h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is a darker side to the rich and vital exchange of consumerism and it involves buying into a product. Projecting desires onto an object because it offers status and empowerment is a common theme.

'You can be a part of this amazing and glamourous product' the voice from the television seems to say. We are encouraged to believe (very subtly) that the beauty, excitement, desirability of the goods presented to us can rub off on us with the spectacle and ever present reminders that 'advertise' the power and influence of the brand. This is consumer fetish and it's dangerous.

Fetishisation of consumer products is what advertising is really all about. The product is sexy, the product will make you feel sexy. Why? because it satisfies, because it gives you status, even power, and you can rub that in the face of the people who haven't. So what happens to the people who can't participate, who can't afford to buy into the power? What will be the reaction of the disenfranchised people who can't join in with the culture that surrounds them, suffocates them?

What if that section of society is the majority, occupying whole nations, continents? The capital cities of the richest nations also have disenfranchised citizens, not just the homeless or destitute either. How must they react to the pressure of consumerism, all that ever present status smiling over their heads out of reach.

Depressing isn't it? But this is the dark underbelly of all that sexy and exciting imagery. So watch out, there is a bogeyman in modern folklore too. Check under your beds and shut the closet door, keep a night light on and say your prayers before bedtime... or the ad-man will get you. Ah hahahahaha!!!!!Ahhh hahaahhahahaaaa...............

My name is Doc and I'm an ad-man.But not for long,I think.I don't
have the stomach any more.There's a speed course for teachers
available at the Amsterdam Open University , and I'm joining.
You may call me names now.