Infotainment

Really, what disappoints me the most about the latest generation of kids is their complete and slavish devotion to fashion and advertising. Yes, I realize that this is the era they were brought up in and that they are free to make their own decisions based on what is best for them, but still, to watch the youth of today led nose-first by the condescendingly evil and putrid scoundrels that are what we know as corporate advertisers, it's a sickening sight, like being the first one to see the blood on the pavement at a fatal auto accident.

Of course, I'm proud to say we didn't do that sort of thing back in my day, we didn't pay attention one to advertising and there was a good reason for that. We were too fucking loaded (and not with money!). Oh sure, we had Rolling Stone and they had ads that told us what to do, but no one gave a crap about that. A great review, that was something different, but we all know the difference between editorial and advertising, right?

Oh, excuse me, I'm dating myself! Most of you are too young to know about that! Yes, in journalism, there used to be a thing called a "wall" and the two sides never met. Editors didn't know anyone from sales and vice versa.

Now we are fully submerged in the Infotainment Era. Advertising has always paid the bills in media (although if you read Robert McChesney's Rich Media, Poor Democracy you'll find out that once upon a time radio aspired to be known primarily as a education medium, until someone invented a revolutionary concept called "selling time") and nothing broadcast, printed or sent through cyberspace stands a ghost of a chance of being seen without being tied to the hips with ads. And advertising has always been about getting people to consume something that they don't necessarily need - hence the term "consumer".

But we've come a long way from Rodney Allan Rippy saying "It's too big-a eat!" and "Where's the beef?" Where once advertising was only on the rarest occasions "cool" now it is one full side of the Infotainment pyramid. Ads are sexed up, jazzed out, funny, hip, clever and mind-numbingly essential to today's consumers. The fact that more people watch the Super Bowl to see the new Nike and Coke ads than to watch the game being played is a testament to how topsy-turvy and misdirected Americans lives have become.

But, hell, that's just TV, and we have been muting, fast-forwarding or Tivo-ing the ads

Ads are sexed up, jazzed out, funny, hip, clever and mind-numbingly essential to today's consumers.

away for years now. But it was sort of like splashing the big puddle - many more new puddles were formed. Advertisers are reaching out to more and more parts of our lives, in ways that even ten years ago seemed farfetched.

And it's not like the advertisers are sipping martinis and playing back-slap at all their good fortune. The sheer mass of advertising assaulting us every day has created a boondoggle called "clutter" in which more and more money is being paid out to increase brand exposure, that's the "clutter" part, but are receiving less public recognition for their brands. So they have to spend more money, and more and more and more and . . . you get the picture. It's a nasty industry and it's only getting worse.

But the kids don't care. They want people to tell them what to do.

"Please, Nike, put together a dope, hip ad that makes me feel like I'm not looking forward to a dead end job for shit pay and zero security, that distracts from the fact that I knocked up my girlfriend and I'm going to have to invest in disposable diapers and SUV style baby strollers - I still want to believe I can jam on LeBron James!"

"Please, Boost Mobile, put together a funny piece that reinforces my right to yak on a cell in the most inappropriate places, that will give me up to the minute Brad-Angelina reports, that will make me a solid gamer in the eyes of my peers, so I don't get beat up cuz I'm not wearing the right sweats!"

"Please, Diesel, justify your line of retro wear so I can feel good about paying the equivalent of a down payment of a house for a pair of pants that already has ten holes ripped in it!"

As I have stated, it disappoints me, but I know why this trend exists, or at least I think I do. It's all this damn pressure on kids to flaunt their freedom of individuality, and it's an extremely murky throughway, think of the river trip in "Deliverance". I'll never forget returning to my old high school and talking with a student and seeing her yawn unimpressed with every change that I saw, until I mentioned that in my day no one cared what you wore to school, just simply did not care, you could go to class in pajamas and no one would blink an eye. She refused to believe me!

But I would like to take this thread and stretch it to the most absurd length possible - the difference between American culture and Muslim culture.

In case anyone has been asleep for the last five years, we are embroiled in a War on Terrorism, that in some part, and exactly why and how we wage this war is the province of politicians and policy makers and not me or today's youth, has to do with the cultural differences between one part of the world and the other.

I know almost nothing about Muslim life. But I perceive that part of the tension the world faces is the intrusion of Western culture and individuality being imposed on religious based societies that downplay the role of freedom to express ones self.

So we have "lids"; they have "head scarves". And the more we push for certain of their society's members to lighten up and embrace freedom and liberty, the more the most fanatical of them push back. We are not torn at all, but we are helping to rip them apart. That is just my opinion.

So why, then, are American youth and beyond (because all of America is in the thrall of Infotainment) choosing to express their "individuality" by going to such great lengths to look like everyone else? Think about it. Whether it's tattoos or piercings or punk accessories or hair styles or vehicles or what have you, America, now more than ever, chooses to embrace individuality by cloning themselves with whatever fad comes down the pike and washes up at the door. Have we forgotten women's jeans with acid washed spots on the ass? Or the ones with the brown spots that looked like you had just shit your pants?

What I want to know is, why is that? Why in a country that so esteems its rights and freedoms is it so important to not stand out? We are telling the rest of the world it is entirely necessary to have these freedoms yet we ourselves flog to the death anyone who careens off course. It's the old Firesign Theatre joke:

"Mudhead, what are you going to do after we graduate?"

"Well, I thought I'd go out and find a bunch of guys and dress up like them and follow them around!"

So we mock those in other parts of the world for their devotion to principle, as much as it reviles us, then we go out and do essentially the same thing as they do - dress and act and worship alike.

Except it's not necessarily religion we are worshipping. It's brand names and clever advertising and bands that all look and sound the same.

Here's the truth of the matter: We have no individuality and we know it. We will never be rich and famous and we know it. We will lead miserable lives filled with conflict and tragedy and we know it. We are just drones and we know it.

So, sure, it that light, maybe the new X-Box is exactly what we need. We need to feel comfortable in our blandness because we know that the only way we can truly have an identity is by matching the identity of someone else, preferably someone sexy and desirable.