The 1980’s were the Decade when Advertising was lifted into the glorious Halls of fine Art. Suddenly it was all about aesthetics and meaningful messages …

Now after almost a hundred years of professional PR, Advertising and Marketing these three apocalyptic Riders of modern Consumerism are considered essential to the fabric of modern life.

Although everybody says they are not influenced by modern marketing and PR they run out like Mad Men and buy the newest crap.

And advertising and marketing have become the trendsetters for our lifestyles. Art no longer imitates Life, people model their lives on lifestyles and momentums they see in television ads or sneaky guerilla campaigns on the web.

Advertising is not about change, but establishing or exploiting stereotypes that help products and companies.

We will save you … and your money.

Examples? Apple still tries to pretend to be the cool underdog that saves the world (like in the 1984 ad), although it’s paranoid behavior and market capitalization has long surpassed Microsoft.

Many food companies pretend to sell you healthy and fresh food, while the packaging labels tell a VERY different story.

But the Brain Washing is now so deeply entrenched in modern society that Consumers are now Evangelists for their "Brands".

Brand Loyalty is a new form of personality disorders, similar to Nationalism or Racism.

Most dreadful of all are the lies that companies care about the environment or that they have a social consciousness.

Trust us we are greener than green …

Modern Consumerism and good old fashioned Capitalism doesn’t work without some form of exploitation, waste and injustice (ask those people building your cool iPhone).

I only wish people would care AND SPEND as much money on fighting poverty and saving the planet as they do on Brands.

This is old Socialist Propaganda – but honestly not much has changed. You can add to the Clergy level modern Mass Media, Celebrities and Esoteric Consumerism.

And they should add some Politicians, Bankers and Billionaires who piss down the pyramids to visualize Ronald Reagan’s "trickle down economy".

Anything else missing?

Video / 55 Minutes / Spiegel TV

Especially in our modern mass media world and after the 2008 Beijing Propaganda Olympics it’s scary how little TV has changed – or that the Nazis already had figured out the basics of TV brainwashing.

Scary.

Still looks very modern, like the duo tone setup and composition. I am just wondering if that was a generic template they would reuse for every great leader? Can’t wait for the Putin version …

Too much artistic power was wasted in the time of the Soviets for stupid propaganda. But this poster still is looking great and very modern.

Click image for more Patriotism.

I am not a big fan of Norman Rockwell. He is an American Propaganda painter – the opposite to the many Soviet Realist painters. His feel-good and homely images is American porn for patriots. These are images from the old America still in the heads of many US Neocons and die hard right wing Patriots.

But this America is long dead and won’t come back.

There is still small town America and American pie – but it’s kids listen to music from Negros on their Chinese iPods and watch porn from Sweden. Their parents drive Japanese and German cars – and pay Muslim countries huge amounts of money to keep these vehicles rolling. Their work has long been outsourced to India or Mexico …

More? Rockwell @ Wikipedia