The above campaign was released back in 2007 but it still sends an accurate message about our toxic culture and media, and of the cleverness and manipulative nature of advertising. But let’s not be fooled …..this beauty product company’s ultimate agenda is to sell more beauty products to us from the exposure this campaign gave them -and the feel good it gives viewers. And yes, posting this, gives more exposure but alongside a message about critical thinking.
For a woman that was the embodiment of the golden era, Poet and Singer Patti Smith resists the pull of the past, instead inhabiting the space between now and tomorrow… “I believe that we, that this planet, hasn’t seen its golden age. Everybody says it’s finished…art’s finished, rock and roll is dead. God is dead. Fuck that! This is my chance in the world … If only each generation would realise that the time for greatness is right now when they’re alive. The time to flower is now.”
Real or Ideal .
Wonder …. if unhappiness was the distance between the real and ideal? If happiness doesn’t come from having more, doing more, being more – but in questioning (and not buying into) what is being sold to us as the ‘ideal’? Try applying ‘real and ideal’ to these ….life, relationship, family, self, job, income, holiday, expectation. Perhaps a remedy for disappointment? Photo source.
Art by Sungwon.
Just thought this was such a hopeful image – full of story and no doubt you’ll have your own. I think finding our way out of past experiences and ways of being is a bit like this. But I like the way the girl has found her own colour. And how the strong colour blue makes the swirling ghost people pale into less significant, less resistant (pushy) influences. You get the feeling she’s communicating with these guys and sorting things out. Check out Sungwon’s work – it’s beautiful. Pass it on…..
Do you want what you think you want ?
Why is it that we feel so pressured and pushed to seek more? Do more? Be more? Do big and incredible things. Reach for ‘up there’. What if your ‘self’ is more content in place than size? Is actually repelled by what everyone else wants. What they have and seek. Isn’t simply being as close to real and true to yourself an applaudable mark of personal success? Isn’t that the greatest thing you could hope to find – and give. To tread your own path and not on others on your way – being kind in life and journey? To STOP. Think. Question. Not conform. To have little or no idea where you’re going but have enough of that childlike sense of wonder to embrace the mystery. Explore. Be free of the constraint of; “When I grow up I want to be….” And just be? Which brings us back to the question…. “Do you want what you think you want?” Picture by Maurice Sendak who wrote and illustrated the book, ‘Where the wild things are’.
Catfish Tale . (From movie, ‘Catfish’)
They used to tank Cod from Alaska, all the way to China. They’d keep ’em in vats in the ship. By the time the Cod fish reached China, the flesh was moosh. And tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea of, that if you put these Cods in these big vats, put some Catfish in with ’em, and the Catfish would keep the Cod agile. And there are those people who are Catfish in life. They keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing. They keep you fresh. And I thank God for the Catfish, ’cause we’d be droll, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin.”
Charcoal illustration by Tyler Davis found at www.42brushes.com.
