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Comment by Red_Tarsius | Hacker News Reader

They are kind of doing it already e.g. I hate when ads exploit classical music for trivial purposes. Whenever I hear Libiamo ne' lieti calici now my mind instantly fills with pizza ads. And once an association is made, it doesn't go away. Ads attach themselves to positive memories like parasites. Whenever you think back to your first kiss, a nice family moment, a cherished memory of going out with friends – here they are.

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This is something that I had been venting about for years to anybody I met.

There's that (Coca-Cola I think) ad that ends up with teenagers watching the sunrise after a party night, they sit on a roof in what I remember could be suburban California.

The ad was in the style of All I need from Air.

These are very delicate and precious moments when you are a teenager.

But now it's Coca-cola telling people how to feel. For a whole lot of people now sitting on that roof, that communion moment with your friends, has been stolen by Coca-Cola. That's not something spontaneous and personal and intimate anymore, they stole that moment, branded it and spat it back on screens and minds. They are feeding on our souls.

It's more subtle and devilish than https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlpZRK2Yfd0 which just tells you how to have fun (just a manual to fabricated happy times: be young, muscled, on a beach with one of those air canons that makes you levitate) or association to songs. It's tied to a moment in space and time, to an experience.

A movie scene played out repeatedly- “A person dying and his last moments aka for a cigarette”. There are so many of these that go back to manufacturing consent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Informat...

That is so scary, I never made that connection until now.

Right.

But what's in the Coke?

Whisked or rum?

I don't get this. Sure, what you describe sounds like a precious moment. But why is it "stolen" if some company films an ad featuring a similar moment? I assume you wouldn't have the same reaction if you saw two real teenagers doing this, or even saw it fictionalized in a movie financed by some production company hoping to make money. What is it about seeing it in an ad that crosses a line?

As a teen (and an adult) Coca-cola certainly was not a prescriber. Anything they'd show in their ad would be immediately and correctly understood as fake and an attempt to get in. Action, reaction. Most (and my friends didn't care) would get over it but the moment is tainted by the brand. Everyone has a different line not to cross though.

Now my line is that this scene is strong, it has meaning. But it doesn't need Coca-cola for that. The product diminishes the experience, it taints it. Next time we get on that roof, what do we make of ourselves ? But as another poster commented: "what's in the coke ? Rhum or whisky ?" :).

Fair enough, I think I just lack this feeling that Coca-Cola taints something by association. But I suppose if Blackwater filmed a series of commercials in my neighborhood, I'd be unhappy with that association too, so I think I get the logic now.

I feel like this speaks more to the lack of enough of an ad-blocking movement though.

The real disaster of the TV-age was that we didn't have the internet to allow enough dispersal of the tools and technology to mute ads on demand, or distribute key-frame data for spotting ad breaks.

What we do today with things like ublock origin is pretty incredible and very effective.

In the marketplace of ideas, you actually need competition and competition means we need to be pushing back on ads always.

I wanted to take that annoying Coke ad that played in movie theaters (remember movie theaters?) showing a glass filling up, and ending with "Aah", and make a parody version that ended with someone barfing.

> when ads exploit ... music

https://boingboing.net/2021/06/14/facebook-asked-pink-floyds...

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters:

> It's a request for the rights to use my song, "Another Brick in the Wall II" in the making of a film to promote Instagram.

> So it's a missive. It's a missive from Mark Zuckerberg, to me, right? Arrived this morning with an offer of a huge, huge amount of money. And the answer is, "Fuck you. No fucking way."

Off topic, and I realize this was not at all your point/belief, but it's quite incredible that the article is brining up this quote from Roger Waters as an example of his 'anti-semitism'...

I'm no fan of him and i'm not knowledgeable, but from a quick search the only thing antisemitic i could see from him was using on stage a pig with a david star and a dollar sign (sigh).

Not that it's ok at all, but is he known for other antisemitic displays/rhetoric? Or is fighting against Israel's apartheid and denouncing that politicians are sold to billionaires now antisemitic?

I'm really not OK with the "jews = money" trope which is a marker of far-right conspiracy theories and is growing more and more popular in the public discourse, at least here in France (especially since Dieudonné was repressed precisely for holding such bigoted views). I'm also really not OK with colonization and apartheid and the State of Israel. I'm not jewish but a lot of left-wing jews are on the same page.

Fortunately, the claim the Israel is an apartheid state appears to be false, according to those who lived through apartheid. [1] [2]

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcEL-NlxBk0

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocNttZV4G_0

to save everyone else a click, its PragerU bs.

How can it be bull crud if they are using the accounts of people who have actually lived in Israel?

In case anyone missed it, his response to the supposed FB offer is discussed (with 43 comments) here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27488742

The link posted was to the viral video of Waters making the comments:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/9ksRVJsvWc3B/

That is just a good rationale for minimizing your ad exposure overall. Don't listen to ad-filled media, block ads and try to get away from it.

All to save our mind's focus.

Even better is to join one of the movements against ads, which exist around the world.

Can you list some? I haven't heard/seen about any of those, and the only article I can find is https://newint.org/features/2018/11/23/movement-replacing-ad...

I can name at least Résistance à l'Agression Publicitaire (antipub.org) in the french-speaking world.

It's common for local bands to form and dismantle/replace advertisements. See for example the international campaign there was during COP21 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34958282.amp

In many places across France, we have workshops every week to draw/paint some posters. Then we go on the streets, open the ad panels and replace their ads with our message.

All it takes usually is a 6mm hex key (allen) in which you drilled a hole.

Advertisers pay for a moment of your attention and get a lifetime of brand presence in your memory.

My experience is that people remember advertisements but they don't remember even what category of product was being advertised let alone the brand. But my social circles might not be typical.

What they don't know, is I've prepared a special space in my memory for brands I'll never buy, and every brand I see in an ad goes there.

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