discovery #9

i'm late on this one...i contemplated several ideas before choosing this one. (at some point i'll post a list of all the discoveries that didn't make the cut!) here it goes:

i hate advertising.

this is especially hilarious because my undergrad major was (you guessed it!): advertising. i worked for one year out of college at an ad agency in downtown chicago...lots of parties, a few business trips, lunch meetings with radio/tv stations, tons of swag, but no heart. i just wasn't feelin' it...but at the time i thought i hated the 9-5. (so i quit and went to work on a cruise ship in the caribbean.)

but today i'm reflecting on the realization that all advertising plays off of our insecurities and vulnerabilities as humans (and particularly as women). i discovered this fact while reading my real simple magazine the other day. let me mention that i only get two magazines--wait, 3, i just started the third--real simple, bitch, and now somerset studio. bitch only has ads for really awesome stuff like DivaCup (a tampon alternative), powell's books and funky art. somerset is pretty much filled with stampington's self-promotion of its other publications and tons of art supplies.

BUT REAL SIMPLE IS LIKE A FREAKIN' BEAUTY MAG!! i guess i didn't realize this when i sent off for my "free 3-month subscription"...but every other ad is telling me how bad my skin, retirement plan, natural hair color...is. and it's too bad b/c they have some good stuff in there.

i have pretty much stopped watching tv...and when i lived with my sister, we had dvr so there was no reason to watch commercials. i flip the channel on the radio (or listen to my iPod). i try very hard to ignore banner ads and block all pop-ups online. besides the fact that i sometimes enjoy billboard ads on a long road trip...i RARELY expose myself to advertising anymore.

okay, enough of my rant...but it goes along with the whole capitalistic-consumer-profit hungry-unrealistic beauty ideal-anti-social work thing i'm sure to address at a later date.