Advertising

[poliphilo]

I've always hated advertising. Advertising is lies. Advertising is immoral. 

Isn't that obvious? I'm always surprised when people are taken in by it. How can they be so simple-minded?

A breakfast cereal will make you happy? An air freshener will make you happy? Oh, for pity's sake!

A car is a tin box for getting from place to place. All cars are the same. Some have added doodads, some don't. If you want to know which is the best value for money read Which. 

The ads never show the car jolting about among modern urban traffic. They show it gliding down desert roads with nary another car in sight. You want that sense of freedom? You're not going to get it from anything you can put in your garage. Quit your high-pressure job and live on baked beans, move to New Mexico, dream. 

Comments

Bad News

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Living on baked beans won't bring that sense of freedom, either. It might, for a short time. Then the money runs out and you find that poverty is just as oppressive as materialism.

The first step is realizing that there is nothing of value to be gained from advertising, unless, of course, you are the the one making a profit said advertising. The second step is realizing that we are, each of us, responsible for our own happiness.

Celebrate.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, I can confirm that I've watched automobile commercials being filmed out where I live.

And I haven't opened a can of baked beans in years. :-p

[suemars.livejournal.com]

this is just what i needed, we are moving in may and i have had some doubts because of moeny. but our expenses will be alot less and we will be living in the mountains. where its beautiful. i will also make less money. but i think have enough to live a decent life. so thanks for this.

Want...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

My recipe for baked beans? ;)

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

I love baked beans (I'm from Boston!). I also love the simple life that is retirement, living on less than $9,000 per year (because of the low income I get the USA equivalent of National Health Care, absolutely free!) It is so nice to have time to read all those books, do all that writing, take all those long walks and make a photo album of each one. Time to spend with a cat on my lap. Time to sleep in mornings and stay up all hours of the night. All because I believe that money is not important. Been this way all my life. Back when we had cars they were $500 used specials which we took to the local vocational high school to have fixed up and later maintained. It was like driving for free, and we went all over kingdom come in them. People laughed at our cars, and we laughed back at their expensive and wasteful "status symbols."
Yep, like you, I hate advertising - especially when it interferes with the plot of a movie I am watching on TV.
Link | Reply | Thread | Delete |

Re: Want...

[suemars.livejournal.com]

i think i'm going to need it, not just because of the money, but i have looked at the beef things on your journal, now a chicken recall. yuck. my sister and i are going to get chickens, for eggs. do you have a bean recipe that uses eggs? we are also putting in a huge veggie garden. i know this is the best thing, plus its so beautiful there and it will be better for lily.

Re: Bad News

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I guess I got a bit carried away there with the baked beans. ;)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm quite fond of baked beans- but they're pretty bland if you eat them neat. I like to add a good shake of Worcester sauce.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a great adventure.

It's possible to live a decent life on far less than our society considers the norm. It's all about attitude (which includes turning a deaf ear to the advertisers).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We live on about £12,000 p.a. Like you we get health care and prescriptions free. I worry about money sometimes, but....

Yes, I hate how TV programmes get broken up with commercials. If I'm in that sort of mood I yell at the screen.

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

I haven't owned a television in six years. When I do watch television, and therefore have to see more aggressive advertising than the passive stuff I run into on every other available surface in my life, I'm generally stuck by how much if it is aimed at making people paranoid and insecure. People dancing with happiness over getting cosmetic botox injections and worrying about whether or not their dresses fit right. Bleah. I do quite well without it.

Re: Want...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

I have tons of bean recipes. I bake beans mostly in the winter because the oven stays on for hours and it heats the house too.

If you have your own chickens... been there, done that too... then it's safe to eat them. You control how they live and what they eat so they're healthy, but that's assuming someone can kill them.

We had them a couple of years but finally admitted that neither of us really cared much for killing them... so we just ate more eggs and less meat.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They want us to think we're missing out (and our friends and neighbours will laugh at us) if we don't buy their blithering products.

I'd miss my TV- if only because I need it to play my DVDs. But I don't watch a lot these days. And most of what I watch is on the BBC channels which are free of commercials.

Re: Want...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

How do you store your baked beans? Do you can them or seal them in jars or do they go in the freezer?

Re: Want...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

I can them mostly, when I have the energy. You CAN freeze them. They still taste the same but they get all mushy. If you can stand that texture, it's way easier to just toss them into freezer bags. They'll keep a month just in the refrigerator and we eat a lot so...

Re: Want...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd fancy my beans mushy.

Do you bake 'em in tomato sauce they way Heinz does?

Excuse my ignorance, but I'm speaking as someone who has never eaten beans that didn't come from the supermarket in a tin.

Re: Want...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

Traditional Boston Baked beans do NOT have tomato sauce but... you could easily add it if you like it. It's one of those old family recipes that lends itself to ad libs. ;)

Re: Want...

[suemars.livejournal.com]

i'm pretty sure i couldn't eat an animal i have met. so i guess i'll be eating lots of omlets and egg salad.
i would love to have your bean recipes. my mom used to make some that were a mixture of beans with bacon on the top, she baked them. yum.

Re: Want...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

Home baked beans are quite firm and chewy. If you are used to canned beams then frozen ones may not be any mushier than that. Home baking beans is an adventure. Try it... and then improvise.

Re: Want...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

I've put my favorite recipes on my page. If you like that bacon thing you can just add it to the top when you're ready to bake and it will come out just like you remember your Mom's... but you'll need to be careful when you stir them.

Re: Want...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

I'll send you my chicken raising links via email. Figure out how many eggs you will eat in a day then figure one chicken will lay one egg a day. That's how many chickens you need.

Re: Want...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I guess you must have some sort of canning machine too.

There was something I was listening to the other day- I don't know if it TV or what- but it was this person talking about how they used to can their own veg and when they'd filled all the cans they'd take them down to the local blacksmith for him to seal them.

Re: Want...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

Canning at home isn't really all that difficult. It's messy and time consuming but it's easy. You only have to buy the stuff once. You can reuse it all after you sterilize it in boiling water.

See the equipment here:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8033241

I bet you guys would enjoy the task.

You should skip the baking...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

And go to Durgin Park for take-out... if it's still there. Their beans are better than mine... or anyone's.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

There you go. You wanted a conversation about advertising and materialism and the gullibility of the human race and you got... a conversation about baked beans. Well, at least your f-list has its priorities right!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, it wasn't quite what I'd anticipated.

But it's all good!

[internet-sampo.livejournal.com]

Advertising is the rattle of a stick inside a swill bucket.
-- George Orwell

Ah, I was just thinking about the evils of advertising myself; every political issue has been coopted by advertising.

Obama's slogan - Change
Verison's (cellphone) - Change

Choice, Freedom, Independence, Trust ... all of these important political words are now not political but advertising.

So, what do these words now mean to us when we use them in a political context? Do they mean anything political anymore?

[(Anonymous)]

Presumably you don't pay tax or national insurance on that, so £12,000 is about equivalent to £20,000 which is quite good really. The same as a court clerk or a senior payroll administrator in your area.
I have to earn nearly £16,000 per annum just to pay the mortgage on a 2 bed starter home! :)

Tom

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think they mean a thing.

Gordon Brown (our underperforming, overpromoted, dithery prime minister) just made a speech in which he said,

"So with the courage of our convictions, with pride in our common purpose, let us go out with confidence to meet the world to come, and let us build the Britain of our dreams."

Empty, empty, empty.