Dan Bassill wrote: >I think Social Edge is one place to meet with a few donors, but I also think >we need to think in much broader terms. Every day we are bombarded with >media messages educating us on some new drug, some phone company or >financial service, or some food product or new car model. > >This works. Advertising changes habits and purchasing decisions. > > Should it?
I raise this question because there is a lean toward education as well - especially in the context of the digital bridges we're interested in building. Believe me, I think everyone should have a pet rock should they choose to have one - but one of the points on the list is that a lot of advertising creates it's own demand, and that demand can be counterproductive. How? I can only imagine how a doctor feels when a hypochondriac comes in with a shopping list provided by pharmaceutical marketing on TV. Sad? Have a pill. Happy? Have a pill. Listless? Have a pill. Too many pills? Have a pill. Need a computer? Here's one you can pay for (at about 150% of the actual value) with payments! Need to learn how to make web pages? Buy this book (but don't read it)! Don't have time? Buy minutes... And I won't even touch the SPAM issue on the internet, which exists because people don't want to do the sensible thing - prosecute the offenders who profit from it. I go on. But the point is that a lot of the technology we're discussing should be encouraged by critical things - not by things that artificially creating a need and building unrealistic explanations - which is the point that Alfred Bork seems to consistently make as well, though much more conservatively than I agree with. We can fight fire with fire, but we don't have the marketing departments that large corporations have or the financial resources. Maybe the digital bridge is a rope bridge. -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran Coming on January 1st, 2006: http://www.OpenDepth.com "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
