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Coming to a brain near you!

16:20 / 14.05.08

I read this in yesterdays local paper and posted a link to the story on disinfo.com:
Ottawa Citizen Story

I am pretty sick of how we are being over-run by corporate power and their power to advertise to us. I believe that a discordian approach is the best way to counter attack.

I remember a while back that the US had narrowly beat back a motion to allow advertising in federal parks and preserves. Imagine taking a kayak across a pristine lake and seeing a McDonald's billboard secured to a cliff. I have a great fear that this ultrasonic advertising might be approved in such spaces due to it's invisible nature. Imagine hiking up a mountain and suddenly being struck with a chorus of "Sub-Way-Eat-Fresh!"

Has anyone heard of this, and if so, has anyone come up with a way to hack into, or bust such advertising short of vandalism? Not that I'd oppose such a thing...

When people are starving because other people want cheap gas for their cars, when people die making cheap sneakers, when people lose their houses because they believe they need moreMoreMORE... Something's gotta give.

02:13 / 15.05.08

Imagine taking a kayak across a pristine lake and seeing a McDonald's billboard secured to a cliff.

I do see what you're saying, (the environment's going down the toilet, and so on) but what's the use? You might as well be in Radiohead, you know? Or U2?

I think it's too late for the environment, personally.

02:16 / 15.05.08

I',m ... I,m going to get my kicks before the, uh, y'know, shit house goes up in flames.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

02:37 / 15.05.08

"It was totally a freak-with-your-mind experience. It was a great way of building buzz about a show that didn't exist yet."

Italics mine. Uh, yeah, great. Speaking as someone who actually hears stuff on a regular basis I would be somewhat distressed by an experience like that if I wasn't expecting it. I know people with even more severe mental health needs who might become extremely disturbed and frightened if you did this to them.

Maybe someone should reciprocate with LSD in the designers' water-cooler.

Baroness von Lenska

06:39 / 15.05.08

Ultrasound "audio beam" technology has actually been around for a little while. I used to worry about its potential application in advertising, but no longer stress out about it for exactly the reason Mordant gives above me: it is an incredibly distressing, frightening or irritating experience to most humans and is as or more likely to turn someone off to whatever wares you're peddling. Aside from kitschy paranormal tie-ins like the A&E mention, I can't see corporations embracing this sort of thing without a massive backlash. Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing.

I think it's too late for the environment, personally.

After learning that certain fungi can survive in highly irradiated environments, and reading wave after wave of credible and well reasoned arguments that the earth is heating up exponentially, that the earth is entering an ice age, that the earth is certainly not entering an ice age, that the earth is already in an ice age, that carbon emissions aren't enough to account for ozone depletion, that carbon emissions are wrecking everything about the ecosystem, that global warming may be better termed solar warming, etc. etc. I'm currently resting on the position that there's nothing at all "wrong" with the environment, and that if the earth becomes unsuitable for human beings other life forms will adapt and thrive and if the earth becomes unsuitable for life in general, well hey, that seems to happen all the time with planets.

Which, simply for clarification, is a very different stance from apathy. More of a shifting from a human-centric point of view to a planet-centric point of view to a cosmos-centric point of view--that, ultimately, the whole show will keep on trucking with or without us. Or life. Oh dear, I'm not making this seem any cheerier, am I?

11:29 / 15.05.08

I do see what you're saying, (the environment's going down the toilet, and so on) but what's the use?

Environmental issues are very important to me, and there's always hope for humanity to continue it's existence on this planet. I know the earth's gonna survive without us, but that's not my point: I'm sick of seeing advertising EVERYWHERE!

I walk down the street, I see it. I take a piss in a bar, it's in my face. It's on my friend's chests, asses, and feet. It's on the side of every highway. It's in hospitals, churches, schools and parks. It's a fucking blight!

Corporations with tonnes of money still want what little money we have, and they bombard our eyes with advertising. Now they want to bombard our ears! So even if I jam forks in my eyes, I'm still not going to avoid it. My example of kayaking is not because I'm worried about the environmental impact of a billboard, it's that I'm trying to get into nature to get away from the fucking huge companies who are constantly asking for my money. Natural environments are a refuge, not a place to shill your wares: This forest is brought to you by Bambi and the good folks at the Disney Corporation!
That doesn't infuriate you? Piss you off, just a little bit? Bill Hicks was right: Marketers and Advertisers suck Satan's cock!

Aside from kitschy paranormal tie-ins like the A&E mention, I can't see corporations embracing this sort of thing without a massive backlash.

I'm not so sure... Most advertising, especially jingles, are both kitschy and annoying, but work by attrition. I think that there will be way more people who will think it's really cool than those of us who are slightly more sensitive to such things. Remember: A huge majority of the population see nothing wrong with paying billion-dollar-profit corporations for the Honour & Privilege of wearing these logos and providing free advertising...

I',m ... I,m going to get my kicks before the, uh, y'know, shit house goes up in flames.

If you're trolling, or having fun by baiting me, good on you, it worked. Still, it's something I'm pretty passionate if not uptight about...

Less searchable M0rd4nt

13:27 / 15.05.08

Word in your ear, freektemple: "Alex" is one of our resident recreational contrarians. Whether or not he means anything he's written above or in other threads on environmentalism is a moot point, but my bet is you'll get very little out of this exchange.

14:48 / 15.05.08

Thanks for the head's up, Mordant...
All's fair in Love and Fnord, I suppose...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

04:58 / 16.05.08

freektemple I take a piss in a bar, it's in my face.

Too... many... jokes...

If this technology is rolled out where the only way to opt out of it is to leave the area then shops that try using it might find they have a noticeable dip in custom. I'll put up with all manner of advertising at places like a cinema before a film, or on telly, but if I can't choose to listen to my MP3 player while going round certain shops because I get junk mail broadcast straight to my inner ear then I'll have to vote with my feet.

09:51 / 16.05.08

I'm kind of curious as to how we're supposed to fight something that "hundreds of people flocked to", to be honest. I can't think of a way to say this without sounding snide, but these are going to be the same people who say "Hey, that's not such a bad idea..." when it starts getting suggested that we stick tracking chips inside children. You know, just in case.

11:37 / 16.05.08

Yup... Give an inch...
Look at old photographs of cities from the 1800's... A couple of walls painted as advertisements, some signs hung in windows... Now everything is branded... It's like mould, spreading exponentially. Look at the button you push for a cross-walk... I bet there's a sticker with the company that made it. All you Brits: look at your football teams: running billboards (Then all the folks who pay 120 quid to own an "official" jersey...)Wherever you are right now, look around: count the number of things trying to advertise or sell to you...
And yeah, they'll use fear to sell: RFID subQ's, 9 year-olds with GPS cell phones at $80/month so Mommy and Daddy can track Prince(ess)'s every move, insurance which never pays out, CCTV on every corner (And starting here in Ottawa, every cab)...
Sad fact: Big Brother exists, and he is us.
We buy the shit, beg for it sometimes, and then demand a return on our investment, which will come if we buy into it a little bit more...
Yup... Something's gotta give, because it sure as hell can't be sustainable... (Unless we set up a permanent war-zone to sacrifice a percentage of the population to keep the machine well lubricated and the rest of us can remain happy yet fearful little consumers.)
...
...
...
Damn, I'm given to ranting sometimes... Sorry about that, it lets the steam outta the pressure cooker a bit. I'm not really frothing, honestly...

12:26 / 16.05.08

I'm kind of curious as to how we're supposed to fight something that "hundreds of people flocked to", to be honest. I can't think of a way to say this without sounding snide, but these are going to be the same people who say "Hey, that's not such a bad idea..." when it starts getting suggested that we stick tracking chips inside children. You know, just in case.

While I'm aware that such people exist (much as I like to try to tell myself they don't), I don't think this logically follows.

I'd be kind of interested in experiencing for myself what this is like - not exactly enough that I'd bother travelling to do so, but enough that if the technology was around I'd try it out. Indeed, I'm sure there are plenty of legitimately good uses for it. That's not the same, though, as thinking that it's okay to put this in places where people will be exposed to it without their consent. I'm sure that plenty of those that "flocked to it" would be rather less impressed if it were being foisted upon them.

14:00 / 16.05.08

Where I live some of the graffiti deliberately subverts advertising. That is one cool thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljEUA3UpS4s

Baroness von Lenska

05:19 / 25.05.08

Good news! RFID tagging everything on the planet is apparently not profitable.

Off topic: Anyone with a morbid fear of advertising might find this to be an interesting/entertaining/utterly nightmare breeding view. Premise is essentially the same as this thread, except with brains instead of ears being the target.

11:25 / 26.05.08

Look at old photographs of cities from the 1800's... A couple of walls painted as advertisements, some signs hung in windows... Now everything is branded... It's like mould, spreading exponentially.

I think you'll find that the levels of advertising were actually pretty high although the techniques used to sell various items weren't as sophisticated as they are now. Street hawkers would have used advertising to sell their wares (that style of advertising goes back as far as commerce does). Posters and the like became more common as the cost of printing decreased.

Everything is branded because, whether you like it or not, brand advertising works. The styles of advertising which make the most money are the ones that proliferate. Being able to encode a certain message into a symbol or name that has positive associations for people is a very powerful tool for selling things.

Over-saturation of advertising is a big problem though. Some sort of memetic resistance training ought to be included in the school sylabus really.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:55 / 26.05.08

I'm not sure how you'd do that - in general, people's awareness of brands seems to be based on a pretty sensible measurement of how seriously the brand is taking its own development - by budget, by advertising, by promotion - plus a factor introduced by the compatibility of the individual with the brand - like Freektemple's adbusting sneakers, which are aligned with the brand values of combating the intrusion of branding into purchasing decisions.

16:16 / 26.05.08

Business Studies may have changed since I was a nipper, but it seems the ideal environment. Teaching awareness of the more subtle tricks used by the advertising companies could help people to recognise them when exposed to them. I have to admit though I couldn't find any studies to support whether or not this would actually provide any positive benefit, and there are factors beyond knowing that you're being manipulated that decide whether or not you buy a specific product.

15:34 / 03.06.08

Now add this

Ok. Take a billboard that can talk only to you. Now let it "see" you, determine your age, sex, and how long you look at it...

Soon, with a bit of processing power, let it run facial recognition programs and cross refference it across a database of the potulation compiled by Visa, MC, AMEX, etc...

They'll know who you are, how much you spend, what you like, what your reaction to the ad is, and will then be able to tailor a message just for you based on rapid, "on the fly" psychological profile algorithms...

Fuck, I'm getting paranoid in my old age.

15:56 / 03.06.08

They'll know who you are, how much you spend, what you like,

If you own a debit/credit card the chances are they already know.

16:01 / 03.06.08

What worries me more about these billboards is that the creators argue that, because the cameras only analyse certain factors about you (age, gender, etc) and don't actually record your image that they aren't an invasion of privacy.

That said I can't see one of these lasting for more than five minutes on a Saturday night in Woking. Thank heavens for teenage vandalism.

03:16 / 05.06.08

I'm eating a Pot Noodle, wearing Levis, drinking a Stella and listening to Radiohead as I type this. What could the ad industry possibly tell me about myself that I don't already know, at this point, to my shame?

Imagine being confronted by the sordid, personalised details of that in a shopping centre? It wouldn't be good, but who'd care?

For a while yet, one's unlikely to get locked away for forty days and forty nights for buying the wrong products.

Accordingly, FT, your targets seem a bit out-dated. The thing about advertising, as opposed to state oppression is, as I'm sure you know, that you can just ignore advertising.

17:49 / 03.07.08

The US military (well, navy in this case) love the idea.

Wouldn't it be just great if you could incapacitate an entire crowd with painful levels of noise beamed directly into their ears? Yay!