WASHINGTON — Google, Yahoo and other Web companies joined the pharmaceutical industry Thursday in urging federal regulators to make it easier to pitch drugs in online advertisements.
That way, people will see the ads and the sites will get revenue get healthier.
It’s fascinating to read Claudia Koonz’s analysis of how Hitler rose to power in her book “The Nazi Conscience.” My high school history classes skimmed over the story, implying that a majority of Germans supported Hitler’s insane, bigoted ideology. But as Koonz details, that certainly wasn’t the case.
As she wrote, “…most Germans deplored lawless attacks on Jews,” even after Hitler had become Chancellor.
Yet as Hitler said, even the master Aryan race was “vulnerable to…deceit.”
Hitler came to power by brilliantly deceiving the vulnerable German people. Most of them weren’t anti-Semites.
But Hitler connected with them through his speeches, which had “repellent images of rapacious capitalists, craven diplomats, corrupt politicians…” in other words, targets that were easier to get the Germans rallying against.
Yet he still blamed “Jewry” for all this evil, and that was a concept Germans couldn’t support, at least not at first. Responding to this, Hitler deleted “Jewry” from his oratory for a time.
He instead “excoriated the Versailles Treaty and Bolshevism while castigating liberals as too cowardly to defend the Volk.”
He tapped into the pathetic state of Germany after WWI, rallying the nation to believe that “any nation which voluntarily submits to humiliation is doomed.”
He convinced the nation that he was the “principled man of action” Germany needed to restore morality and glory.
His rhetoric made up for its lack of logos with brilliant ethos and pathos. Eventually a majority of Germans didn’t care that “Mein Kampf” has many lies, or that “Triumph of the Will” never says why Hitler will save Germany. Hitler was an ingenious communicator, convincing all those Germans that, yes, a mad man would restore greatness to their nation.
Marketing is anti- free market. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and I’ve found only one other guy that has willed to write about this subject online. Here is a portion of his rant:
“A capitalist system consists of a producer and an INFORMED consumer. As I said before, advertisements are increasingly informing less and marketing image more. This allows companies to maintain a monopoly of image contrary to the blindness of market forces. What do I suggest to remedy the situation? Do as they do for drug advertisements in Australia, set up a governemnt advisary board to regulate advertisements to limit them to purely or at least primarily substance based. This would not only create a more informed consumer, but it would get rid of all those bullshit, “buy this kitty litter cause it’ll get you laid” commercials. And that’s good for everyone.” LINK
What’s happening is consumer rights are being violated due to the forces of marketing and its presence in public spaces. I don’t mind advertisements on private property (example: storefront signs advertising low prices), but things like billboards and commercials are invasive and create artificial demand, just like the Federal Reserve creates artificially low interest rates. Both are anti-free market. Anti-saving. Pro-consumption. Pro-spending.
Less advertising, less profit. Simple as that.
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) — MasterCard Inc., the world’s second- biggest payments network, fell in New York trading after cost cuts aided a jump in third-quarter profit, prompting one analyst to question the quality of earnings.Shares of MasterCard dropped as much as 5.9 percent, the most since April 20, after the company said it cut advertising and marketing spending by almost 30 percent in the third quarter. Chief Executive Officer Robert Selander said in July expenses would be “significantly higher” in the second half.
“MasterCard did beat the number, but a lot of that was on much lower than expected advertising expenditures,” said Robert Dodd, an analyst with Morgan Keegan Inc.
The Houston Texans are my favorite band!
The second half of the season could be historic for the Houston Texans. They have a chance to make the playoffs for the first time, with their best record ever (5-3) at the midway point of the season.
After a 1-2 start, the Texans have momentum. Matt Schaub is playing superbly at quarterback, teaming with Andre Johnson to become one of the NFL’s most prolific quarterback-receiver combinations.
Lo-fi indie rock Black Lips punk. Now that I have your attention…
Philadelphia Phillies pitchers Brett Myers and Cole Hamels had words after Game 5 of the World Series on Monday, one witness told Yahoo! Sports.
The incident was related to Hamels’ statement after Game 3 that he was looking forward to his frustrating season being over. As Myers walked past Hamels in the locker room Monday he reportedly said sarcastically, “What are you doing here? I thought you quit?”
CLEVELAND – Oh, sure, it looks simple and obvious now. One team was fully ready for an NBA opener, and one team wasn’t.
Doc Rivers would have junked the final two exhibition games if he could. His guys were ready to go. Mike Brown would like another month of training camp.
And so the newly fortified Celtics are off and running in pursuit of championship No. 18. They got one thing out of the way early: with last night’s 95-89 conquest of the Cavaliers they already have won a big game on the road.
I don’t really care about basketball, but I know enough to be impressed that we beat LeBron and Shaq.
NEW YORK – Though Pedro Martinez has faced the Yankees six times in the postseason, those games were almost in another lifetime.
Wait, do any of our readers actually care about baseball? You know what? Black Lips. There, now people care.
No shit Madonna! But, check out these fifteen ludicrous and/or licentious ads that prove sex sells best.
http://inventorspot.com/articles/ads_prove_sex_sells_5576
NOT that advertising is cool or anything. I’d rather y’all toss off to Kobe Tai’s finest and go about your day.
Chris
When I journey to the local cinema to view a film I highly anticipate, the last thing I want to see is a shitty trailer for a shitty flick. Even if the movie turns out to be decent, I always look back at the trailer and remember absolutely dismissing it. Why? Well, I’ll tell you why! Firstly, like I said before I want to dive right into the film I paid hard earned cash to see, not be inundated by poor excuses for marketing, which includes commericals, a major no no in a cinema. We see commercials everyday at home on TV, but, that’s not enough for the corporate cocksuckers, they have to follow you all the way to the movie theater as well. Secondly, this is going to sound ludicrous, even stupid perhaps, but the main flaw with trailers is the fact that their purpose is to make you see the movie. I know it sounds dumb, but I don’t like being coercioned into buying a product. Trailers suck the art right out of the films so they can appeal to certain demographics. Just watch the trailer for Fight Club it’s aimed towards “tough,” “manly” men, when that is exactly the kind of attitude the film condemns. I really disdain when the directors of these trailers try sooo hard to incorporte the “funny” parts: meaningless one liners, the “dramatic/sad” parts: meaningless one liners again, this time sadder and more pathetic, and the “scary” parts: lots of screaming, menacing music, and the most cliched and my most despised technique, the creepy, little girl voice. I fucking can’t stand that! Trailors should make you want to see the flick, but not make it obvious!
In spite of all this ranting, I must admit several trailors are unique and/or at least effectively use the aforementioned “boring” techniqus to woo me into checking out their movie. So, what’s my favorite trailor? 3 way tie: Pulp Fiction, Clerks, and The Devil and Daniel Johnston. So, here they are:
Chris
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 