I've noticed an odd trend in commercials. People being followed by objects. Bicycles, slot machines, gas pumps, hospital gurneys. These are either things people want (the bicycle and slot machine) or want to stay away from (gas pump and gurney), although when I saw the slot machine one I thought it was about gambling addiction until I realized it was for a casino. Actually maybe it was about gambling addiction.
Either way, I find these ads creepy. The slot machine one has them standing, monolithic-like at every turn, their numbers rapidly growing. The gas pump stands by the side of the road (and eventually outside the house window) like De Niro in Cape Fear. The gurney and bicycle actually move, creeping up from behind. In each case I suppose they are meant to represent something. The slot machine... well, I discussed that. The gas pump, lonely that you no longer come to sup on gas as often (a bit like a spurned lover). The gurney is supposed to be the threat of a heart attack... or is it the drug, always there to help you? The bicycle is an odd on, because it is the thing that you supposedly want to buy and can with some new credit card (or some such... I honestly forget). But to me it seems like something that is demanding to be bought, the compulsion to purchase.
And I suppose that is it... objects that follow use, our hidden desires forcing themselves on us and into our minds, 24-7.
I hope more ads follow this trend. Show me the Starbucks coffee stalker, the iPhone stalker, the KFC bucket stalker, the Trojan condom stalker. Of course the objects for sale can't do the stalking... it has to be something that represents what they represent.
For a (very) short period I thought about going into advertising. I decided not to because I spend way too much thinking about this stuff. I would end up just making stuff like this:
Russia's The Dead Hand
15 years ago
