Graffiti Advertising: Visual Rhetoric and Simulation
February 25, 2008 · 4 Comments
Categories: Electracy
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lmckenzie on Electracy mikeyrich on Worldview mikeyrich on Worldview cdelatorre on Electracy scd015 on Composition and Rhetoric
4 responses so far ↓
mikeyrich // February 25, 2008 at 9:22 am
I understand why the altterrain is such a great idea, and why you have brought this to our attention. There is advertising absolutely everywhere. This makes me think of a clip from an animated show called Futurama. A character named “Fry” realizes he has commercials in his dreams. He tells the rest of the crew and they agree that they have commercials in their dreams. “Fry” gets disgusted and explains that in his time they had ads on TV, in movies, in magazines and newspapers, on food products, at ballparks, on buildings and buses, but definitily never in dreams!
jlt065 // February 27, 2008 at 12:07 am
I see the PSP as just being a game that I play. The first one I ever played on was my sisters and it was black. I never saw it as being racist in any way. It was just a color. My sister for Christmas bought me a silver slim addition and yet again I never thought much about the color. I looked it up on the web and it says that Sony has eight colors for the PSP: piano black, ceramic white, pink, metallic blue, silver, champagne gold, “The Simpsons” yellow, and deep red. I have only seen piano black, ceramic white, and silver. The white one I saw had Darth Vader on the back panel. As I have stated before I just see the Ad as being a color and nothing more to it.
lmckenzie // February 27, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Sometimes I feel like and associate with the “Monk” characterization–a recent episode (can’t recall the subtitle) referred to him as a “technological dinosaur.” When I heard the reference, I thought “Yeah…, that’s me; I’m a technological dinosaur.” Why so? Hmmm…, I remember the development of the calculator, the Scientific Calculator in particular; the “old” copier that used purple toner and the sound of it when used: ‘t-h-u-m-p, d-a-t-h-u-m-p’; –how would we spell the sound? And cut-n-paste method of creating hard-copy for publication–using wooden rulers to measure margin widths and lengths. I remember, then, the technological advancements and the socio-cultural changes that resulted. Thus, I suppose the idea of interpreting racial contexts from product packaging seems–well, “un-real.” While the PSP ad, then, focuses upon the packaging of a particular product, given the “bigger” picture, the larger context of consumer experience, I wonder about the validity of such conclusions. Don’t misunderstand: I do think that product advertisements, that marketing groups, survey pools, etc., shape product imaging, design, packaging, and marketing. So…, the “dinosaur” experienced, today, the PSP–very “cool,” but not “kewl.” I like the European argument reflected in the Sony PSP Forum that, perhaps, racial context should not be read into the ad.
scd015 // March 5, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Let me think this through. This ad appeared in Amsterdam from a company that is Japanese. So, the Americans view this, and with a raised eyebrow, comment that the ad could be viewed as racist. The Europeans claim all they see are two women trying to dominate the other and wonder why Americans always want to play the race card. Is racism only alive and well in the USA? Why are Europeans so quick to criticize the Americans that may be uncomfortable seeing this ad? What kind of statement would the ad have made if the white woman was wearing black clothing and the black woman wearing white? The intent of the Japanese, to me , is clearly to cause controversy. They played it safe by displaying the ad in Amsterdam. Can you imagine the uproar if the ad appeared in Times Square? I would like to know what a black European woman thinks of the ad.
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