:: AARP and Spotify ::

I was watching Jeopardy with my grandma this week and, although we muted it during commercials and talked, I noticed commercials for the AARP and for Depends. It strikes me just how much advertisements target their audience... and just how much the audience varies from one program to another.

I've also heard the first half of quite a few Spotify commercials. I get a lot for squarespace and for other bands. I heard a preview of one song, which I guess was supposed to entice me to "click the banner" and learn more about the artist, but the lyric were, I swear, "You remind me of something. I'm not sure what. But you remind me of something."  If those are the lyrics they choose to highlight in a 30 second Spotify add, I shudder to think what the rest of the song must sound like.

So that was a poorly targeted ad.

Also, I feel like Spotify should come up with a dating service or a new-friend-finder feature that pairs up people based on similar music preferences. But that's unrelated to advertisements; it's just a good idea.

:: Ralph Lauren, Marie Claire, and "Secret Guitar Chords" ::

Advertisements I've encountered in the last two days:

I ordered an electric tuner on December 31 (so as to avoid violating my resolution condemning unnecessary consumption, although I have a very serious tin ear so I think a tuner is more necessary than frivolous...).

Anyway, the tuner came with a slip of paper that promised "secret guitar chords the experts don't know" if I singed up for something online. I don't even play guitar so that was a waste of a little slip of paper.

I also inadvertently watched a commercial for Marie Claire something or other... I've been trying to avoid network TV with commercials (its funny how you don't realize you're even watching a commercial until like 30 seconds in) but I'm home with my mother now and she's very committed to HGTV and those meaningless sitcoms they air as reruns on TBS. I've also noticed a lot of product placement in those.

Speaking of product placement, I watched a few seasons of the fourth season of Arrested Development and there are riddled with product placement, or what feels like product placement (I noticed, in particular, an out-of-place mention of AllState). Even if these things aren't intentional product placement, they still represent how brands and specific products have entirely infiltrated our society. Very disappointing.

Oh, I also saw ads for Ralph Lauren and (duh) Viking River Cruises on PBS.

:: Mobile Oil + Diamonds ::

Yesterday I was browsing through an article on Instructables and when I clicked on the last arrow I got a full page advertisement for mobile motor oil, you know, the lubricating kind you put in your engine sometimes.

And that seemed rather poetic... an ad for oil.

Later I was reading something on the NY Times arts page and I noticed a large advertisement for diamonds or jewelry or something in the farthermost right column of the page.

So I've solved the popup and in-page ad problem by installing AdBlock for Google Chrome. That was a good choice.

I also accidentally listened to a commercial for Squarespace via Spotify and I've head the first 3 seconds of a lot of TV ads before I start screaming and grab the remote from whatever fool is content to sit through 4 minutes of obnoxious ads.

I think my experiment is going as well as can be expected so far.

::: An introduction :::

So this blog is a chronicle of my 2014--my year of subversive consumption.

It's funny, as I type I'm listening to Spotify and, literally just this second, a commercial for "The University of Phoenix" has come on.

It's surprisingly difficult to avoid advertisements, actually. They're so pervasive... And I guess I've realized that I know I don't know how these ads--ads in my music, on my computer, all over my TV, are affecting my wants and goals.

I'm not choosing to consume these ads, and it strikes, me, I don't want to be consuming them.

I don't care about the University of Phoenix.

So I'm going to try to avoid advertisements. And unwanted, unneeded media of all kinds. I'm going to be a conscious consumer of the words, ideas, and images I put into my brain.

I'm interested in Marxist economics, in people's patterns of consumption, commodification, and authenticity, and so I've decided to pay closer attention to my place in this economic system, starting with the ideas I consume.

And the ideas in advertisement, which promote consumerism and manufacture need--to benefit those already in power, at the expense of all the rest of us--aren't the kinds of ideas I'm interested in internalizing.