New-Age Advertising

A friend sent me Jose Gonzalez's cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats" about six months ago. It popped up on a random iPod playlist today and I was reminded about how great a track it is. I did some searching and discovered that the song was used (or is being used) in a Sony advertising campaign. It's an interesting ad so I'll post it, but will get no remuneration.



It's a strange world we live in where the Internet is being used to hock products in a way that makes people think they are being entertained. Today's ads are tricky and devious, but I suppose that it's just advertising adapting to the modern world.

I rarely watch television, and I only listen to public radio. I'm a money earning 30 year old who likes to think that he has a grasp, however tenuous, on what is new and exciting. I, and people like me, use the Internet when they have free time, and advertisers know that it's vital to hook in to that market. It isn't by accident that the above ad is on youtube. It isn't by accident that Tango has a spoof ad on youtube. It isn't by accident that there is a making of video on youtube which acts as much as a polished piece of advertising as the commerical itself. Sony and its advertisers are not stupid, and want people like me to help their campaigns. I am a patsy who is receiving absolutely nothing to post their ad, build up hype, and create brand for Sony televisions.

So devious (and I might say despicable) is this new modern search for advertising that it has become a blight to the Internet itself. Worse than the effects of any possible legislation or imploring stuntmen, is the greatest hindrance to music/video sharing: misnaming files. I was searching for last week's episode of Lost. I found a nice file called "Lost Season 3 Episode 1" only to discover that it was an 84-minute documentary about the conspiracy of 9/11 as an inside job set in motion by the government and those who could cash in. While an interesting argument, I am intrigued more by the fact that my Windows Media Player crashed in such a way that I could only stop the movie from playing by restarting my computer. I was doing something else, and ended up watching the whole thing. The closing line was something to the effect of: "Tell your friends about this. Tell everyone you know. Spread the word."

Advertising, I think, is a huge obstacle that the Internet has to overcome in order to ensure its future viability as a medium. Companies see the Internet as dollar signs, and they prey upon the foolish. Though I've likely defined advertising there, Internet advertising seems much more underhanded.

While I would like to believe that the Internet is still a place of freedom and democracy (to those who can afford it), I am increasingly shocked by just how much companies and swindlers are getting away with. The Internet is beyond law for the most part, and I fear that its anarcistic utopia will be destroyed by that freedom. It won't be long before we'll get sick of interactive Flash animated marketing campaigns, heading online to register and enter an under-the-cap code, and tailored spam from under the gaze of Big Brother. Will we end up chucking the whole thing? Can we do anything to keep the it from being a worldwide consumption tool?