Criminal #2- Mastercard "The Joy of Giving her a Concussion"

So everyone finds those cutesy little Mastercard commericals funny right? 30 second spot: $15,000; Airtime, $10,000; Brainwashing, priceless. For all this and more there's Mastercard. Apparently this Holiday the unstable, overreactive female in YOUR life will be having a concussion because by using your little card of plastic you'll be getting her a new car. Fantabulous for you buddy, but maybe, just MAYBE you'll find that not all women cry, hyperventilate and then collapse on the ground... Oh wait, she's seizuring. What the commercial doesn't tell you!

Now, okay, I can see how this might thrill a woman to no end. I would be stoked to be getting a new car. But crying? Requiring a paperbag? FAINTING? No, I'm sorry, maybe I just come from a very stable home (ha ha...) but none of the women I know.. anywhere, would react like that. There would be screaming for joy, and probably lots of sex, possibly in the back seat of said new car, but I guess they couldn't show that on TV.

For some reason the stereotype of women being excessively emotional towards suprise material objects is still being reinforced, worst of all people buy into it. Now I'm not saying everyone who sees that commerical goes out to get a Mastercard does so with the intent on making a woman faint, that isn't the point of the commercial. It's the shock value (and physical humor) that draws people in. The problem is we're so desensitized to the images we see in the media that things like that brush off of us. It's being passive again, a no-no. Be active in your viewing, you'll start noticing that commericials, ads in magazines, bilboards, they're starting to look a little suspicious, right? Something not sitting right in your gut? That would be your brain, what it's doing in your gut I don't know, but at least it's not shoved up your butt anymore. Just a few more feet and it'll be back in your skull where it belongs, and maybe you'll see the media world around you for what it is: Liable.

Criminal #1- Axe Bodyspray

Well, where do I begin? Let's assume for a moment that I buy Axe on a regular basis. Obviously I don't being A) a girl and B) completely and totally sane.

So a young woman and her grandmother are strolling through the supermarket when suddenly... what's that? The young woman gets a whiff of a heavenly odor! Can it be? It can't... Yes! Corrosive chemicals combined together in aerosol form! How delightful! Tossing her grandmother aside the young woman, what is she doing? Strolling? Ambling? Oh, no, sorry, that would be a burlesque routine right there. Well anyways, she begins to flaunt, and shake, and otherwise bring shame to her grandmother that probably spent her youth fighting for the right to vote.

Now someone tell me, am I the only person in the world that doesn't find Axe at all appealing? Maybe it's because in high school some kids thought it would be funny to spray it in the hallways and watch as asthmatic kids were forced to walk through it. Maybe it's because I think it generally smells disgusting.

Or maybe it's because the angry feminist in me is totally disgusted by the idea of a woman doing whatver sort of dance THAT was in front of a kid just because he smells like chemicals. Meanwhile grandma's nursing a broken hip and women's rights have just fallen back about thirty-four years.

Have the makers of Axe even spoken to a woman? I get that maybe some of them find it funny, okay, on first glance I would think making an ass out of myself in public would be funny too... Oh wait, no I wouldn't, because it's not. It's ridiculous.

Congratulations Axe, if I ever thought of buying your product (don't worry, I didn't) now I won't because you are the first on the list of Buy and Die. I say that, of course, assuming that nothing about your product is safe and it's probably eating away at that young mans lungs as he watches raging-hormone girl dance around. Better get your inhaler, Billy!

Welcome

Welcome readers (Of who right now I'm sure only consist of the three friends I'm going to send this too once I'm finished)

This is an idea that's been forming in the back of my skull for a while ever since completing a Media and Current Events class offered to me in high school. There we learned about the media, the manipulation tactics used by corporations in order to get unsuspecting people (passive viewers) to buy into whatever product was being thrown in their faces.

Now that I've graduated I've thought about it a lot more. What am I watching? How do the commercials make me feel? What is that billboard really saying to me? Am I being influenced by it or am I going to fight it?

Culture jamming is illegal. It's defacing property, that's apparently frowned upon. Well, I'm too young (and not quite cunning enough I'm afraid) to risk going around and defacing posters and advertisements, but there is something else I can do.


Enter Buy and Die: A Year of Protest.


It's very simple, any commerical, and advertisement, anything that just doesn't sit right with me is going to go here, followed by my own reasoning behind why I don't like it. Sure, you think, but what's that going to accomplish? Not a damn thing, except by making a note of the crummy advertisments in the world, I'm going to put a halt to buying those products. Shampoo commerical a little too racey? I'll try a new brand. Those cars suggest a minority can't drive? I won't be investing in one of them (...Okay, I won't be buying a car anyways, but you get my point!)

So I'm offering to anyone who might stumble across this blog, join me. Start being active viewers, pay attention to what you see every day. More importantly, be picky about it, if you don't like the smallest detail then that counts, put it on the list. This is an experiment of sorts, wht can we live without and what do we consider to valuable give up? Consider the consequences, is our own freedom to make our own choices a good enough price to pay if you have to have that product (even when the commerical stereotypes a certain type of person?) This is about taking stock in what you value in life, at the end of a year you should have not only saved money but hopefully be a little more aware of what is around you.

And for the record, yes, I'm perfectly aware that the arguements to follow will be petty, and at times even dumb. That's the point. I don't have to have a reason to hate a certain advertisement, but for the sake of people that like to debate, I'm going to try and find reasons.

So, let me sum it up:
Advertisements, commercials, all these ideas being thrown at you. Start to look at them. Really look at them and realize what is being shown to you. Then protest, don't buy that product for one year, can you do it? I bet you can. It'll be tough but I'll be there right along side you bitching and protesting the whole way. In the end your only reward might be the fact that you saved a bit of money, or maybe you feel a bit more active in your viewing. Those are both reasons alone to do it. So start paying attention folks, corporations everywhere are manipulating us and we don't even realize it. It's time to fight back.