Feeling like the critics might be right and you actually are one of the dumb downed idiots who can't think for himself? Have no fear, just buy some jeans, their ad campaign will make you feel good about it. The marketing world isn't interested in improving you, they just want to sell you something. In this case, relief from the truth.
In one ad the slogan is "smart critiques, stupid creates," but stupid doesn't create. Stupid is ineffectual. Stupid is by definition, not an ability, but a lack or an inability to be able to accomplish something. The corporations don't want you to know that, they like you dumb, confused and submissive. If stupid has any power, it is the power of the dumb brute or thug, which may be what this ad campaign is encouraging.
It is an attitude with a special relevance for one country, the United States, where some are totally convinced of the corporate "Just do it" mentality brought now to new levels of ignorant brutality in our wars of murder in the middle east where American troops frequently open fire on innocent people. But hey, they got balls. I guess murdering people takes balls and heart, like the diesel ad campaign says. It doesn't take brains.
The "stupid is the new cool" gist of the new diesel ad campaign is of course exactly the wrong thing today. One of America's biggest problems is its lack of appreciation for intellectual rigor and thought in general, disabling the ability of the public to understand the dangers and issues that affect them. Even if you find pleasure in ignorance, being stupid is dangerous, for yourself and others. It does however keep you in the corporate feeding trough, until the farmer comes to get his bacon, that is.
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Thank you very much
ReplyDeletefor pimping it that much more.
Is to vent not t'weep?
hi dan,
ReplyDeleteno not at all...we need to know where we stand on this stuff. it isn't cool at all. if people want to be idiots, at least they should be warned. that's how i feel.
such and advertising campaign shows how little people know about creativity and art, that they confuse it with being stupid. the whole thing is so disgusting. should i clam up about it? then they really have won havent they. to hell with them. ill keep calling it like i see it.
best,
george
I think you guys misunderstand the point.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is that if you're not prepared to look stupid, you will probably never be creative.
Original ideas are by definition, different. Whether they are a success, depend on how people accept them. Most original ideas are labeled "stupid". If you visit Tate Modern (the London modern arts gallery) there are things like a blue painting with a black dot in the middle. To me that's pretty stupid. To to others, that is art.
Steve Jobs said something similar in a speech he gave at Stanford University. In the name of promoting innovative thinking, he said: "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish".
Still, I think you're right in that the campaign might confuse on the idea it wishes to communicate. Your point of view is proof of that. And the last thing people need is to think they should be stupid for the sake of stupidity.
well thats an interesting interpretation and definitely takes it a different direction.
ReplyDeletei was lumping it in with the general feeling in America that being stupid is somehow cool.
i think you have a good point, but i think in the end the ad campaign is still going in the same direction of trying to convince people that using their mind is somehow a bad thing.
as for the blue painting with the black dot, i cant really speak except to say, it might seem stupid, but i doubt that artist wanted it to seem stupid.
if the ad campaign was saying be original even if they call you stupid, that is one thing.
the ad campaign IS NOT saying that. it is saying. BE STUPID.
you can interpret it different ways, but i think the context of today's America, and maybe europe too, points in the direction I took it.
thanks for the comment.
Its understandable the message they tried to send and perhaps it can even be a new market position from Diesel or it can go as lame as waht we al agree here. I just think they should win an award for WORST CAMPAIGN EVER!!
ReplyDeletePerhaps they tried to motivate ppl to buy it in the US or give ppl a reason why they should consume something so simple in times of financial crises to the entire country. Stil going world abroad with that campaign.. O.O!!
The one thing I recognize in the campaign is that '' Smart critiques. Stupid create. '' sounds like a DADAISMO (dada - art movement started in zurique) thing. Still they should've think better and more before going abroad the world with that thought.
US's way of thinking ain't nothing like other places in the world still they wanted to use the same idea without considering people's reaction.
Smart critiques. Stupid create. Diesel creates shit.
Much better slogan LOL.
(im not from us nor canada nor england so if thre is any mistakes on the english sorry. Not my native language)
you know if things werent they way they are today in the world I probably wouldn't have bothered to care about this ad campaign. as it is though, the last thing we need are ad campaigns saying be stupid. the world is stupid enough!
ReplyDeleteThe whole "prepare to look stupid" when creating is useful but at the same time, useless. If you're truly creative, more often than not, you already know this.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit like telling chefs "wear an apron"! For crying out loud, do you think anyone who's entertained that notion don't already understand what role an apron plays in cooking!?!
I think it is Diesel's way of bolstering the dumbness of the general masses, as that is a sure-fire way of safe-guarding your revenue.
If stupid people don't have money for the product, they will beg, borrow or steal simply to get it.
It's a very effective formula as well.
Of course Smart critiques. Smart does so because it knows that just cos you have a pair of diesel jeans don't mean jack s**t.
Diesel's ad and the trend of dumbing the masses makes "Smarts'" work almost impossible because "Stupid" now feels he's "cooler" than "Smart" cos he/she has a pair of diesel jeans. Since "cool" and "popular" are one of today's informal global currencies, stupid now feels emboldened, globally vilified and finally a "winner".
There are very FEW approaches that can redeem an emboldened "stupid" from his/her empty ways.
That's always been the golden formula for mass manipulation and today's corporations have finally figured it out. That's why a lot of the "Smarts" are worried because it's a whopping kryptonite in the quest to enlighten man kind.
ps: If you don't agree that mankind needs true enlightenment, you only have one guess which camp you're in... :)
Yep. My response may be deemed as late...
Yeah I dont like this ad campaign at all...kinda slightly offensive
ReplyDeleteOur Soldiers give you the freedom to write this artcle. I find it almost as offensive that you talk about them in a bad light as the campaign ad.
ReplyDeletemiranda i dont believe that the armed forces of the united states are protecting my freedom. i believe they are being used to control the world for the financial and military industrial complex. they are also killing a lot of innocent people in the process. good luck to you.
ReplyDelete