Coming to work today I was listening to the CBC morning news there was the usual doom and gloom, but what was remarkable was the amount of time devoted to telling Canadians about how awesome the commercials were going to be for the Superbowl and the lengths people were going to get the American cable feeds to be able to watch the commercials.
To watch the commercials.
I think of the amount of creative energy expended to make a mere advertising and despair. The creative genius of our society is not only being flushed down the crapper, but smeared in an orgy of debauched garish technicolour into the cultivated passive brain boxes of eager consumers. Not citizens, not people in living in a vibrant culture, not enabled beings in a swirling maw of democratic give and take. Nothing like that.
Nothing like that at all.
People wonder why stunning masterworks are not frequently made anymore. Looking at the fetid mess that is commercial culture is not a bad place to start. Does anyone, while growing up say, “Wow, I think I can realize my potential in the wonderful world of Advertising!” The creative genius being cravenly abused in the pursuit of profit is emblematic of what is wrong with our culture.
Imagine, if just for second, if we made the choice to channel our creative forces back into meaningful pursuits. What if we valued art, music and literature as much as we value the tawdry glorification of consumer culture. How many Klimts would be painting? How many Beethovens would be composing? How many Jane Austins would be writing? How much many more cultural epochs would we have reached by now if not for hollow banality of consumer culture?
Humanity’s grand claim for the 21st century should not be “perfecting the exploitation of everything for the short sighted benefit of the few”. It is shit; and irredeemably so.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
6 comments
February 3, 2013 at 4:09 am
bleatmop
Not to try and bring you down Arb, but if this time in history is remember for its art, it will be these commercials that will be highlighted as the masterpieces of our age. Well, that AND commercial pop music.
LikeLike
February 3, 2013 at 8:03 am
The Arbourist
@Bleatmop
*thpppbt!* :)
LikeLike
February 4, 2013 at 11:00 am
Heinrich
Lately, I’ve been thinking that our national public broadcaster has become a latent PR and marketing operative for large sports corporations.
First we had the NHL lock-out – 24/7 reports about the ‘new sense of optimism’, and then, finally, about how the billionaire owners and the millionaire players were going to ‘make it up’ to the fans. (But we’re still not getting tax revenue on the stadium.)
We’ve just had the obscenely-hyped run-up to the Superbowl – an American league, even! – and most of the Very Serious punditry concerned the subtleties of television advertising campaigns.
Now we embark on the “Road to the Olympics”, an entire year of stories about whether the Sochi venues will be ready on time, corruption involving the $ 50 billion that will be spent on the games, and whether the Feds are spending enough tax revenue for us to “own the podium”.
The business reports and the sports reports are now indistinguishable.
It enough to make one wonder if it isn’t really all just about the love of money, no?
LikeLike
February 4, 2013 at 11:56 am
The Arbourist
@Heinrich
One of the ideas that Chomsky offers is that pro-sports and all of the attendant drama has been designed to keep the general populace focuses on the inconsequential and thus more easily malleable since their mental energy is focused on sport, rather than the affairs of state.
The union between business, sport, and government is rather interesting no? :)
LikeLike
February 5, 2013 at 9:46 am
Heinrich
@ The Arbourist
Well, Chomsky may be right – but he was certainly not the first to take interest in the topic.
The Roman satirist Juvenal:
“… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.”
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, non? :)
LikeLike
February 5, 2013 at 9:53 am
The Arbourist
@Heinrich
Agreed, and well said. :)
LikeLike