| |
March 23, 2008, Iraq: Official death toll of 4000th US Soldier |
|
The New York Times Sunday online magazine photo essay, Subduing the Korengal Valley, marks the death of the 4000th US soldier in the War in Iraq.
Each page of this photo essay balances the lead story against dynamically placed advertising, located diagonally across from it, in the lower right corner. The advertising slot is a template box, available to any company, to plug in its “Banner Ad”, at any date & time of its choosing. Ad placement is random; entirely indifferent to the content on the page. In the digital age, no one designs or monitors the page layout.
As the war drags on, it seems our society, like the advertising, is barely cognizant of the daily atrocities, being perpetrated upon the Iraqi people & our own soldiers, & their families. And now in Afghanistan. Out of sight, Out of mind.
Ideas and desire collide & collude into thoughtless, even callous juxtapositions. Unchecked, unfiltered. How can one comprehend the utter lack of sensitivity to the placement of brutal images of war juxtaposed next to banal advertising slogans, whose only purpose is to serve late market capitalism at home.
|
|
