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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT's Thomas L. Friedman: This Column Is Not Sponsored by Anyone
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/opinion/sunday/friedman-this-column-is-not-sponsored-by-anyone.htmlPORING through Harvard philosopher Michael Sandels new book, What Money Cant Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, I found myself over and over again turning pages and saying, I had no idea.
I had no idea that in the year 2000, as Sandel notes, a Russian rocket emblazoned with a giant Pizza Hut logo carried advertising into outer space, or that in 2001, the British novelist Fay Weldon wrote a book commissioned by the jewelry company Bulgari and that, in exchange for payment, the author agreed to mention Bulgari jewelry in the novel at least a dozen times. I knew that stadiums are now named for corporations, but had no idea that now even sliding into home is a corporate-sponsored event, writes Sandel. New York Life Insurance Company has a deal with 10 Major League Baseball teams that triggers a promotional plug every time a player slides safely into base. When the umpire calls the runner safe at home plate, a corporate logo appears on the television screen, and the play-by-play announcer must say, Safe at home. Safe and secure. New York Life.
And while I knew that retired baseball players sell their autographs for $15 a pop, I had no idea that Pete Rose, who was banished from baseball for life for betting, has a Web site that, Sandel writes, sells memorabilia related to his banishment. For $299, plus shipping and handling, you can buy a baseball autographed by Rose and inscribed with an apology: Im sorry I bet on baseball. For $500, Rose will send you an autographed copy of the document banishing him from the game.
I had no idea that in 2001 an elementary school in New Jersey became Americas first public school to sell naming rights to a corporate sponsor, Sandel writes. In exchange for a $100,000 donation from a local supermarket, it renamed its gym ShopRite of Brooklawn Center. ... A high school in Newburyport, Mass., offered naming rights to the principals office for $10,000. ... By 2011, seven states had approved advertising on the sides of school buses.
high density
(13,397 posts)I can't stand the commercialism of it all. And does this sort of nonsense really sell New York Life policies? If anything this sort of annoying, intrusive advertising makes me more likely to avoid the brand.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)It's not supposed to work on your conscious brain at all, the commercials are just background noise to a great many people, for those of us who can't ignore the TV it's a considerably different experience.
Those for whom the commercials are just background noise are the intended audience for most commercials..
Edited for speling.
KG
(28,749 posts)malthaussen
(17,066 posts)Robert Heinlein wrote a story called "The Man Who Sold the Moon." In one scene, he gets funding from Coke to use colored powder to paint their logo on the lunar surface. He shows them a pic of the Hammer and Sickle and says something to the effect of "Do you want them to do it first."
Everything is for sale. Remember Colbert bargaining with the SC convention for naming rights to the primary? I am amazed that the federal elections haven't been sold to the highest bidder.
-- Mal
zbdent
(35,392 posts)what Daddy couldn't buy him ...
bbgrunt
(5,281 posts)but a worthy book to be reviewed.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)dimbear
(6,271 posts)Fess up. What's a state set you back?
tralala
(239 posts)I always liked when they would show his lectures on PBS... talking about fairly complicated ideas in a very straightforward, easy to understand way... really performing a valuable public service IMO. They should air more philosophy lectures on TV.
hatrack
(59,442 posts)Gee-whiz, whoda thunk?!?