Thieves and Pimps
On the way home last night I only had to open my eyes to notice the entire train car was plastered with a single ad selling some J-Pop album. This particular train line (Odakyu) does this from time to time. Sometimes for movies, or a mobile phone company or something but this was the first time I've seen it done for an album. Doesn't that just cry desperation? I mean how badly must you suck when you need to cover an entire train with ads hoping some poor sucker buys your CD after mindlessly staring up at the poster for 20 minutes. And the kicker, I couldn't even tell you the artist's name.
Are record companies trying to shove this crap down our throats? Sure they are, but they also know their audience. It's no different from Hollywood, in that they could produce beautiful works of art all year round if they were so inclined, but sadly they don't come close. Producers know their audience, and know they'd pay to see Ben Stiller get kicked in the balls all the same.
I know what you mean about those occasional saturation advertising attacks on train carriages, where almost every available space is temporarily swathed in propaganda for a single product. Naomi Klein would have a field day.
You might have seen the Suzuki Ami trucks that have been patrolling Shibuya for the last few weeks, trying to drum up interest in her comeback album. Spending that kind of cash to get people to buy your product is usually a sign of desperation to cover up something it severely lacks. Like the ability to stay in tune without Pro Tools, in Ami's case.
::posted by: Don at June 1, 2005 09:36 AM
I always thought it would be great to have an entire train for 2 weeks and instead of ads, have my photographs on display. Two on a page hanging from the cross-way ones down the car, smaller ones as stickers above the door and a large sticker version right next to the door, etc etc. I'm taking donations from now...
::posted by: john at June 2, 2005 03:24 PM
