... and, loony drug czars aside, the use of these consumer products doesn't come close to that of legal, advertised products like alcohol and tobacco. (They produce enormous profits per volume, though.) And without any real evidence to offer, I think, yes, an end to the consumerist barrage would have a positive effect on lessening the consumption of addictive products (at self- and socially-destructive levels) in society as a whole.
I think the ubiquitous role of advertising and consumerist fantasies in shaping people's consciousness can't be overemphasized. The best recent treatment of this I've seen is a video called "Advertising and the End of the World," by Sut Jhally at the Media Education Foundation at the University of Massachusetts. The title sounds like snarky post-modern irony, but, ironically, isn't. It's a bit pricy for individuals, but it has a hand-to-hand distribution network and may be available at well-stocked libraries.
----Original Message Follows---- From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com To: pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu CC: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Addiction, Advertising, & Easy Virtue (was Re: How far do we go?) Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 00:00:12 -0500
Michael Perelman wrote:
>I would rather affect smoking by eliminating privileges of the corporations
>that sell the cigarettes, such as eliminating the tax deductibility of
>advertising -- I would do it for all advertising, but that's me.
I am in favor of eliminating cigarette advertising (as well as all idiotic corporate advertising, though it's impossible to do so under capitalism). However, it is not clear whether the absence of corporate advertising will make a huge dent in consumption of addictive goods & production of addiction... _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com