it too, I like stuff. When I see something I like, I'll try to get it, although I'm still at that buffer zone between begging mom and dad, and getting a job(2 years to go) I will ask them for about 1/4 or 1/2 of the money, the rest I have.

@appanah
Think of a long term problem as a leaking water pipe. It needs to be replaced, we know that. But we don't want to fix it. We will put a bucket under neath the leak, or tighten a nut on the pipe, untill the pipe can no longer be repaired by tape, rags, putty, and elbow grease, that is when we buy a new one. Only when what we have is no longer to be solved with short-term solutions is when we buy the pipe, not when we can stick some putty on it.
 
D

Deleted member 1693

Guest
Unfortunately, I've never seen the original post here, but I'll put a word in anyway. (very, very nice analogy, Justin)

I'm very interested in lobbying, it was my career choice when I was a young child. I love finding out about companies and their impact on our everyday life, especially the fast food and tobacco companies. I used to be a walking encyclopedia on this stuff, but I'm not anymore (find my post in the School Subjects board to find out why I'm a retard now). Always been disgusted by them, and that's what draws me towards learning about 'em. When can you blame the consumer, and when can you blame the company...? It ultimately depends on the people. ...Hrm, maybe I've got a few facts lying around (about fast food).

*French fries are the most eaten vegetables in America.
*1 in 4 adults visit a McDonald's every day.
*60% of all adults in America are overweight or obese.
*A serving of meat is as big as (and a bit thinner than) the palm of your hand. Typical hamburgers at fast food joints are twice that.
*Carmine (a type of African bug grinded into powder) is included in red/pink food coloring in most junk food including Kool-Aid, most strawberry shakes, and M&Ms.
*There are McDonald's on every continent but Antarctica.
*The total number of McDonald's customers per day exceeds the population of Spain.
*Aspartame (Sweet n' Low among other things) is twenty times as sweet as sugar, and sucralose (Splenda) is one hundred times as sweet.
*Heart attack is the leading form of death in the United States, with nearly 600,000 people dying from it per year on average.
*A representative of McDonald's once said, on stage and on national television, that CocaCola was healthy simply because, and I quote, "It's got water in it.".
*The shelf life of the french fries is undeterminable.
*The Fruit Parfait at McDonald's has just as many calories as a Big Mac.
*Beef flavoring is inserted into McDonalds' fries to give them unique flavor.
*The same fries were sold in India, which obviously is home to millions of Hindus, who were upsetted by this fact and rallied for months and months until the company reluctantly retracted it.
*McDonald's food tastes so "fake" because most of the flavor comes from preservatives and little "shots" of flavor instead of the food itself. These "shots" are regularly tested and improved in factories all over the country. These are also incorporated into most frozen foods.
*NOTHING in McDonald's menu is organic.

The reason most of my facts are on McDonald's is because they're the worst. I'm sure there are many horrible facts I did not disclose about this and other chains. I just did this all from my dim memory...
 
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