Trials in tinsel land

Doesn’t that just annoy you soooooooooooooo much?

What?

Somebody posts a video on their blog (NOT the video you see above)– you love it, you leave a comment saying how it made you cry, and then, and then, rage, rage, stamp feet - it turns out to be an advert for a fizzy tonic water.

Eeeek! No! Aaaahhh!

Somebody is the wrong word here though, isn’t it?

What DO you call someone who you know through respective blogs?

And what if they know a few intimate details about you (maybe a lot more than you think if they have a basic grasp of psychology)?

A blend? A frog? (blog-friend/friend-blog). A Bquaitance? (Acquaintance). “Someone I read”?

I could give you their name and add a link to their post but it would only make things worse, I might as well just send you to the company web site. – you see I hate advertising - scourge of the earth. And I love films.

Never the twain should meet etc etc .

Yeah, yeah, viral video advertising is a hellishly clever idea but its also dishonest, and any self respecting artist should refuse to have anything to do with it.

And people shouldn’t have anything to do with advertising, ignore it.

Or if you do, get paid for it.

If a company want you to host their adverts they should pay you. I don’t understand why people walk around in t-shirts that are essentially advertising hoardings - and not demand hard cash for it.

We should stand up as an oppressed mass and refuse to be exploited in this way.

Ok, I’m a hypocrite - I worked in an advert once. I DIDN”T say it compromised my artistic endeavours, no -I thought it was a right laugh and I got financially rewarded. No I didn’t check out the corporate history of the company, yes I would have said no if the company represented something I disagreed with.

I love a good boycott. I still won’t buy my petrol from BP and I have NEVER gone back to that Italian restaurant in Covent Garden that asked Krissie to leave for laughing too loudly.

And now I’m not going to buy any of that sparkling tonic water. Ever.

In fact I never do, but that’s beside the point!

I’m outraged – mainly because I didn’t realise.

Hang on.

Maybe viral video advertising isn’t that clever after all – I had no idea it was advertising anything, and if I had been told and asked I would have said still mineral water. Maybe my bquaintance didn’t realise either.

I just thought it was a great little film in which case the artists did brill – got bankrolled by a greedy multinational and produced something that we all respect as a film.

God it’s hard to be principled these days.