Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Rachel Blake May Have Stolen a Few Months of My Life but Her Story Sure is a Potent Warning

I could cite the oft-cited and refer to the number of advertisements that any average high-school-aged student views in one day to establish my argument. Instead I am going to set myself up for serious moting and say that the overt commercials I take in affect me more than the vast number of subliminal ones that I'm exposed to all the time1.

ANECDOTE DETAILING THE WAY IN WHICH THE MOST OVERT ADVERTISEMENTS AFFECT ME SIGNIFICANTLY (1): The summer of 2006 saw the enormous corporate cooperation between ABC, Coca-Cola, Monster.com, and various other brand names that manifested as an "Alternate Reality Game" (hereafter, ARG) for the immensely popular ABC serial drama Lost. The Lost Experience was an online game spanning the internet and even some physical places that merged the universe of the viewer with that of the show's story itself (i.e. the consumer followed Rachel Blake (was that her name?) on her quest to expose the coverup of the crash of flight 815 (the plane containing the main characters of Lost that crashed on an island in the pilot episode) by the shady Hanso foundation (another element of the television show)). The ARG required that viewers trek all over the Internet/world to get clues related to the show's mysteries while being offered products by the game's sponsors. The overly commercial nature of the game proved endearing2 and fans found ironic pleasure in pretending to be easily swayed by the ads. Especially relevant part: During a giveaway of Apollo bars (a brand originating from the show), I unquestioningly went to the mall to receive my free share (and the box they were in (possible collector's item?)) of the illogically-conceived (Rachel Blake somehow infiltrated the Apollo factory and printed a URL on all the bars?) candy, which would amount to nothing more than some frozen chocolate and a couple of wrappers that I once halfheartedly tried to preserve. But I most definitely did tune in enthusiastically to view the show's season premiere on October 6, 2006.

So these viral campaigns are really the things that get me excited to be sold stuff (Examples: Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare in Boston, ilovebees.com, Trent R.'s campaign for his new album, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible website, etc.). And whenever there's a new one my appreciation of commercialism rises noticeably.


1Like I could be any sort of authority on whether subliminally-absorbed messages affect me or not.
2Endearing in the way that the commercialism of the Oscars is endearing, although decidedly less cool.

2 comments:

nom de guerre said...

Quit wasting your life and stop trying to waste mine.

nom de guerre said...

Also: your titles are really freaking long.