I want to return to the first image with which I began to analyze reiterations in advertising and communication in Miami. And I don’t think they’re just from Florida. They belong to today’s world. They may remember her, she’s still right there near my house.
Outdoor advertising – a banner– for Smile Dentistry Associates. I said it was almost perfect. I don’t see any errors. From a design standpoint, strictly speaking, it’s not a big deal. But its content is so well balanced and the information so well exposed, that it is a pleasure to see it. In just one hour we can leave the clinic with an unexpected and resplendent smile. Showing suddenly pearly teeth, shiny as a Danish mountaintop. The time is very expensive, it’s true… I imagine that the result is taken for granted.
If I return to it, it is because despite its practical solvency, doubts assail me. On the Island you don’t usually see much publicity. And no matter how hard you try —at least the state one, the one that sells the products or services offered by its companies— what emerges is basically statements politicians. On very few occasions do they actually propose the product. They propose their relations of production, the epic, the epic, the benevolence of the governing body and, although it may seem contradictory, austerity and restraint in consumption. The product matters less. In this way of seeing the world and its commercial relations, the prize is the possibility. The moment of glory where you could, if you are good and behave yourself, access a basic good.
On this side I suffer the false promise of immediacy. The point is to attract consumers. Confront them to the proposal. The problem —which for many is the solution— is the excessive offer. There is so much advertising that paying attention torments. My work, for example, requires a lot of computer resources, full access to information, to the network, to administration tools: design programs, platforms with free and paid images, fonts, optimizers, various management tools. As well. I am bombarded daily with free products, free download, irresistible. In a high percentage it is misleading. To download an essential image, the exact source, you need to leave your email, enter your credentials, credit card, year of birth, blood group, sexual orientation and eating habits. You hesitate and finally agree. You open the door to the devil. It’s a trap. What was once free is now an excellent offer. you get tangled up And once you’ve shared your data, it becomes balls of blood floating in a sea full of sharks. They start pouring in for months, often years, advertising, last minute deals, selling all the temptations of Babylon.
Advertising has been moving to social networks for a long time. You don’t see many still images anymore. They are animated commercials that say little and manipulate a lot. I fell round with a razor Wireless. In the video a barber was going over the head of an Asian man, a venerable old man with gleaming white hair. He runs the machine over his scalp and the hair magically falls out. Not a shadow remains. The cut was so short, so intense and categorical that, in a moment of confusion and weakness, who knows if I was depressed, I made the request. And the fabulous little machine arrived and it was all a lie: he cut hair like all the others.
Every coin has two sides. We learned in Cuba to ignore the bombardment of political propaganda. It possibly entered the sensitive areas of consciousness and planted something grim there. But, in general, nobody reads the billboards, the posters, the murals. They are known to be manipulators, trying to format our consciousness and implant one tailored to their needs. Somehow something similar happens to me. I have learned to ignore all forms of commercial advertising. First because I can’t buy almost anything. Just the essentials. Also because the feeling of liberation is the same. As much as I enjoyed the immunity to propaganda, I enjoy the one that caters to publicity. I am referring only to those that attack the sense of sight, those that pass us by every second.
The photo of the clinic, for example, could well be a retouching of Photoshop. It is most likely. Something that I can do perfectly. All the magic, the science, happens away from the teeth. A photo is manipulated, some emotional hooks are added to it. It is printed and left lying around like a rattlesnake waiting for its first sucker. Someone susceptible, sensitive to promises, to the belief in the bright future will enter the clinic because who knows if with whiter teeth finally…
