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Pimpin is easy...in Brandweek

Check out this ad from a recent issue of BrandWeek. When I was teaching 12th graders about mass media, one of the ways I'd illustrate the central role of commerce was to familiarize students with trade ads, which always manage to portray the target audience as affluent, sheep-like spenders (often a touch glassy-eyed). So I've seen a ton of these things, but this one's a new beast... not so much the prostitute-like solicitation or the promise to "get em' while they're young," which appear in many trade ads targeting young people. No, I'm talking about the barcode. Where have we seen that before? A similar image -- of a man with a barcode on the back of his neck, with the title "The Product Is You" -- once appeared in Adbusters. Another, on the cover of Kalle Lasn's book Culture Jam. Reminds me of a clip I heard last week of a KROCK DJ telling a hostile crowd at a Pavement concert, "We OWN you!"

(Thanks, Rob Walker)