Exit Through the Gift Shop

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary on a very interesting but controversial topic: street graffiti. Many consider graffiti a form of artistic expression that deserves respect and admiration, while others dismiss it as vandalism. Banksy is a very skilled graffiti artist who often combines dark humor into his work.

If you think graffiti is art, fine, host an art show and rip a bunch of people off to make some money, but don't go around vandalizing the public/private property of others.

Responsibility

I was on the "for censorship" side of the debate. A popular argument the opposing side made was that as competent adults, people should not let themselves be manipulated by advertisements and whatever products/ideas/lifestyles they are attempting to impress on them, if they are dumb enough to believe it, its their own fault. This is a very narrow minded view, advertisers have power, they can change the very fabric of society through all of the products and messages they're selling, even if some people are incompetent, that doesn't give the right to advertisers to prey on them how they want. Advertisers must have responsibility in how they conduct their business and be careful not to manipulate society in a harmful fashion.

Ads are Porn

Far too many advertisements are sexually explicit. Take the super bowl commercials for example. This event is the single most widely viewed television event every year and is notorious for how expensive the air time is for advertisements. There were several ads on from companies like Godaddy.com and Sketchers, that displayed scantily clad women in commercials that were highly inappropriate. Also, consider the audience, there are thousands of children watching the game, children are being exposed to these pornographic images. This is completely wrong, and must be changed. I don't care how much money you pay, a company should not be allowed to display these kinds of commercials. There needs to be much stricter regulation for television advertisements, especially when children are watching.

Media

The dove commercial we watched in class was very clever. They attempted to make themselves appear as the "good guys" because the company was upfront about the kind of shameful practices lots of beauty product advertisements are involved with. Dove however may not have been truly sincere in their mission to remove the practices of beauty enhancement in their advertising, but they at least have cast a favorable image of honesty about themselves.