I am currently sitting in a little bit of paradise in southern Ontario called Niagara-On-The-Lake. Tonight I perform acoustically at the Jackson Triggs winery. It’s been a fun day so far – warm and relaxing. The people here are fantastic and I am looking forward to the show – primarily because I’m going to just drink a lot of Pinot Noir and wing it. I had a hard time deciding what to play, so the set list ended up being 20 or 21 songs long.

By way of another Facebook advert, more single ladies waiting at home, glued to their computers, waiting for lonely men to find them. In this particular case it seems to be four close friends, all of whom are having difficulties finding dates. From what I can tell, all four are employed in the promotions field.

I really do hope that you’re sitting down, because this is so utterly ridiculous that at first I thought it was a joke.

It seems that Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled a commercial because of, if you can believe it, outrage over a scarf worn in it. It seems that a variety of conservative voices in the United States were infuriated by the fact that it resembles a keffiyeh.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with what a keffiyeh is, it’s a traditional Arabic headdress worn by Arab men for centuries to provide protection from direct exposure to the sun and, when worn around the face, to protect the eyes and mouth from dust and sand.

In Palestine, various patterns of the keffiyeh have come to represent various organizations, such as the black and white “spider web” pattern, which has been affiliated with the Fatah Party since the 1960’s. This, of course, was the problem that those that railed against the advertisement had.

Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin commented on Dunkin’ Donuts decision to pull the advert, writing…

“It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists. Too many of them bend over backward in the direction of anti-American political correctness….

Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence — unintentionally or not — they matter. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style.”

Thanks to individuals such as Malkin, ignorance will never go out of style either.

Looking to buy a new car? Happen to be a Ted Nugent fan? Well, if you live in the vicinity of Butler, Missouri, you’re in luck.

Right now, with the purchase of any new or used vehicle, Max Motors of Butler, Missouri, will throw in either a free gun or a $250 dollar gas card. According to the dealership’s owner, Mark Muller, sales have quadrupled since the incentive was introduced.

The BBC quoted Muller as saying…

“We’re just damn glad to live in a free country where you can have a gun if you want to.”

It’s a pretty sweet deal if you think about it. Get a new car and a free gun to keep in the glove box. It’s sort of like buying a car that has built in iPod capabilities, the only difference being that when road rage strikes you have the ability to shoot someone rather than just turning down your stereo to yell at them.

Watching Hockey Night In Canada during the playoffs means viewing the same commercials over and over again. While those by advertisers are obviously annoying, I have noticed something very disturbing about the images used in adverts promoting CBC news.

If you’ve been watching, and have seen the ads, you’ll notice that the majority of the images used center on a singular theme – the War On Terror. Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, scenes of individuals of Middle Eastern ethnicity being detained, images of a child being consoled by a Canadian soldier at a military funeral, and so forth.

Subliminally, the use of such images by the CBC is rather disturbing. As most of you are aware, the CBC is Canada’s national public radio and television broadcaster, the oldest of its kind in the country, and a Crown Corporation – which means that it is a state controlled entity. Its board of directors is directly accountable to Parliament via the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Prime Minister appoints its President. Financially, taxpayers, ad revenues, subscription fees, and real estate revenues support the CBC.

That said; one has to seriously look at the images that are employed during CBC News adverts, why they are specifically chosen, and who plays a role in their choice.

There is no denying the fact that the subliminal impact of images is significant in media, even if just flashes in promotions for news broadcasts. It is something that, I believe, Canadians should be aware of, especially given the fact that the understanding of our involvement in Afghanistan is very limited among many Canadians. In casual conversation about our role in that country, its historical complexities, never mind its cultural complexities, are commonly little discussed. For many, we are simply in Afghanistan fighting an immense evil and must therefore remain and persevere for the sake of those that would be endangered were we not present. Unfortunately, lost in the haze of that simplistic vision are a multitude of factors that are of dire importance and consequence which I have addressed at length in previous entries on this website (please use the Archives or search engine to locate them, as they are numerous).

With regards to the images employed during CBC News adverts, we must remain vigilant concerning the subliminal and its impact on us, even if it’s just a single image thrust onto a screen for no more than a second.

For some bizarre reason, three people have mentioned the Victoria Secret Fashion Show to me today. To be honest, I have no idea why.

Let’s get one thing straight about lingerie – sure it can make you feel pretty, sure it can be a turn on for guys, but in the end everyone ends up naked and no amount of lingerie is going to save your Victoria Secret wearing ass if, once you’re naked, you feel less sexy than you did when you had it on.

Sexual confidence is, in truth, far sexier than sexy lingerie. In fact, the hottest woman in the world could be standing in front of a man wearing it and if, once it’s off, her confidence evaporates it doesn’t matter how beautiful she is. Sure, there are those that don’t mind that, that prefer something that just looks good – the same applies to women as well - but the truth is that confidence and belief in ones self remains the sexiest thing in the world.

Now, when I say ‘confidence’ I am not referring to the sort that is actually manipulation disguised as confidence. In truth, that’s just low self-esteem, something that most of the worlds hot men and women suffer from. That would be the reason why they spend so much time focusing on their appearance. If you need to spend a considerable amount of time focusing on that which is without then chances are there’s something wrong within. Of course, modern pressures have a great deal to do with that as well. Walk by your average magazine stand and you’ll be bombarded by photo-shopped perfections symbolizing everything that is supposedly wrong with you. There is no question that those, and other influences, play a significant role in the usurpation of our confidence. We are, without a doubt, living at the societal height of such manipulations and distractions. They’re everywhere we turn – in film, on television, online, in magazines, on billboards, and a dozen other places.

But everyone ends up naked in the end. And, as far as I’m concerned, no amount of hot lingerie can make up for a lack of confidence, no matter how beautiful on the outside we perceive ourselves, or others, to be. The truth of ourselves comes out when we are at our most vulnerable, everything else is just a shield.

I’ve been a voting member of the International Academy of Digital Arts And Sciences for a few years now. Every year the IADAS holds The Webby Awards in New York to recognize the best of the web in a variety of different fields, one of them being the news category.

The BBC, which has one of the most in-depth and user friendly websites in the world, is commonly the winner of the news category, and one of the standout features of the site has always been its lack of adverts. Thus, I was surprised to discover that they have recently started to include adverts on their front page.

To most, the inclusion of adverts on a website is a pretty common thing. In fact, it’s something that is so commonplace that we tend not to really notice them most of the time. But as someone that studies websites, especially when it comes to voting with regards to The Webby’s, the fact that The BBC has started to include adverts is a bit of a disappointment. In fact, for me, it’s a big disappointment. True, revenue will be gained - God knows that advertising on the front page of The BBC’s website would not only provide immense traffic, but cost a great deal of money as well. I suppose it’s just sad to see something that was free of adverts in a realm that is utterly inundated by them finally succumb.

Another Miraculous Apple Breakthrough

But can you plug them in when you’re in the car?

That dreamy someone is out there. The ads never lie. That’s exactly what the girls and guys look like – perfect, sensual, brains to boot. Growing up we never had these sorts of things to deal with, we never had the unbelievable pressures that young people today have to face with regards to appearances and how that one aspect of a person alters everything about them. Sure, at some point everyone wants to fuck a cheerleader or the captain of the football team, that’ll never change, that’s adolescence, but there’s a marked difference between that and the amount of perfectionist imaging that is drilled in to the minds of young people these days. I have first hand experience; I foolishly married the amplified product of it.

Within you there is courage, grace, honour, integrity. These are things that are not advertised but that resound throughout your life with far greater impact than appearance. They do not sell products, they are contradictory to you becoming one, but they are of the utmost importance. They do not mean that you cannot be beautiful, only that without them being beautiful is worthless.

Whether you believe it or not, this represents the frontline of the battle in our society. This is one of the most powerful mechanisms with which we are controlled and manipulated. This is, just like the fear that has gripped us since 2001, a fear instilled that ensures sycophancy while its promotion is steeped in the belief that it is actually the acquisition of individualism.

There is no buying your way out of yourself. There is no way to erase the past and pretend that it does not apply to the present. Mistakes are made in every life, but life is such that we are afforded the chance to correct them if we so wish. To not endeavor to do so is to live in denial and court your own disaster. No amount of comfortable ignorance or self imposed regulation of thought can alter it, no redefinition of what you are, of what you have been, can wipe your slate clean.

You are the product of only one thing – your character. Thus, how you go about marketing yourself says a great deal. But what you hide in the small print says a great deal more.

That dreamy someone is out there. The ads never lie.

Well, it seems it’s become a reality. Advertising on Police Cars. From Auto Blog…

“The Toledo, Ohio police department needs to replace about 100 of its 140-car fleet at a time when money’s tight. When budget deficits are forecast, getting funds can be a challenge, and that’s what led the Toldeo department to offer cruiser sponsorships. In exchange for $15,000, the cars will have a 3 by 1 foot ad placed on the rear quarter panels. Four businesses have signed on so far, which means that two cars have been paid for. Toledo PD Chief Mike Navarre has received more negative feedback than good comments, but the bottom line is that it’s going to offset the considerable annual cost of replacing all those cars. The influx of cash means the fleet gets replenished sooner while still leaving money for the many other things a police department needs. Innovative thinking in tough times is a consistent theme in America, and Toledo’s not the first department to put ads on their cars. The Fire Department is keeping an eye on how the sponsorships unfold, and could roll out its own effort. We don’t see what the big deal is; it’s saving taxpayers money in the end. It’s not like they’ve sold naming rights to the department or anything, so keep an eye out for new Chargers with a cop motor, a HEMI plant, cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks, and an ad for Bambino’s Pizza where 9-1-1 used to be.”

So does this mean I get a cut?

(HT: Ashton Nagle)

Photo courtesy of the BBC

Children are not playthings. They are not individuals to be exploited or influenced in any way to commit acts or follow ideologies that they, themselves, are too young to fully understand.

The concept of the child soldier is nothing new. In some instances it has been seen as a necessity to some, such as in Vietnam where young teens joined the ranks of the Vietcong. In other cases, because of the militant fervor within a society they have lied about their age to be able to go to war, such as during the US Civil War, in which 15 to 20 percent of those who enlisted for the Union Army were between the ages of 9 and 17. Even during the First and Second World wars it was not uncommon for those not old enough to enlist to lie about their age, and as many are aware, youths were used by the Axis powers during the dying days of World War 2 to bolster their depleted ranks. Likewise, the underground movements in occupied Europe during the Second World War also employed youths to spy on enemy movements and gather intelligence.

In more recent history, in Africa, children have been forcefully taken and made to fight by a variety of different militant groups in numerous African conflicts, many of them placed in positions in which they were left little choice but to commit horrendous acts or face death themselves.

China, Cambodia, North Korea (among others) – all of them at one time exploited the ability to coerce young minds to spy on their parents and others and report their conversations and beliefs to the governing authorities. In some instances, such as in Cambodia, an entire generation of youths were responsible for the decimation of their elders so that ‘a new history’ could be adopted, thus furthering their indoctrination and solidifying the power base of those that feared the repercussions of older generations contradicting the nonsense that they had been fed.

Despite the North American concept of the rebellious youth stereotype, the reality of the adolescent mind is that inclusion and acceptance is of the utmost importance to young people. And in the case of extreme environments, they will seek to mimic or adhere to the desires of those older than them in an attempt to impress and feel appreciated.

Today a video was broadcast on the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV network in which a twelve year old boy wielding a knife beheaded Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani national, and a member of the Taliban who was by condemned by them as being a spy for the United States. On the tape, the boy, clad in camouflage, condemned Nabi as a spy and then cut off his head.

Now, as a practical person, I initially raised an eyebrow at this being that when I was twelve I probably couldn’t cut a raw turkey in half with a razor sharp knife without prolonged difficulty, let alone a human head. But that is not the point. Whether the video footage told the whole truth about the execution is not of real import. What is, is that a twelve-year-old boy was obviously indoctrinated with such malice that he was willing to actually go through the motions and do it. More so, that he was placed in that position in the first place.

The truth is that when children are raised in any state in which a militaristic mindset it prevalent they will subconsciously adhere to its principles. In the United States, for example, the Armed Forces have, in some places, recruiting offices in Middle Schools. They US Army uses video games as a recruiting tool (I used to show audiences the US Army sanctioned game while performing), and the worship of military technology and might is probably more prolific than interest in the Constitution.

When you place young minds in an atmosphere in which the militaristic mindset is not simply excusable, but prompted, then you produce youths that are desensitized to the application of warfare and its ramification on their lives. Look only to the prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder amongst those returning from Iraq to see the results.

At least here in North America we are still emboldened with the principles of choice, even though they are largely steeped in the consumer ethic rather than that of any other. That cannot be said of other places where children are placed in situations that they cannot refuse to acquiesce to for fear of being ostracized or worse.

Ultimately, our children will grow to view the future, and build one, that is based on the perception of it that we give them. If it is one steeped in a militaristic mindset then that is the future that will be produced. And that is not, nor ever has been, the role of those knowledgeable enough to know better. Those old enough to discern between right and wrong have a duty to ensure that our children are not unduly influenced by a mindset that is devoted to the glorification and promotion of militarism. Rather, one that recognizes that it has only one end, and that that outcome requires us to lose a little more empathy for our fellow human beings with each passing day until we are little more than products of stone.

Children are our most sacred gift. To abuse their trust and to place them in situations that they are unable to fully comprehend is to doom humanity to the exploration of its darkest possibilities in perpetuity.

Addendum

I should also mention that Canada is no different in its application of the promotion of militarism. Canadian television and websites are rife with adverts for the military, ones that both glorify it and rather calculatingly do not attempt to disclose the realities of the situations that those in the armed forces are actually placed in, especially given the fact that we, like the United States and Great Britain, are a country at war.

I’ve been delinquent, that’s obvious enough. Since returning from Las Vegas on Monday I’ve spent most of my time working on a new concept for the website being that we’ve been having a lot of issues with this one. The new one is far more streamlined, and will have some new features that registered users will enjoy. I should mention to those of you that have signed up that, once the new site is launched, you’ll have to re-register. The reason for this is because registration will offer visitors a few new perks, such as access to the audio player when we stream the new record, to desktops and other goodies, and will also allow people access to a listing of other users and a system that will allow them to send private messages between users and whatever else each member is comfortable displaying about themselves. It’s an idea that I have had for some time, one that will help build a bit of an international fan community right here on the website, one in which not only music but social ideas can be exchanged.

In other news, the record is finished and is scheduled to be mastered in early April. There are some other very personal goings on that have occurred of late that I’d delve into, but I honestly don’t have the mental fortitude to do so right now. Hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll be able to get back into the rhythm of things and work on a few entries about what’s been happening globally of late.

One thing I do want to mention is a Nickelback video that I recently saw on Crooks and Liars in which performance shots are interspersed with footage of individuals such as Nelson Mandela, Betty Williams, and the venerable Peter Benson (the founder of Amnesty International). While the song’s message is one of hope and peace, and the band has to be commended for at least making a positive effort, the exploitative use of these individuals by a band that has, in no uncertain terms, claimed itself proud of its corporate rock business savvy is rather conspicuous.

On their official website, the band has said that it will be donating 100% of the digital sales of “If Everyone Cared’? to Amnesty International and International Children’s Awareness Canada. Not too far above that announcement there is an advert promoting The Juno Awards and Doritos, the latter of which is owned by PepsiCo.

One:

“From 1991 until 1997 PepsiCo was one of the most notable companies to do business in Burma. PepsiCo’s business partner, Thein Tun, was a noted business partner of the ruling Burmese military junta, which has been alleged to be responsible for some of the worst human rights violations in the world.

PepsiCo’s involvement prompted one of the biggest Burma-related boycotts in history. The campaign was on a par with those against Texaco and Unocal, running around the same time, and currently against Total Oil.

PepsiCo formally began their investment in Burma in November 1991 when they opened a bottling plant in the then-capital Rangoon, despite the call by Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy for companies to avoid doing business in Burma until it returned to democracy. The campaign against Pepsi was initiated by the Asian-based Burma Rights Movement for Action. The campaign later gained growing strength in the West as Burmese human rights groups focused on campaigns against companies in Burma, including the oil giants Texaco, Unocal, Amoco, and Petro-Canada.”

Two:

“In 2003, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-governmental organization in New Dehli, said aerated waters produced by soft drinks manufacturers in India, including multinational giants PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company, contained toxins including lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos — pesticides that can contribute to cancer, a breakdown of the immune system and cause birth defects. Tested products included Coke, Pepsi, 7 Up, Mirinda, Fanta, Thums Up, Limca, and Sprite. CSE found that the Indian-produced Pepsi’s soft drink products had 36 times the level of pesticide residues permitted under European Union regulations; Coca Cola’s 30 times. CSE said it had tested the same products in the US and found no such residues. However, this was the European standard for water, not for other drinks. No law bans the presence of pesticides in drinks in India.

The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo angrily denied allegations that their products manufactured in India contained toxin levels far above the norms permitted in the developed world. But an Indian parliamentary committee, in 2004, backed up CSE’s findings and a government-appointed committee is now trying to develop the world’s first pesticide standards for soft drinks. Coke and PepsiCo opposed the move, arguing that lab tests aren’t reliable enough to detect minute traces of pesticides in complex drinks. On December 7, 2004, India’s Supreme Court ruled that both PepsiCo and competitor The Coca-Cola Company must label all cans and bottles of the respective soft drinks with a consumer warning after tests showed unacceptable levels of residual pesticides.

Both companies continue to maintain that their products meet all international safety standards without yet implementing the Supreme Court ruling.[citation needed] As of 2005, The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo together hold 95% market share of soft-drink sales in India. PepsiCo has also been alleged [attribution needed] to practice “water piracy” due to its role in exploitation of ground water resources resulting in scarcity of drinking water for the natives of Puthussery panchayat in the Palakkad district in Kerala, India. Local residents have been pressuring the government to close down the PepsiCo unit in the village.

In 2006, the CSE again found that soda drinks, including both Pepsi and Coca-Cola, had high levels of pesticides in their drinks. Both PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company maintain that their drinks are safe for consumption and have published newspaper advertisements that say pesticide levels in their products are less than those in other foods such as tea, fruit and dairy products. In the Indian state of Kerala, sale and production of Pepsi-Cola, along with other soft drinks, has been banned. Five other Indian states have announced partial bans on the drinks in schools, colleges and hospitals.”

If everyone cared to do a little research, we wouldn’t have to donate anything at all to make ourselves look humble, would we.

See my comments below regarding Pepsi, the 1999 MGB Pepsi Taste Tour, corporate sponsorship, etc.