Mailer talks on the ills of advertising

In a harsh critique of American advertising, author Norman Mailer warned that corporations are brainwashing the public yesterday during a colloquium entitled, "Advertising in America." Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, moderated the event in Meyerson Hall. Law School Professor Ed Baker and Communications Professor Joseph Turow also participated. The third in a series of events this week featuring the Pulitzer-Prize winner, the colloquium was Mailer's last scheduled appearance at the University. While advertisements were historically designed to inform consumers about a product, Mailer said that with mass production, commercials have strayed from their intended role. Using cars as an example, Mailer explained that in the 1930s, one could easily tell which company produced which car. Now, he said he has to "bend down and peer at the license plate" to make sure he is getting into the right car. But while quality may have decreased, the money companies spend on advertising has increased dramatically. Ironically, a few years ago Mailer had his own commercial debut -- which was also his last. Struggling to pay his income tax, Mailer appeared in an ad for Trump Airlines. Sitting next to boxing promoter Don King in an airplane set, Mailer said the advertisement producers instructed them to engage in an argument as fog machines pumping smoke onto the set created a "surrealistic" mood. Closing the commercial, the official slogan was, "You Never Know Who You'll Meet on Trump Airlines" fit into Mailer's depiction of the modern television ad: more theater than substance. What Mailer seemed to find even more disturbing was the power advertisers have over people and the degree that they "interrupt our aesthetic pleasure." After visiting the Soviet Union in the 1980s while doing research for his new book, Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery, Mailer said he was struck by how government propaganda compared to American advertising. "One thing I noticed was how crude the Soviet brainwashing was," Mailer said. "They would have signs that said, 'Communism is vigor and loyalty.' The kids would see it and hated it." American advertising is more subtle, Mailer said. "You get the sense of a powerful presence," Mailer said. "There's a sense that you're not controlling your life. "We're much more brainwashed than the Soviets ever were," he added. "The Soviet people were powerless to oppose the Soviet government, but they knew they did not like the people running their lives. But the corporate government does dominate us, does impinge on us, does run our lives, and has pulled off the greatest shell game in the history of shell games." But according to Turow, advertisers are interrupting less by subtly placing products in television shows and movies. "That's monstrous," Mailer said. "That implies that the product has something to do with how fast the car goes. It's confusing to a young mind." "And an old one," Turow retorted with a smile. "Just wait till I get old," Mailer replied.

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