FRONTLINE: the pbs documentary series not the flea medicine

i am the same way with terrible people who mysteriously became my facebook friends! i wont ever hide/de-friend them no matter how terrible their posting is

oh yeah, facebook is the best place for investment-free people watching.

Yeesh that Mini Jackass kid is the monster that this whole "like" economy creates. But at the same time, that kind of sponsorship has been the central goal of skaters/snowboarders/surfers hell, just athletes since the beginning. Plus corporations have been sponsoring (and thus controlling) content since corporations and content first existed so I don't really see this as some kind of new horrible thing (just the same old horrible thing).

Except for the part where huge multi-million dollar corporations are exploiting teens for free labor. That is grosser than gross. Hopefully people will realize eventually that they can't pay off student loans with "sparks" (whatever they are) and things will shift again.

I think the biggest emotion this doc made me feel is relief that I don't give a shit about creating an identity or branding myself and also that I deleted my Facebook page when I did.

I also assume that there is an anti-branding/marketing/liking counter culture out there, plus while there was some ethnic diversity among the kids profiled, it definitely focused on a limited socioeconomic sample. I guess I see this more as a look at the way a certain segment of kids operate as opposed to the way things are universally.

Tyler Oakley looks like somebody I know and it's driving me nuts because I can't figure out who it is.

i couldn't help thinking how the hunger games girl is gonna feel watching this footage of herself in 5-10 years

i really hope rushkoff does another one of these in 2026.

She may not be devoted to The Hunger Games anymore, but that kind of impulse doesn't go away easily. She'll be wrapped up in something else by 2026.

that repulsion with advertising/being sold something is the most lingering part of the feeling in the air where/when i grew up. my mom told me in 7th gr that people wear brand names on the outside of their clothing because they're insecure and i have pretty much believed that my entire life.

I got this line too! Heavily. It's revealing, though, that it convicts obvious, visible advertising, but doesn't address that all choices are products of environment and input. Like, if advertising is bad, and "selling out" is bad, and being swayed by social forces is bad (made to desire products or brands or even desiring of popularity/approval at all), then the ultimate good is "neutrality" or some kind of purity of personal development, as if such a thing is even possible.

When I was in the 4th grade I convinced my grandparents to take me to Lufkin where there was a skate shop to buy clothes and a board. When we were driving back my grandpa said, "you know with all of those t shirts you got you're gonna be a walking advertisement for those companies." I didn't fully get what he was saying, but I felt self conscious. It did soured my excitement at finally having cool skate clothes. I don't think I was aware of it at the time, but most of the things my grandpa lectured me about was preparing me for becoming punk rock and anti-corporate.

lol with skate brands, I was like, fuck u, I'll happily advertise for Vision in contrast to my Guess-obsessed classmates.

grandpa otm.

Advertising gives an identity to people who otherwise would have to go without.

I think choosing who to advertise for is a valid choice. Hopefully our choices aren't and will never be ONLY various corporate giants, I mean every time you wear a BAND T-SHIRT you're "advertising"! It's not a better or worse method of identification than any other.

wearing band tshirts is kind of embarrassing though
i still do it on occasion, but the only tshirt with an ad on it that i feel really good about is the shirt for my friend's record store because i love to tell people to go there.

I think about 80% of my clothing is band t-shirts. Always found it to be a fun conversation-starter (or stopper, like the stoner kid who shouted at me on the street, "Hey, Bob Marley sucks!" while I was wearing my Marvin Gaye t-shirt).

xp I thought you would say that. :D

I think choosing who to advertise for is a valid choice. Hopefully our choices aren't and will never be ONLY various corporate giants, I mean every time you wear a BAND T-SHIRT you're "advertising"! It's not a better or worse method of identification than any other.

Glad you brought this up - I was about to ask whether/how much daylight people see between wearing a Nike shirt, a FUBU shirt, a Lacoste shirt and a Black Flag shirt.

Of the t-shirts I still wear, about half of them are things I got from participating in charity events - bike rides, blood drives, etc. - and therefore advertising orgs whose values I actually share. The other half are Star Wars because I am a giant fucking nerd.

If I were given a choice of not displaying corporate logos on my clothing or anything else I own, I would definitely take it. The practice of putting logos prominently on merchandise is so universal now that I do not have that choice. It has become compulsory. However, I have been known to remove or efface logos.

this isn't really all about logos and tshirts though -- brand advertising is only part of it. there's another part of the message that says that you don't exist (or exist *enough*) unless other people recognize you and appreciate you publicly, so you have to put everything out there front and center (your opinions, your preferences, your 'likes', every aspect of your identity, and even your physical self) so people can see it and applaud for you. the idea that i should be advertising myself at all, much less that aggressively (to what end?), is another part of i find off-putting.

tbh I have zero visible logos on my clothing I'm wearing and am kind of annoyed by the one subtle stitched logo on my jacket

there's another part of the message that says that you don't exist (or exist *enough*) unless other people recognize you and appreciate you publicly, so you have to put everything out there front and center (your opinions, your preferences, your 'likes', every aspect of your identity, and even your physical self) so people can see it and applaud for you.

Yes. This relentless need for public validation is difficult to watch. So is the need to announce what it is about you that makes you "you." Show don't tell, kids. Show don't tell.

I think the need for approval is an integral part of human nature but this is a new way of garnering that approval that is pretty interesting to think about.

Xp yeah, I agree with that. (I half-jokingly said something on Twitter a couple of weeks ago about "History will mark the moment we stopped talking about people and started talking about 'personal brands' as where it all went wrong.")

In other news, SECRETS OF THE VATICAN was extremely grim.

That sounds like a good one.

The kids putting together the facegroup profile for their friend had a slumber party makeover feel to it that was kind of heartwarming in an uncanny way.

If I were given a choice of not displaying corporate logos on my clothing or anything else I own, I would definitely take it. The practice of putting logos prominently on merchandise is so universal now that I do not have that choice. It has become compulsory. However, I have been known to remove or efface logos.

― Aimless, Tuesday, February 25, 2014 2:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

shoes are the worst! I have not bought a new pair of athletic shoes (broadly defined) in years and years because they all feature huge motherfucking logos on them.

In high school/college, I used to buy black sneakers and blot out any logos/lettering with a magic marker.I was a cool kid.Actually I think I cut the swoosh out a pair of nikes in 9th grade!?

i saw a cool kid at the art institute on sunday who had a giant DSLR slung over his shoulder and out of habit i looked at the space directly above the lens where it always says CANON or NIKON and he had covered it up with a small strip of black duct tape lol

My television has a little piece of electrical tape because the frame is completely charcoal-colored except for the SAMSUNG right before the screen

I bought my first pair of Nike shoes for the first time since middle school a month ago because they were the best fit for my workout needs, though.

<3 u my people
i have done my part most recently by thumbing my nose at all breakfast cereals (esp the ones that advertise weight loss and chocolate to women) and making my own damn cereal 100% shame free and delicious. but tbh, i have always been this way too*! i appreciate that there are kids out there who don't think i'm old/paranoid/crazy.

*today i am wearing a sweater i got at a thrift store in 1990, the beginning of my sophomore year of high school. i have had this old sweater forever! why would i want to buy a new one? get off my lawn!

my MIL bought me a coach handbag, it's not really my style anyway but even if it was i'm too embarrassed to use it in public bc of the stupid label on it.

another ilxor once sent me (out of the blue! for no charge!) a vintage leather coach bag which only says "coach" on the strap IIRC and it's scarcely visible. one of the nicest things anyone has done for me!

I bought a new (used) Honda Element this year and the first thing I did was remove all the chrome nameplates and ornaments front and back.

You should just build your own car.

You should just build knit your own car.

Our 94 Honda Civic is so old the chrome logo H on the front of the hood fell off when the fasteners rusted through.

I do brew my own gas. And the whole interior is hemp.

good plan snatching up an Element now, what with them being discontinued

Lots of trackers on the Frontline page

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bhsy9gBCYAAuFXF.png

what does that mean

i have no idea what that means either

I'm no expert, but I'm fairly sure that means services built into the code that provide information about the visitor. For example, crazy egg provides analytics (like google analytics).

In other words you're supposed to view the image and be dumbstruck by the hypocrisy of frontline for putting out a show that criticized companies that collect and share information about unsuspecting internet people for profit, when in fact they are ALSO collecting and sharing information from the viewers of the program!11!!!

ah, i get it now. but that sounds like the paranoid feedback loop sort of thinking that gets people disproportionately riled up .

<i>If I were given a choice of not displaying corporate logos on my clothing or anything else I own, I would definitely take it. The practice of putting logos prominently on merchandise is so universal now that I do not have that choice. It has become compulsory. However, I have been known to remove or efface logos.</i>

You're like Cayce Pollard from Pattern Recognition!

*today i am wearing a sweater i got at a thrift store in 1990, the beginning of my sophomore year of high school. i have had this old sweater forever! why would i want to buy a new one? get off my lawn!

― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Wednesday, February 26, 2014 7:47 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^This! Yay! <3

Advertising gives an identity to people who otherwise would have to go without. be creative.

watched "generation like" with my class this morning
they didn't know what to make of tyler oakley but they all agreed that hunger games girl was wasting her time and middle school braces girl was making some bad decisions

xp I've compared LL to Cayce Pollard before, although I don't think I could remember her name at the time.

Pollard's name, not La Lechera's.

did i have to google that name? yes i did.

hunger games girl is definitely wasting her time but i can at least get where she's coming from. whereas tyler oakley is just terrifying to me. i hate youtube celebrities.