Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.RUTGERS.EDU
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!pyrnj!topaz!dm
From: dm@BBN-VAX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Harper's article
Message-ID: <3956@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Tue, 8-Oct-85 16:50:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3956
Posted: Tue Oct  8 16:50:03 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Oct-85 06:43:42 EDT
Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 25

From: dm@BBN-VAX.ARPA


>>"Meanwhile, in the outside world, science fiction finds work as a
>>commercial fetish, substituting for religion.  Consumers are shown
>>a field of stars blazoned with the device "Beyond!"  When
>>associated with breakfast cereal or pickup trucks, the image of the
>>cosmos suggests masculine adventure while promising oblivion.
>>Anything can and does get sold this way. [Harper's]
>
>When's the last time you saw an ad of this nature? I have a sneaking
>suspicion this yoyo (1) doesn't own a television set and (2) never
>reads "popular" magazines. The commercial approach he's talking
>about went out around 1958 (which is probably the last time he sat
>down in front of a TV to see what the 'masses' are into).
>						[Bill Ingogly]

How about the American Food-in-cans Institute ad on the
Superbowl (the one with robots ``still eating food from cans''?  How
about all those swooshing metallic letters zipping over electronic
grids in every other computer-graphic generated commercial?  Most
automobile ads these days seem to fit his description (there was one a
year or so ago that had a spaceship coming in for a landing next to
whatever car it was they were advertising).  SF seems to me to be a pretty
prevalent theme in advertising today.