the first only because it’s been normalised, it’s still a dystopian advertisement to promote your favourite billionaires hobby (sports team owner) and shitty business conglomerate
I think it’s just gotten to the point that US culture has become so commodified and saturated by business that for some people, the brands they consume just become part of their identity like that, and businesses encourage it.
They advertise and merchandise as if your whole life should revolve around the car you drive, the soap you use, or the kind of overpriced cooler you prefer. Product placement saturates TV and movies, sometimes subtly and sometimes blatantly, advertising saturates every other form of media, and if you have no other exposure to culture beyond ad riddled media and the required reading from a public school system focused on standardized test scores, why wouldn’t what you consume become part of who you are?
I don’t think this necessarily reflects badly on them as human beings, it’s just part of the environment around them, and they’re adapting to what is. Couple that with a decline in third spaces, it kinda seems inevitable that some people would try and differentiate themselves from others via their grocery list.
EDIT: While I won’t condemn individuals over just this, I generally think it’s a shitty cultural trend and we’ll be far worse off if it continues. I’m rather anti-advertising in general, and I view the ad industry as utterly dishonest, morally bankrupt, and partially responsible for just about everything that’s wrong with the US these days.
To be fair, “building Lego sets” better be in my eulogy too.
Honestly, the Lego and the sports team mention are fairly common. The soap and the type of milk are some dystopian advertisements.
the first only because it’s been normalised, it’s still a dystopian advertisement to promote your favourite billionaires hobby (sports team owner) and shitty business conglomerate
I think it’s just gotten to the point that US culture has become so commodified and saturated by business that for some people, the brands they consume just become part of their identity like that, and businesses encourage it.
They advertise and merchandise as if your whole life should revolve around the car you drive, the soap you use, or the kind of overpriced cooler you prefer. Product placement saturates TV and movies, sometimes subtly and sometimes blatantly, advertising saturates every other form of media, and if you have no other exposure to culture beyond ad riddled media and the required reading from a public school system focused on standardized test scores, why wouldn’t what you consume become part of who you are?
I don’t think this necessarily reflects badly on them as human beings, it’s just part of the environment around them, and they’re adapting to what is. Couple that with a decline in third spaces, it kinda seems inevitable that some people would try and differentiate themselves from others via their grocery list.
EDIT: While I won’t condemn individuals over just this, I generally think it’s a shitty cultural trend and we’ll be far worse off if it continues. I’m rather anti-advertising in general, and I view the ad industry as utterly dishonest, morally bankrupt, and partially responsible for just about everything that’s wrong with the US these days.