Zombies

Imagine you are going shoe shopping. You spot two pairs of shoes on the shelf. They look exactly the same. They've got the exact same design, the exact same colors, the exact same materials. They are both your size, and you really love them. There are only two differences between the pairs: one has a famous brand name and is a lot more expensive. The other is cheaper and has either no brand name at all, or a little-known, generic one.
   Which pair do you buy?
   In other words, I am asking you: Are you a zombie, or a thinking person?


   In the world of the media, corporations must pay their own advertising costs. A newspaper may charge a company $10 a day to place an ad in their paper. If Nike wants to advertise on TV, it will pay the channel a certain amount of money for a 10-second commercial. If Aeropostale wants to advertise on a billboard, they will pay the owner of that billboard for allowing them to use that sign. If Skechers wants a few moments on the radio, they will pay the radio station a fee for a spot on the airwaves to tell listeners about their product.
   But there is one form of advertising that corporations don't pay for. In fact, YOU pay for these ads. And not only do you pay for them - you pay for them willingly, happily. You pay for them with a smile on your face like the servile slave you are.
   Let's go back to the shoe example. The generic pair is $20. The brand-name is $120. When you put on the second pair and walk out, you are a living, breathing billboard. Everywhere you walk, every moment of the day, as long as those shoes are on your feet, you are advertising for that company. You are working for them - you should be getting paid.
   Yet you paid the company - a whole $100 extra.
   That's because you have nowhere near the rights of a television channel or a newspaper. You're worthless, you're nothing -  you're so low you have the buy the right to advertise our holy goods. But you know that once you slide your credit card through the cash register and tie up those laces, you will be elevated from your vile status; you will become cool, a fashionista, a gangsta, someone with real style, real sexiness, real cash. You wear the real thing, 'cause it's all about keepin' it real.
   Too bad you don't have real brains.
   Unfortunately, corporations do have real brains. Cleverly manipulating you, figuring out new ways to get you to part with your money, brainwashing you, they plaster your body with advertisements, while reaching into your pockets and robbing your wallet of every dime, and you moan with pleasure and cry out for more. You have been blinded into believing that a generic brand, even if it looks the same and will last you just as long, is inferior. You are a slave who licks the boots of your master and loves the taste.
   If you pick up those brand name shoes, you are no more than a zombie.