Advertising, the justification of immorality

Advertising is anything but the self-justification of immorality in the name of economic principles. We have all been brought up with a sense of decency, a healthy dose of shyness, an innate morality. Not so advertising.

1. We have been told to be altruistic. Advertising is selfish. It's sole pupose of existence is to speak for itself. In doing so it appeals to man's selfishness and greed.

2. We have been told to tell the truth. Advertising has turned telling lies into a virtue. Lies are the only means to make the market believe the product is superior.

3. We have been told to be content with what we have. Advertising wants to generate more profit at the expense of other players on the market. It tells us we need to buy more of the same because we are worth it.

4. We have been told to help others. Advertising helps you to empty your wallet for your own greedy purposes. It makes you spend till you drop so that you have nothing left to give away or help others with. If advertising pushes others out of the market so that companies go broke and people loose their job, it can't help it, shrugs its shoulder and moves on.

5. We have been told: do unto others as you would have do them unto you. Advertising teaches us: do unto yourself what you could have done unto others and do nothing unto them.

6. We have been told: love your neighbour as yourself. Advertising teaches us to love ourselves only and excell in it.

7. We have been told to be modest. Advertising brags about itself and makes you brag about yourself.

8. We have been told that to remain silent is often better than to speak. Advertising vomits its message uncalled for at all times in every possible way in every imaginable place.

9. We have been told that greed is the root of evil. Advertising tells us that life starts to be fun only when we are greedy. In doing so advertising aims to fulfill its own greed.

10. We have been told to count our days and remember that they are numbered. Advertising envisions unending material fulfillment as we buy and spend.

11. We have been told that truth is virtous. Advertising tells us that money creates the power to persuade and influence. This persuasion is truth, power is truth, money is truth, what advertising makes you think is true is truth.

12. We have been told that it is moral to be moral. Advertising teaches us that the principle of seeking commercial profit at all cost is the golden rule of moral conduct. Even if it means the world will burn up like a candle.

Advertising is immoral, deceitful, seductive and untrue. It's a monster that devours. It's the whore that fornicates and gets drunk with the blood of the poor.

Getting on

A good friend recently asked me how I felt about turning 41. Yes, I will turn 41 tomorrow. Some people get their mid-life crisis around this time, others want to deny the reality of their age. I consider myself fortunate that those who were my age when I was young, in fact still are... my age. If they would be, let's say, 20 years older to me simply because I stayed young, I would hav had something to worry about. I also consider it a privilege that my collegues in the studio who are 10-17 years younger to me, marvel that I still fool around with them as though I'm a 20 year old.

But yes, I do grow older, not younger. Does it bother me? Not in the least. For many years I've been waiting for God to change things in my life and recently things have started to change in a big way. I am looking forward to the years ahead. Let me grow older as long as I may be fruitful for God. The years pass by, whether I like it or not. If that be so, then let these years be spent for eternity. At the end of the day I want to be able to look back and say, I've won the race and completed my task. Lord, come and fill me with you Spirit and give me your vision so I can put my time to use for the enlargement of your Kingdom.

Christmas and advertising

It used to be that talking about a star during Christmas time would make one think about the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem. That star ultimately referred to the Morning Star that is rising in the heart of those that adhere to Jesus' teachings. During the post Second World War Era, when in Europe Christianity was cut to pieces, denounced by the intellectual elite and consequently disregarded by the masses, those references to Christianity were tolerated during Christmas only.

Now, having arrived in the post-Christian era, things are different altogether. Idiomatic references to Christmas are not merely condoned but encouraged. The other day I walked in a department store and saw an advertising poster that read 'Shine Like A Star'. Of course the message doesn't have anything to do with Christianity. A beautifully dressed woman and child filled the poster vaguely referring to the madonna with child, I suppose. References to Christmas do no longer offend as they are so much detached from the actual meaning and source that they simply tend to generate a vague sense of childhood memory while leaving it up to the receptor of the message to fill the words with a personalized meaning.

Indeed advertising has been one of the main areas where post-modernism shows itself at its best. Look at the US where being politically correct has gone so extreme as to bar any religious expression or activity to be displayed in the public arena. The First Lady was heard wishing 'Happy Holidays'. Now Apple has come up with an advertising campaign to promote their lifestyle products. Suprisingly this is what we get. 'Joy to their world' it reads, and 'No more silent night' is promised to those buying an iPod. One can be politically correct and 'objective' in public while at the same time stating these things in advertising messages.

Christian language has come up for grabs. Give it your own meaning. Using these words in their original context is a vice, using them detached from their meaning for a commercial purpose it a virtue.

Happy Holidays Apple... let your light shine. But stay off my truth and the words that I use to express it. Advertising. I want out!

Every start has a beginning

I've never been good at diaries and the like. Poetry, yes, but writing my heart out? Forget it! Yet, there is rationale behind keeping a blog, I suppose. It is not a diary. It is not about expounding my inner me to the world. As if anybody is dying to know how my personality is developing.

A blog is a way of learning to be opinionated and developing a writing skill while at the same time potentially interacting with other like-minded or not so like-minded people on a certain subject. In addition to that there is probably no better way to effectively practice writing English as a second language. In short, blogging is about acquiring skills, being in dialogue, while it stops short of publishing.

Let's see where this is headed. Every start has a beginning. And whether or not it's a false start will never be known without it.