Proof that advertising isn't always evil

This recent cadburys ad featuring a Gorilla drumming to Phil Collin's "In the air tonight" almost makes me want to quit my job, ditch my friends and go over to the dark side (almost)

Plus i also really like Diary Milk.

A brief history of advertising...

Essentially, the ethos of advertising can be summed up by the following:
Find something cool, sexy, funny or beautiful, throw a shit load of money at it, then sell it back to the kids. This is a given, and probably learnt on day one of a marketing “degree,” but some of the latest offerings on show suggest that someone hasn’t been reading their handbook.

I’m referring to the deluge of unbearable, twee, sick-to-stomach musack that has been accompanying a number of adverts in recent months, particularly those of major mobile phone companies. In the lastest instance, Andrew Shim of Shane Meadow's nostagia-fests A Room for Romeo Brass and This is England sings/speaks an annoying rhyme about running out of credit or something, but the custom stretches further back than that, with a song about a snapping turtle (?) springing to mind most readily, and sickeningly. (Feel free to nominate your own suggestions in the comment box)

I really do not understand this, this music cannot be appealing to anyone but possibly basket weaving Canadians, and no-one wants to speak to them anyway so why use it to sell phones? It has got to the stage where I have to turn the channel when one of these things comes on, forming product/vomit connections in my mind that even a lifetime of free minutes would have trouble extinguishing.

Still, at least this will keep their grubby paws away from anything decent for about 5 seconds,

Keep up the good work shitheads!

Stampedes at Harry Potter Book Launch.

Forget class, race and religion, the country is being divided by new polarising forces: Those who were eagerly awaiting the fifth Harry Potter book at 12:01 am today, and those who were laughing at them.

Transcending traditional barriers of social status, intellect and taste, Harry Potter and the Marketing Dream is causing pitched battles in some unexpected quarters.

Never mind the media meatgrinder which has been manufacturing anticipation for months, some hitherto fellow travellers have been making strange noises which are starting to make me feel just a little bit queasy.

So what's the deal?

I can excuse the children (just about) as they don't know any better, but i have a hard time making sense of why fully grown people with jobs and everything are so willing to buy into this syndicated rubbish. The books may well be good, but can they really be that good?

I suspect its more down to blunt marketing, and the fear of having nothing to say at parties, that is driving this race to the bottom.

Most of all I feel sorry for the kids who are likely being denied the opportunity to discover the diverse and rare delights of childrens literature, as it is crowded out by the sequels, spin-offs, games and movies of the Rowling Regime.

This is a Liberal Democracy and theoretically people should be allowed to read what they want, but perhaps this is what was worrying de Tocqueville when he wrote about the Tyranny of the Majority.

Time for a good old fashioned book burning...