Advertisements are taking over the world. It hit me a couple weeks ago. I was at the Laker game, and by the end I hardly even realized I’d been watching the best team in the NBA. All I was left with was a craving for Jack in the Box and a very strong urge to open an American Express card. If you’ve ever been to a Laker game, or even watched one, you know how elaborate their opening is. There are lights, and dancers, and music…. and a gigantic sheet surrounding the court in which they project advertisements on while announcing the starting players. You couldn’t even watch the Laker girls on the big screen, without seeing transparent ads plasters over them. What is this world coming to?! When I go to a Laker game, I expect to see a basketball game- a really good fucking basketball game, yet everytime they call a timeout, a new advertisement appears on the big screen, all while tiny little ads flash across the length of the entire Staples Center. Jack in the Box, American Express, Carls Jr., Chase Bank, Netflix…
The next day I was at Century City, and I noticed it again. Ten times more disturbing this time. In the parking lot across a gigantic wall are ads for Jet Blue with television screens. TELEVISION SCREENS! Who the fuck would sit in their car and watch an ad for Jet Blue? I’ll tell you who would… me. That’s exactly what get’s me so frustrated about ads. I definitely don’t have the money to take a trip anywhere, but the lights, and the sounds, and the appeal of $100 roundtrip plane ticket to San Francisco had me sitting there staring at the wall in the underground parking lot. Even on Pandora, the radio station one listens to for the lack of commercial interuptions, has advertisements now!
I even read an article a few weeks ago about how companies are starting to advertise on sidewalks. They’re literally taking stencils or decals and plastering it on sidewalks acropss the city. How in the world are disgusting ads for Audi and McDonalds allowed to line our streets, yet street art is still illegal?
