truth for sale

11 Things: Truth for sale

Thursday, March 27, 2008

1. Definition: "Advertising is selling Twinkies to adults."
- Donald R. Vance

(sponsored by: Twinkies)

2. Nutrition: "If everything on television is, without exception, part of a low-calorie (or even no-calorie) diet, then what good is it complaining about the adverts? By their worthlessness, they at least help to make the programmes around them seem of a higher level."
- Jean Baudrillard

(sponsored by: fast food and pharmaceuticals)

3. Clarification: "Let me try and clarify some of this for you. Best Company Supermarkets are not interested in selling wholesome foods. They are not worried about the nation's health. What is concerning them, is that the nation appears to be getting worried about its health, and that is what's worrying Best Co. ..."
- "How to Get Ahead in Advertising"

(sponsored by: our sponsors)

4. Manipulation: "It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country."
- Raymond Chandler

(sponsored by: our leaders)

5. Deception: "The deeper problems connected with advertising come less from the unscrupulousness of our 'deceivers' than from our pleasure in being deceived, less from the desire to seduce than from the desire to be seduced."
- Daniel J. Boorstin

(sponsored by: our fellow citizens)

6. Condition: "The modern little red riding hood, reared on singing commercials, has no objections to being eaten by the wolf."
- Marshall McLuhan

(sponsored by: the wolf)

7. Function: "Advertising is the modern substitute for argument. Its function is to make the worse appear better."
- George Santayana

(sponsored by: reverse psychology)

8. Convention: "The very minute a thought is threatened with publicity it seems to shrink towards mediocrity."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

(sponsored by: quiet modesty)

9. Perception: "I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second."
- Steven Wright

(sponsored by: the subconscious)

10. Fruition: "The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity."
- George Carlin

(sponsored by: the caterpillar's publicist)

11. Seduction: "Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising."
- John Lahr

(sponsored by: our society)

Tim Sullivan, tsullivan@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/27/NSTVVPK94.DTL

This article appeared on page G - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle