I've always had a problem with the consumerist commercial nature of the American culture. I flog myself for participating as much as I do. I reconcile my participation with my conserving ways. I may purchase things, but I hold on to them for as long as is practical. I purchased my stereo used from a Syrian grad student in 1988. The CD player was added in 1990 (and I still have the first CD I purchased, Was (not Was) What up, Dog?). I purchased a used car in 1995 and kept it until 2002 when I gave it to someone else in a grand attempt at recycling. Etc. etc. etc.
Then the commercial world intrudes. Everything is a commercial these days. Buy. Consume. It isn't a subliminal as the message in They Live (one of my all time favorite movies, by the way… sure it's Roddy Piper, but it adds just the right cheese factor). One doesn't need special glasses to see it all though.
Some day, I'm going to go berserk and spray paint black every bit of the pervasive advertising I see. How I wish I could be as charismatic as Tyler Durden leading an overthrow of the bourgeois lifestyle I and so many people I know live. But I'm not so disaffected nor so nihilistic. Still a little bit of that mentality infects me.
The first place I'm going to start is the ads on DVDs. Yes, this is what started my little soliloquy. I began watching Red Dragon and had an ad for Hulk thrown in my face. Unlike VHS, DVDs have the ability to let the viewer pick and choose the pieces they want to watch. Many DVDs include trailers for upcoming features on their menus. But this studio has decided that viewers cannot be entrusted with the choice; we must watch the trailer as a preview to the Play Movie option.
Luckily, the skip to next chapter button wasn't disabled for this section.