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Amex goes Invisible

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19:11 / 25.12.03

Hmmm. not sure if this is the right area to post, but here goes.
There's a new American Express ad in cinemas called "John's Dreams". These are (roughly) early 20's buy suit, early 30's buy designer suit, early 50's shed suit.
Anyone else think this sounds a bit Invisible?

Aertho

21:06 / 25.12.03

I think it sounds symptomatic of the "youth-soaked Rebel" ideal that seems to populate mainstream advertising. It's Invisible in the way that all things are turning invisible... in the way that people are beginning to see similar patterns in Everyone.

So... yes, and no.

CameronStewart

01:50 / 26.12.03

I don't understand anything either of you just said.

The lost art of clear articulation....

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

04:08 / 26.12.03

Invisible? No, it's very typical coporate mind fucking:

If you pay our rates and do what we tell you, you can relax when we are done with you. Now go work and consume!

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17:22 / 26.12.03

I'd go with the yes.. and no.. myself.

Clearly they're trying to do the usual "You are in control of your life" (...but we control you more, look how you want to believe this shit!) it just struck me as interesting that the title is John's Dreams and it was obsessed with suits and the overt visual message is death and rebirth. Ok, so they may have nicked Morrison memes in the service of corporate whoredom, but that's not to say the underlying message is entirely lost. It's pretty much the method Lang and Mob were using after the group split.

The lost art of clear articulation? I really can't be arsed explaining the fictionsuit thing again. I'm sure it's been well covered elsewhere.

penitentvandal

17:25 / 26.12.03

Yeah, like if you don't want to wear a suit then take it off now, don't spend fifty years of your life as a fucking slave and then doff the thing as some bogus 'reward' at the end of it, man. I mean what is this, the Roman Empire?

Me and my mate saw that advert before we watched Interstella 5555 and we both just cringed. I mean, (a), because what self-respecting person has dreams of buying a suit for crying out loud? Don't get me wrong, I can be quite a dapper fellow, in fact I've even been called foppish at times, and I understand the allure of fine clothing, but just 'a suit'? That's his only dream? Sad. And, (b) because it's a fifty-year-old naked man running around, ten-foot high, in glorious technicolour. I do not go to the cinema to watch the wobbly arses of naked fifty-year-old men, dammit.

I have video for that.

CameronStewart

17:41 / 26.12.03

>>>The lost art of clear articulation? I really can't be arsed explaining the fictionsuit thing again. I'm sure it's been well covered elsewhere. <<<

It's not the fictionsuit concept that I didn't understand (although it is a concept that has been co-opted and distorted by Barbelith folk to something barely resembling Morrison's original idea), but that your first post didn't make any attempt to coherently explain the content of advertisement, or why it bore relation to the Invisibles. Not to be bitchy but if you want to spark debate and discussion it's a good idea to present the topic clearly. Your second post does a better job, thanks.

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09:00 / 27.12.03

Mea culpa.
That's what happens when I post during the Xmas martini-based fuzziness. It's the olives, they turn me into a smartarse.

Baz Auckland

12:35 / 27.12.03

(I wish I had a scanner, as I could have posted the ad itself but..)

...there's series of cell phone ads that reminds me badly of The Filth out there. The ads have a half dozen or more people in them, all with the same faces that recall Anders Kilmakkas(sp?) from the early issues. One's a teenage girl with his face, with posters of bands all with the same face staring... And with his clones growing to populate the world at the end of the story they seem oddly appropriate....

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