advertising juggernaut

I flew into Seattle today. I'm here to help Jack jack up his boat and get it toward the water (maybe not all the way into the water, but closer...)

I had a little time on the airplane today to think, airplanes are great places to let your mind run without distraction, without the invasion of attention diversions.

(side note: don't fly US Airways. Those guys are cutting costs so hard, I can't help but imagine what kind of costs are being cut in the maintenance shop too, and that makes me nervous. My evidence is the little things on the plane: no peanuts, no pretzels, only 1 drink offering on a 5 hour flight... And then, there's the lack of sink water in the lav. Seriously?! That's a pretty disgusting health issue. 2 hours after takeoff on a 737, I have a hard time believing they ran out of water. No, I'm sure US Airways is carrying less water to save weight, ergo save fuel. That's just pathetic.)

OK, on to my real thought of the day. I'm here in Seattle, and I flew, and I had time to think on the plane. I've been thinking about new media, about web 2.0, about the future of the dissemination of information and the radical changes afoot in publishing and print media. It's a time when anyone can be a journalist, anyone can publish their rantings to the world (ahem). The costs and barriers to publishing the written word have fallen dramatically. But those costs aren't zero. It takes a few pennies to publish this blog posting, and others. And there are incredible amount of others And who funds those pennies? Advertising.

So here I am, in Seattle. I flew in today on that shitty US Airways flight, where I was distracted by the granola bar advertisement plastered across the entire surface of my seat-back tray table. And now I'm sitting with Jack and Sandy - astounded to watch the advertising juggernaut that is American Idol. I don't have a TV, so I don't watch this shit at home. But damn, I'm really amazed. Is this what television has become? I'm amazed to see product placement and integrated advertisement so incredibly woven into every part of this show. itunes, Ford, Coke, past performers (and their record labels), future stars (and their record labels), royalties for song writers of covered songs. Damn, it's in every aspect. Ooops, I just spoiled the winner of Dancing with Stars after reading in on the New York times before it was on tv in Seattle. Wow, she's pissed. Who knew it was so serious? I was just told that if I tell who wins American Idol tomorrow night, I'll have to find a new place to sleep. Damn.

Point being: advertising isn't going anywhere. It's here in full force and spreading it's tentacles into every media-touched aspect of our lives. It's a bit frightening when I realized how often I'm being pitched to, even more when I think about how often I don't even realized it.

Ok, after all that, watching Steve-O and Woz dance on the dancing with the stars is actually pretty fun.