I’ll never understand this. At the coffee shop I frequent, they sell bumper stickers. The name of the place is “The Daily”, and the bumper sticker says “Drink Coffee Daily; Drink Daily Coffee”. Price: $2.00.
Question: Why would I advertise for you, even for free? And my god – why would I pay you to advertise for you? Do you think I’m that stupid?
I have taken off the dealership decals off our cars when we bought them. They come off easily when they are fresh – you just use a Tuffy pad. I asked the dealership not to put a decal on the last car we bought – they did anyway. I made them take it off. Then they gave us bright yellow temporary cardboard license plates to drive around advertising the name of the dealership. They came off that very day. I don’t wear T-shirts advertising any business – I once wore running shorts that said “Montana”, and I own a cap that says “Cooke City” – that’s as far as I go.
I see cars with product names plastered in the windows – the names of rock bands, for instance. I see clothing with manufacturers’ emblems pasted all over them – North Face and Nike and Kelty. I see shoes with a big “N” on the side. Are we so commercialized, are we so inured to this that we voluntarily become shills for profit-making entities?
I offer The Daily Coffee Shop a deal: You pay me $2.00 per day to put your bumper sticker on my car, I might consider it, but only if you supply the muscle to take it off when I am tired of it. That’s the only way I’ll advertise for you.
On second thought, never mind. Do your own advertising.
Piece of Mindful 
Hm. I think you’re applying a value on something that’s actually either value neutral, or that’s actually pretty cool: non-verbal communication.
Wearing logos or business bumperstickers is a way we project our self-identity onto our clothes or possessions. It’s a means of self-expression.
I actually see this in a more positive light: given our culture’s massive consumerism and materialism, I find hope in individuals’ savvy and sophisticated ability to use logos, adverstising as a means of subtle communication. I think that’s what Pop Art is all about.
That said, I do deplore individuals’ choices for self-expression. Nike tattoos?
But consider: a Schultzy’s sausage or Dick’s burger t-shirt communicates a specific place, time, and tribe to the savvy onlooker. Humor, irony, anger can all be expressed with a logo.
The worst is when logos are thrust on you, on clothes or cars, when you become an unwilling participant in advertising. Worse still, is when you’re subjected to advertising you don’t want — on the airplane, say, when you’re buckled in and the damn PA bombards you with ads. I hate that. Ads you can’t escape from.
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I just happened on your comment in the “Awaiting moderation” section. Why it chose you I do not know. And I never look to moderate a comment and am hardly aware of this feature.
Have you have trouble posting here before?
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By the way, I regard most advertising as a violation of personal space. They are far beyond “Buy my product becuase you’ll like it” and into deep analysis of personal motivations and desires. The whole concept is to undermine the person and change behavior. When’s the last time you saw a car advertisement that talked about the actual attributes of the car? It was Bernays who first discovered our two selves – the one we show the world, and the private self. He figured out that you had to market to the private self, but to do so, you had to enter the individual psyche.
Anyway, that’s got little to do with Bob’s Pizzaria, who just wants you to know he exists. But everything to do with Burger King, who wants to change your behavior by means of subtle imagery and cultural undercurrents.
Worst ads of all? In the movie theater. Captive audience. Most interesting discovery? Only about 15% of people with Tivo’s skip ads. Go figure.
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Hey Mark, this is funny. You have a post about a nation of shills and your very first comment on it is a robot generated trackback to a fake blog selling cell phones.
You can’t make that kind of stuff up! Classic.
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Is that what that was? I noticed it triggered on the words “bumper stickers” and had ads for them. Oh well. Why WordPress let that one through but intercepted Jay’s – odd indeed.
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No, I’ve never had a problem with your filter before. You might want to check your comments settings; WordPress has a setting using the number of links as a variable in filtering comments. I did have two links in the comment…
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Yeah, two links is the default trigger. You can change that. Anyway, this blog has turned into a shill for bumper stickers. I am out of here…
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