Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[David Demers <ddemers1 AT bellsouth.net>]

rachel cox wrote:

  >Well, that's pretty standard unless I'm missing something. Often
  >when you see a recognizable brand in the media, whether it's on
  >a porn flick or a soap opera or Buffy The Vampire Slayer, isn't it
  >due to a deal between the producer of the media and the producer of
  >the item?

i'll admit my thinking got a little hazy here. with the pedestrian and
vivid references, i was trying to point out that even people are used as
human billboards. granted, the film reference is a common occurrence; it
was just the most recent specific example i remember reading. or maybe i
just had porn on the mind....

  > Of course we do. That's what the ad agencies and marketing firms get
paid
  > the big bucks for.

is this a criticism of my having pointed out something so painfully obvious?

  >But once we've noticed the ludicrousness of an individuality
  >predicated on being just like everybody else, we can decide
  >which pieces of consumer culture we want to buy into or have
  >fun with, and which pieces we want to try to armor ourselves
  >against or change.

this is a great point to raise and touches on what i failed to consider
after my bitch session yesterday, and that is some kind of remedy to the
situation. i totally agree that individual awareness and responsibility
will be the building blocks for change.

regarding capitalism, art, and what thomas beckett wrote:

  >It used to be there was art and commerce -- God and Mammon -- which
  >stood more or less distinctly.  Now the two are more or less
  >indistinguishable.  The best artists work for the Web development shops
  >and the ad agencies.

isn't the fact that many artists earn a living selling their work a good
thing, even if what they are producing is not art in its purest form, or
art for the sake of art? what about the fact that many non-artists earn a
living working with an art form which they love, such as a marketing
director at a record label? as such, various art forms are most definitely
commodities and, in turn, the backbone of whole industries whose
infrastructures provide jobs for thousands of people.

;)
david demers