hidden messages

To forfeit your own reality, to forfeit your own identity and sense of autonomy. To step into the game of the human being as “ready-made” a banal, everyday generic object prissied up with a few optional features as a mark in personality and individualism;  an imperfect copy of an existing flawed copy resulting in some kind of  idea of what constitutes  fashionable appearance. There is something psychotic that seems intrinsic to pop culture consumerism; the consumer unconsciously feeling unreal, a bit contrived and artificial, somewhat  of the rack sizing, but a fashionable appearance compensates for the sentiment, the gnawing feeling of being unreal, though it serves to reaffirm that one is actually unreal.

It is probably not by chance, by randomness, that the actor and actress are the ideal types in our Society of the Spectacle, since the most skilled and celebrated are able to impersonally convey an appearance that appears so intimate, personal and authentic. For some reason, we respond or at least are wise to though who have mastered the art of pretension and can spot fake pretenders down the pecking order; A society of the Spectacle is essentially the imposition of the imposter in the manner of liking to hear good liars as opposed to vulgar and preposterous fakers, those types of media models who can’t quite fake existence and reproduce it convincingly enough as trope and stereotype….

( see link at end) … since social media took hold is the potential ability to sway bloggers who may not be as inclined to follow journalism’s morals and ethics.Many bloggers have been caught in payola-like scenarios where paid trips and free merchandise were given in return for a few nice words on a highly trafficked blog without any disclosure. …This isn’t about Bloggers Gone Wild, it’s actually about the entire world of marketing, communications and advertising. Now, more than ever, it’s not always clear to the consumer if they’re watching a movie or one big advertisement….

It is said there will be  neither works of art nor commodities in the beckoning future, just elements in a merchandising spectacle, just estheticized goods and services, things that represent an idea of the eternally elite, within a culture constructed for approval. Within the market economy, well designed entertaining commodities are the opium of the capitalist game. And, what continue to call arty, or high-brow is likely just a sub-class of the entertaining commodity.  An estheticized commodity, the value added nebulous brand, supported by advertising is what the global corporations would like everything to be, ultimately making the distinction between art, life, work, and the consumer completely irrelevant; and its not clear this global plutocracy can be pushed into the same pit the Commies fell into. A more virulent strain of perversion, it builds surplus value into every good by estheticizing it as a form of erotic intelligence, the sensuality of experience. And the more esthetically high-end, blingy, the commodity, the more it becomes a this unique experience, as a Mont Blanc is supposed to be, a Vuitton bag etc. But this also what the consumer has come to expect from his goods…

…Last week, news outlets made hay about the next James Bond movie, Skyfall (which is due for release this coming November), because the suave British agent will be ditching his famed martini (shaken, not stirred) for a Heineken beer, thanks to product placement. While that may be enough heresy for you to start an Occupy Hollywood movement, it’s only a part of the intrigue when it comes to Bond. Skyfall will break all product placement records by taking in more than $45 million.

Some sources place that dollar amount at one-third of the cost for the entire film’s budget. A huge windfall for the movie studio, but how is the paid customer to know the difference between what is an action movie and what is a commercial? Sure, the odd product placement here or there was a “no harm, no foul” move, so long as the context maintained its credibility, but when you’re moving into the $45-million range, you begin to wonder if the product is being placed into the movie or if the movie is being written to fit the products?…

Another dirty little secret of the product-placement world is the current use of computer graphics to input product placement where it had not been before. That’s right, while you’re watching those five year-old reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond, don’t be surprised if there’s suddenly a box of cereal on Ray’s kitchen table that wasn’t there in the original version. This is big business. Reruns can go on and on in syndication for years, so what’s the harm in dumping in a few computer-generated products here and there? … it’s all becoming a game of filling every inch of eye space with some kind of advertisement.

People often marvel as they step into New York’s Times Square barrage of billboards without realizing that the movie they just saw could well ha

een one big, massive advertisement and exposure to about the same number of commercial messages. This doesn’t mean that we need to shut it down, but it does mean – in a world where everyone is publishing content in text, images, audio and video – that all of us need to be a little wiser to who is being paid what to say what….

There are many prominent video bloggers who currently have representation with talent agents in Los Angeles and New York, and are getting backed by serious brands for sponsorships. Perhaps a small paragraph detailing their disclosures is enough, but it may, ultimately, not be. Are you going to sit around until the last credits roll at Skyfall to see a list of who paid for placement? Doubtful.Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Secret+agent+messaging/6433136/story.html#ixzz1rrh2SwEK

What exactly is the status of art today? Are we really at an end of a cycle whose future has not defined itself? Something defining other than a popularization in mass culture or the Warhol business of art.  Clearly today, almost everything in it subsumed to the value of money. Money as common theme concerned with the consciousness of the ideology of advertising where mass reproduction and corporatism work in tandem to create an impressive power over consciousness. There is an expertise employed with an alchemical power to embed and weave kitsch and sentimentality with avant-gard elements that creates memories of an experience we never had and that is purely idealized; and an experience that is perfectly disposable since we don’t really need it if we are continually fed new spectacles. There is always the potential that these discarded, virtual products , in the Walter Benjamin sense, can assume new meaning, emancipatory, even revolutionary possibilities once they are totally obsolete. The marketers and advertisers and designers who drive consumption really do comprehend what seems like a profound individual need  to believe and trust, and they cleverly toy with the concept it by peddling faith in a make-believe esthetic world inhabited by commodities; glimpses of reality that are fantasmic mirages that never exist, a secular religion where there is zero to believe in and trust in, except the next new that dutifully makes its appearance part of an endless procession of pre-ordained false messiahs of consumerism….