It looks like the next target for corporate advertisements are the beaches of Florida, where Skippy peanut butter has already successfully steam rolled its image onto a stretch of beach half a mile long and 200 ft wide. Beach towns from Miami beach to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to Wildwood, NJ and Jones beach on Long Island are considering this tactic in return for profits made by selling “ad space” in the sand. From an ecological standpoint, steamrolling advertisements into the sand is probably more environmentally friendly and more ecologically efficient than using billboards (no paper, ink, etc.). However, from a basic human-who-wants-a-break-from-consumer-corporate-run-around-standpoint, this dream-induced marketing ploy (inventor Dori literally spruced the idea from a dream) only serves to remind us that corporate advertisements and the steady push for consumerism has risen to intolerably obnoxious heights in modern America. Who wants to think about Skippy peanut butter every time they go to the beach? What sort of state is the world in that a person’s self worth is directly linked to how well they as a worker can provide ideas for their corporation? Hopefully the human species can someday escape the strange notion that life spirals around working an 8 hour day only to buy, work again, to then again buy more consumer goods for the rest of their lives. 5000 pressed images of Skippy peanut butter jars strewn along the coastline …how many dollars are your dreams worth?
The Slingshot Collective