What Should Be Privatized and What Should Not?
By Donella Meadows
–January 4, 1996–
The other day I saw a cartoon in which a puzzled housewife, ready to plug in her vacuum cleaner, is confronted with a dozen plugs on the wall. Each has a company logo — “Captain Jolt,” “Flower Power,” “Zapco,” “Super Dude Electric.” Behind the woman an ad blats from the TV. “Hi! Crazy Pete here with [...]
Why Doesn’t Anyone Ever Say That?
By Donella Meadows
–December 14, 1995–
Back a decade or two ago when we weren’t paying much attention, the advertising industry took over American politics, reducing debates to soundbites, using polls to tell politicians what to say, polishing image while banishing ideas.
Worst of all advertisers taught government leaders their central trick. Say any fool thing over and over and over, and it [...]
You Are What You Put Through Your Mind
By Donella Meadows
–August 25, 1994–
Scores on the Scholastic Achievement Tests — the SATs that determine which of our high-school seniors go to college — have been going down so steadily that the College Board has shifted the scale. Now you can get a higher score with fewer right answers.
Only one out of five U.S. students can write a logical, well-developed [...]
Turning Off The Hype: Czech schools say “no” to commercial hype
By Donella Meadows
–Winter 1994–
In the Western world, we’ve built up resistance to the visual, aural and mental pollution of advertising. We doubt, we laugh, we turn off. The advertisers counter with brighter colors, louder noises, wilder images. We close down our senses.
Eastern Europeans had no chance to harden up before their ideological wall fell and multinational advertisers rolled over their [...]
Resisting the Advent of Ads
By Donella Meadows
–October 14, 1993–
In the Western world we’ve built up resistance to the visual, aural, and mental pollution of advertising. We doubt, we laugh, we turn off. The advertisers counter with brighter colors, louder noises, wilder images. We close down our senses.
Eastern Europeans had no chance to harden up before their ideological wall fell and multinational advertisers rolled over [...]
