Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Product Placement, pages A8, A9



Curiously, the Globe's feature photo's by Peter Power in Haiti are paired with a huge colour Lexus ad: TOTAL FREEDOM MAY BE THE GREATEST LUXURY OF ALL. The images of crowded refugee camps with the title Struggles to get food, find shelter and survive, are juxtaposed with the 7 person luxury vehicle in a beautiful snowy mountain scene with not a person (not even a driver) in sight.

Today's Globe, (Jan 19) has another photo feature by Power on pages A8,A9: Where food and water are worth fighting for , and an article on congested airspace. There is a picture of a crowded market place where people are grabbing whatever they can and an armed soldier aiming a kick at a running boy. This enveloped by a full page American Express ad that says: Tired of standing in Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine?
Is it just me?

3 comments:

SayBlade said...

Should ask American Express and Lexus what they are doing for relief in Haïti. The efforts of MSF (Doctors Without Borders) is being stymied by the US Military and they cannot get aid to dying people. Seems the US thinks 10,000 troops and all their scarce resource consuming paraphernalia is what are needed in this situation. Sledgehammer to open a peanut?

Well enough of the politics, here. Great work and let everyone know when the book version of this is published!

redcatdance said...

I second the eager anticipation of your new book.

I'll want an autographed copy though.

And a personal inscription.

I'll pay you extra though for saying what I want you to say... you know me!

redcatdance said...

BTW it is unbelievable that the layout editors of the G&M did not see this truly awful contradiction of images/meanings.

What's going on there? Are they THAT desensitized? Are WE all that compartmentalized that nobody catches the whole story anymore?

Maybe they are promoting escapism as means to cope with the Haitian situation. It's all really obscene.