Ad Nauseam

After the Supreme Court ruling a few weeks ago which allowed private corporations to spend unrestricted amounts of their cash on political advertisements endorsing (or denouncing) candidates, I was curious how much advertising actually affects us, the unwashed masses. Obviously advertising is everywhere these days so my assumption was that with the continual increase of ads, pitches, slogans icons, logos and corporate mascots that it all eventually became white noise. That’s certainly how I felt personally.

So I head off to the library and pick up a few books that looked like interesting takes on the topic. I finally ended up with Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture  partially written and edited by Carrie McLaren and Jason Torchinsky. These two worked on Stay Free! magazine , a sarcastic and self-aware jab at American culture.  Overall, the book is a compilation of various articles from past issues of Stay Free!, as well as a smattering of new material to provide context and to hold bigger themes together.

I liked the book, it was a quick read, and provided some insight into the way advertisers view the public. There wasn’t a lot of depth, and I would recommend it only as a quick overview of several general aspects of advertising. If nothing else, it has provided me another level with which to appreciate Mad Men when it returns later this year. Only on AMC!


There was one passage in particular that motivated me to write this quick description however. It was in the section of the book describing how, prior to stricter regulation, advertisers would simply change the function of their product if it wasn’t selling. They give the example of Listerine – originally advertised as a dandruff cure – found a more appropriate home as a mouthwash. My favorite passage of the book, (it had me doubled over laughing) was this:

"Nowadays we tend to hide Lysol to stop kids from accidently drinking it. But back in 1928, women were such badasses that they would actually pour this stuff right into their vaginas. Really."

I went looking for a digital version of the ad, and while this isn’t the exact one shown in the book, it’s ridiculously similar. I also found that there are dozens more just like it.