Monday, November 15, 2021

Episode 187: Sharing A Little Mulled Whine

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I'm sometimes embarrassed to admit that I might produce this show even without an audience; it's therapeutic. It's good to know people do listen, and often share their provocative thoughts, which prompt this Episode 187: Sharing A Little Mulled Whine.

In this episode, I read from: listener Pim's disquieting concern; and Jacques Ellul's 1962 book, Propaganda: the Formation of Men's Attitudes. Musically, I open the show with Mr. Ceglowski backed by KMFDM, and I close with Julie and Rolf and the Campfire Gang doing "Over the Rainbow".

Links to this here stuff can be found at the show notes at AttackAdsPodcast.Blogspot.com.

Of course, thanks again for the provocative observation, Pim!
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4 comments:

  1. Industrial DysfunctionNovember 16, 2021 at 12:25 PM

    A great show thanks again Jim (and Pim). One thought related to the comment that Pim made on the last show. I recall one of the explanations for the poor grammar and spelling in the typical fraud / spam / phishing emails popular in the last decade wasn't lack of knowledge. There were stories that these emails were deliberately poorly constructed to put off anyone who would catch on early in the scam. Filter out those smart enough to catch on and you don't waste energy on "marks" that will never pay.
    Looking at the advertising hellscape there are is a wide range of "qualities" of ads from poorly presented advertorials to the slick shiny bullshit that whips up scent sales at this time of year. Maybe advertising works on a multiplicity of levels and we all fit in somewhere.
    For me the thing that peaked me were when the early computer magazines switched from 50/50 editorial / adverts to 20/80 and I realized I was getting PC envy rather than information. I got over it (written on a 13 yo thinkpad!).
    Thanks again for the show.

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    1. Ad AttackerNovember 16, 2021 at 9:29 PM

      Hey, dode,

      Thanks for the kind words!

      I hadn't heard that bit about deliberate misspellings, but it makes sense. It reminds me of Ol' President Dubya's "mispronunciations"… which were always mispronounced in exactly the same way. He, that Yaley, was cultivating "non-college" folks in much the same way.

      Glad you liked the show!

      —Jim

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  2. PimNovember 17, 2021 at 1:50 PM

    :) I liked the intro.

    To respond to one of your points on propaganda. That it only works if it is total. If it is everywhere and everything.

    Doesn't an automatically generated, infinitely long, personally tailored content feed in an increasingly-online world come pretty close to the totality required for succesful propagada?

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    1. Ad AttackerNovember 18, 2021 at 2:14 PM

      Thanks, Pim! Good intros are key. I think it was Paul Westerberg of the Replacements who said that if you open and close a song well, in the middle you can pretty much just shit on the fret board. (I try not to do that in my shows…)

      As to your question… hmmm.

      I guess the difference would be that the online peeps would be unconnected, not sharing with the people around them the messaging they were getting. Elsewhere in his book, Ellul writes that this blanketing the community is key; the social element reinforces the messaging.

      Then again, this was in 1962, where media was decidedly not also an interactive and therefore (at least) quasi-social experience.

      Damn. I guess that would mean the online propaganda might come with a reinforcing social environment… as it appears to do.

      Shit.

      Y'know, if you keep helping by pointing out mind-blowing stuff to me, I'll never get to make episodes on my own any more. [Insert Winky Emoji]

      Later!

      —Jim

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