Now You Sea It, Now You Don't - Reading The Pictures

(According to the drug company, it’s mission is “clear.” Ultimately, it is to “obliterate” disease completely. However, if you separate the image from the words, the meaning becomes more ambiguous. How much, for example, does this image really lend itself to altruism? Couldn’t it, as easily, be inviting you to wash AIDS from your mind? If so, a fitting tag line might read: We’ve Got It Covered So You Can Forget About It.)

Where is BnN going after the election?

Beyond my regular political beat, I will also be targeting the most insidious political manipulation in America: commercial advertising.

More and more, people who contact me express the feeling that they are being overwhelmed and exploited by ever more sophisticated visual messages.

You might not always (or often, for that matter) agree with my take, but I believe I’ve helped make the readers of this blog more sophisticated visual consumers of political spin. My goal — going forward — is to help raise that level of awareness, sophistication, immunization and critique not just toward political and editorial images, but commercial ones as well.

Post By

Michael Shaw
See other posts by Michael here.

The Big Picture

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