It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine

When I was 13 the radio station called me to ask what the last song they'd played on the radio was. It was one of the familiar advertising strategies discussed in the film Advertising and the End of the World. Listen to Oz fm for tickets to Bon Jovi in L.A., Airmiles, Diner's Club, ect. As a loyal listener I knew the answer and this won me $1000. It's The End of The World As We Know It and I Feel Fine-R.E.M. When my Canadian Savings Bond matured I spent it all on a whole lot of nothing, surprisingly quick. Focusing on the bombardment of commercial images we're exposed to daily, Sut Jhally's film speaks to this overwhelming need to consume. While the film's message is inherently depressing Jhally reminds us how hard companies have to work to sell continuously their products to us. If Coca-Cola is any indication of how hard companies work, and how much money they spend to keep reinventing and selling the wheel, I'd say Jhally is right on the $$$.

Brand portfolio

Name	Launched	Discontinued	Notes	Picture
Coca-Cola	1886			Mexico
Coca-Cola Cherry	1985
Coca-Cola with Lemon	2001	2005	Still available in: American Samoa, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Korea, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Reunion, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, United States, and West Bank-Gaza
Coca-Cola Vanilla	2002	2005	Still available in: Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, New Zealand (600ml and 350ml only) and Russia It was reintroduced in June of 2007 by popular demand
	2007
Coca-Cola C2	2004	2007	Was only available in Japan, Canada, and the United States.
Coca-Cola with Lime	2005
Coca-Cola Raspberry	June 2005	End of 2005	Only was available in New Zealand.
Coca-Cola M5	2005		Only available in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Brazil
Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla	2006	Middle of 2007	Was replaced by Vanilla Coke in June of 2007
Coca-Cola Blāk	2006		Only available in the United States, France, Canada, Czech Republic, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria
Coca-Cola Citra	2006		Only available in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, New Zealand and Japan.
Coca-Cola Light Sango	2006		Only available in France.
Coca-Cola Orange	2007		Only available in United Kingdom and Ireland

I found Jhally's discussion of the ways that advertisers use magic to sell products incredibly interesting, particularly in relation to the ways in which women's bodies are used to sell not even products, but happiness. In thinking about the articles on romance novels however, the degree to which we are affected by them, and our agency within this equation. Although Jhally shows us the great lengths advertisers must go to as proof of our resilience, he also paints a fairly bleak picture with respect to the awesome global forces of capitalism. It would seem that Jhally is using primarily Marxist media theory, whereas Light and Radway draw heavily on psychoanalytical theory. Thus they appear to come to different conclusions on the topic of personal agency and transformation.

Trashy Romance Novels?

"She wants to talk to me about "Suzy gets saved by a Cowboy" as if it were "Pride and Prejudice."

-Jane Radway's 'Romance and the Work of Fantasy', and Alison Light's 'Returning to Manderley' were really interesting rebukes to the dogmatic critiques of trashy romance novels. In a piece I recently wrote in defense of Barbi, I too challenge that fantasy can provide liberatory spaces and shifting identities, which may or may not be within our reach or best interests outside of fantasy worlds. Rather than dismiss romance novels or Barbies on ideological grounds it might be more useful to assess them from many angles, or as Light suggests left, and right-wing moralism. Both authors extensively site Daphne du Marier's 1938 novel 'Rebecca' as a precursor to the Harlequin romance novel. Having never read 'Rebecca, some of Radway's references were completely lost on me. Obviously I should have read Light before Radway. In reading Light as well as a bit of outside reading on 'Rebecca' I was struck by some of the similarities to F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby', which is quite possibly one of my all time favorite books. The above lusty cowboys and Pride and Prejudice remarks were slightly funny to me in light of the fact that I spent my Friday night last week swooning over Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice for over four hours. I love the book and movie. Either one, I prefer to absorb myself in Austin's commentary on social class, gender, and love, in my own company. Pride and Prejudice is many things encapsulated in an absolute romance novel.

It's interesting to note that neither Light nor Radway mention the wildly popular genre of pulp fiction, which precluded the Harlequin romance novel by ten to twenty years. What gives?

Colonialism and Soap

-I've always thought that Pears soap being appointed by the Queen was kind of classy and weird at the same time. The 'Soft Soaping Empire:Commodity Racism and Imperial Advertising' was a fascinating read for me in that it made obvious what I'd not been able to piece together with respect to my suspicions about this brand of aristocratic grocery store soap. Anne McClintock's take on the relationship between soap and early imperialist advertising, colonialism and the cult of domesticity is truly interesting. While her argument makes perfect sense, I could not help but notice some glaring historical omissions. In light of class conversions on the role of inter-disciplinarity in women's studies however, I'm unsure as to whether I should really taking fault with these. That being said, I just can't get past the fact that an article on imperial advertising, colonialism , and the cult of domesticity would fail to at least passingly mention religion. The Reformation bears a huge responsibility for the cult of domesticity and for the popularity of evangelical missionaries. In light of that ultimate prize both catholics and protestants were busy converting the primitives into Christians. Pictured here is the early 20th century African missionary Ora Lovelace, and a late 19th century graduating class of missionaries. Incidently the name of the website these pictures are taken from is called Global Ventures, which kind of sounds like a fun and exciting safari if you ask me.


McClintock's piece is not on religion so I'm unsure as to how to feel about what I think is a glaring historical omission. Also, in making her case for the popularity of soap McClintock makes no mention of the overcrowded British slums and factories, both of which were a threat to the ruling class' sensibilities. While an in depth exploration of these issues was not the goal of 'Soft-Soaping Empire', I remain unconvinced that they were not key factors and thus worthy of mention.

Colours of the world: Spice Up Your Life

-bell hooks' essay 'Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance' is definitely a blunt critique of white culture's continued infatuation with Blackness. Arguing that profit driven use of Black images is used to generate and satisfy our hunger for different cultural experiences, hooks regards this as modern colonialism. I have to agree with her, but this leaves me wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do with my Wu-Tang and Biggie Smalls cds? Having provided me with hours of listening enjoyment they now cause me a certain level of internal strife. Do I really like it? How would I know? On what grounds? Whether it's the "positive" intellectual hip-hop artists like Mos Def, Talib Kweli or Lupe Fiasco or the slightly edgier Jay-Z, or the super ganstas, hooks is right, much to my embarrassment: I can spice it up with Black culture without ever having to engage. I love all of the above musicians though, a lot! Even if it does embarrass me to admit however, consuming rap/hip hop, and there's meaning in that distinction, does kind of add to one's hipsterishness. The same can be said for art-stars; the avant-guard falling over themselves for Jean-Baptiste Basquait is case in point. As I deconstruct my cd collection though, I'm left wondering if it's possibility of operating from the margins that draws me in. Kanye West looked straight into the television cameras during the fundraiser for victims of hurricane Katrina and said "George Bush does not care about Black people" I couldn't even believe it. Kanye West said what everyone already knew, but wouldn't or couldn't say, and this made me cry.

In honour of the Spice Girls reunion tour (insert sarcasm) I pulled up this picture. hooks' assertion of colonialism and primitivism is fairly evident. Scary Spice is looking pretty wild, what with the hair, head to toe animal print, and ...the roaring? Why is she called Scary Spice anyway?

My following of the Democrat nomination is a bit out of hand considering I'm not American, but there is something about the way it's playing out that compels me to stay up until 5am to see who wins California. My issue is not with either of the candidates per say, but with the media and cultural representations of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. For instance, what do white people mean when they say that Obama transcends race? Does he transcend his Blackness? I haven't heard any Black supporters say he transcends race? It seems to me that Obama represents a shot at redemption at home and abroad.
He presents a remarkable skin color for the rest of the world to admire." — Steve Scheibel, 51, voted for Barack Obama.
Comments such as these are abundant in the newspapers and internet, and they really do give pause in the face of hooks' theories on the commodification of Blackness.