DO YOU FEEL PERSECUTED BY ADVERTISING?

I DO!

The public space is littered with advertising everywhere, on the roads, in the cities; in television trying to follow a thought of what is being said you get interrupted by idiocy and silliness: summersale, car sales, big brother (I don’t see), banking (they earn so much money, why do they need to advertise so much?), air condition ( there is an advertisement for tornado with a completely brain-less woman; if she was my daughter or sister, I would disown her for human incompetence). Do you ever remember any advertisements? Well, a few years ago there was one: ‘controlling the weather’ also for air-condition, I do not remember the brand and really don’t care, but I thought that was quite a clever advertisement for air-conditioning.

I like to watch ‘war-zone’ at 18:58 on channel 13 with Raviv Drucker and Bruch Kra, because they start with headlines for 1 minute, and then 8-9 minutes of advertising, which gives me time to go to the kitchen to boil water for my coffee, visit the bathroom, come back to the kitchen and when the water boils, to prepare my cup of coffee and then come back to the TV when the senseless  nothings of advertisements are over.

This week I read: Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers (1933); the author had worked as a copywriter (1922-29) in London, so she knew very well the advertising business. In the book she describes it as:

 Advertising is an awful, immoral job, to undermine with one hand and with the other forcing the damn-fool public to pay twice (p42)

Advertising is a profession that has no qualities except cheapness to recommend it (p31); in essence to tell plausible lies for money (p57); the crookedness of advertising (p183); it is no good to tell people that the cost of advertising has to come out of the quality of the goods (p 203).

I am an old grandmother and one of my joys is to read books, i.e. physical books I can touch and smell or write notes in. I read in English because it takes me too long to read in Hebrew. However, some months ago I went to Steimatzky to buy the Guinnes’ Book of Records, as a birthday present for a grandchild; for several years I have not renewed my membership because they want my phone number and I do not want to have my phone overflown with their crooked advertisements. I was stupid, because the idiot- sale’s person convinced me that the book would very much cheaper if I paid the membership – but it is not, what you save, is what you pay in membership, just like Sayers said in her book, crooked business. He promised me that I would NOT get advertisements to my phone; he lied, what a super-idiot. My phone got littered and polluted with Steimatzky advertisements about every other day; I got more and more frustrated and angry for having been lied to.

It took me more that 2 months to get back to the book shop, where I made a scene and demanded that they remove my telephone number from their list. This time a woman seller, who did not really understand why I was so upset, angry and frustrated, she said it was their right to send me advertisements. Well, lady Stupid, it is my right NOT to have my telephone polluted by your brainless, crooked advertisements. I had to delete 33 messages, yes I counted – and I have a rule – for every message I have to delete, I will not buy anything from your obnoxious book chain for 4 months, i.e. 33X4= 132 months =11 years. The super-idiot-book seller somehow got the advertisements into my email account, so about every 36 hours I have to delete their FXXXing advertisements from my email; that is about 6 months ago, so that is about another 65 advertisement X4 months = 260 months i.s. about 21 years – so I will not shop ever again in Steimatzky, I will be dead and gone long before that comes up. Why would a book shop send out so many advertisements? do they believe I will buy a book every other day?? Idiots!

Instead, I have found Awesome books online – they are great. Also, we got stuck in Cyprus, Larnaca during the war with Iran and there they have an absolutely wonderful book shop: Academic & General bookshop; most books, of course, are in Greek, but the department of English books new and second hand, had about twice the number of books they have in Steimatzky Hebrew and English combined, as well as other languages. What I liked in particular, was that they have a section with the classical, older books, what I call good literature; nobody can read all the good books there are so many, which as a rule they do not carry in Steimatzky.

there is usually, at least until 6 months ago, only new mostly irrelevant books, that I consider pollution of the paper, books I do not want to read and least of all to own.

I consider to take a ‘Bookcation’ in Larnaka; it is to 40 minutes to fly there to go book hunting for a good book or 5! If I go early in the morning I can come back in the afternoon!

Anyways, how do you feel about the advertising that is everywhere adding nothing but litter and irritation?