The First Philosophical Entry: About Those Dentine Ads...

(Warning: It is cross-posted in my Livejournal!)

One of the things that attracts my attention about many of the subways in New York City is that publicity about a product or show takes a whole car of a train for promotion of a product.

Last friday, however, publicity worked on me. I saw those Dentine ads all over the cart I was riding on my way to meet a friend. Basically, this group of ads was playing with the ideology of how the internet seems to be, well dehumanizing us and what should be there instead. For example "The Ultimate Instant Message" is a picture of a kiss. "Friends Requested" has two people hugging each other. And "Chat Room Full" has a group of people lying on each other. And in the bottom of the ads, they say such things as "close the browser, get close" and stuff like that.

Of course, this is not the first time that such a philosophy is used to sell a product. I wonder what many media critics have to say about this. For me the whole thing was intriguing. What has a gum that cleans teeth has to do with re-humanizing us humans anyway? Will Dentine return that? What about bloggers like myself? Should we become lecturers.

I am not one who plays in the anti-Internet campaign, mind you. I love it! I love the possibilities it gives me to communicate with others! It brought me the possibility to meet likeminded people offline here in New York.

Anyway... I think those Dentine ads are, indeed, intriguing.