September 2006
Issue No. 393
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Captive – how the ad industry pins us down
Dinyar Godrej sniffs at the bait being dangled by the ad biz.
Brand-hopping beauties
An alien consumer culture is blitzing Indian women. Mari Marcel Thekaekara takes its measure.
Jesus is a brand of jeans
Jean Kilbourne on how advertising affects the way we think and feel.
Public service
Chinese perceptions of the hard sell take Jacob Lotinga by surprise.
Sizzzzle
How big brands steal children’s hearts.
Sultans of spin
Making an unpopular candidate win an election – in Bolivia or anywhere else – is an art, as Bob Burton discovers.
All that glisters...
India’s feelgood boomerang.
Beneath the gloss...
Sarah Irving opens the casebook on ad promise and corporate reality.
Subverts
Bubble-pricking prankery.
News, views, and & voices
Currents
Dust-up over mine
gold digging in Chile that will ‘relocate’ glaciers
Worldbeaters
The end hoves into sight for Equatorial Guinea’s blood-soaked dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo – despite having an uncle who is a god.
Mixed Media
Music
Lagos Stori Plenti by Various Artists
Music
RAN (Remote Area Nurse) by David Bridie
Books
A War Too Far: Iran, Iraq and the New American Century by Paul Rogers
Film
Shanghai Dreams written and directed by Wang Xiaoshuai
Film
I Know I’m Not Alone directed by Michael Franti.
Southern Exposure
The dignity of a poet resident at a senior citizen shelter in Kathmandu, Nepal, captured by Shehab Uddin.
View from Israel
The real aim of the bombs falling on Lebanon is regime change, argues Uri Avnery, a former member of Israel’s parliament.
Essay: Seen, killed and unheard
Lebanese teens in the line of fire bear witness to their ripped lives and speak out about what needs to change. Testimony compiled by Rebecca Bridges and Fayyaz Muneer.
Big Bad World
Polyp’s take on a volatile fluid.
Making Waves
Semantics King Jr – keeping the flame of independent media alive in a camp for Liberian refugees.
Letter from Mauritius
Lindsey Collen on the fight for freedom of artistic expression.
Country Profile: Benin
If people in the rich world associate Benin with anything at all, it is likely to be child trafficking, slavery or voodoo – not exactly the ideal calling cards for a nation. Latterly, however, Benin is developing an entirely new reputation.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
Late at night, unable to sleep in the muggy heat, I channel-hop. I alight on BBC World – a documentary about a swish London ad agency working on a Brazilian liquor company’s big international splash. Millions are at stake. In such circumstances, when are they not?
The creative team aim for instant recognition coupled with a subtle, near-subliminal evocation of Brazilian flava. They plump for the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer that towers over Rio de Janeiro. A suitable hunk with designer stubble and facial features that faintly echo the most common images we have of Jesus is found. They pose him, arms outstretched. The welcoming gesture of the statue gets transformed into insouciant, couldn’t-care-less sexiness. The model holds the pose in the backseat of a stretch limo, bare-chested against the side of a swimming pool, etc. There’s endless airbrushing, details added and subtracted, lighting and colouring worked over.
The pictures gain something of the aura of holy relics. The money that’s gone into them, before the hooch launches on the international market, is completely crazy. All spent in the service of image.
There’s been some slight consternation at NI Towers around doing an issue on advertising. We advertise ourselves and print ads in the magazine. Might there be just a whiff of the double standard? But there’s a gulf between our efforts and those of big-brand mass advertising that stretches from here to, well, almost eternity.
We constantly remind our contributors they’ve got to help us live up to our advertising promises. We print only a few ads in the NI – those that meet our guidelines and which might have something to offer our readers. And we cherish our independence – we’ve never had to bin a piece because it might have upset an advertiser. Bins are for junk.
Dinyar Godrej for the
New Internationalist Co-operative
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
