I saw this image today of an ad campaign by VISA.  I couldn’t help but be saddened by the image of all of the electronic stuff that is being depicted by VISA as having something to do with “Life” or the stuff of life. It made me wonder about the thinking behind this campaign.  Do the folks at VISA and their Ad agency really believe this notion to their individual cores and do they think that people (i.e. consumers) will resonate with it? Is this line of marketing similar to the slogan now written on the entrance to every Best Buy store: “You Happier”.  As if Life is all about buying stuff, stuff that requires VISA.  When will we learn our lessons that “stuff” does not equal to life or happiness, and when will corporations stop feeding people the myth.  I guess these days its Life as usual when you live in a country which can’t keep up with its own national debt, its banking system is on the verge of collapse due to bad loans, and where the value of the currency is plunging so low that the price of everything is rising to the point where most people have no choice but to buy “stuff” with their VISA cards.

The tragic irony of the image in this particular campaign is that it looks a bit like the Manhattan sky line, and ominously reminds me of the aftermath of 911 when President Bush told the nation to go out and spend in order to help America.  What a double-edged sword credit is.  It is an instrument that can both heal and harm at the same time, especially depending on whose hand it is in.  It is part of the fabric of most societies but like some of society’s other features, it is largely misunderstood, abused, and seen as natural and necessary.  Sounds like another institution/instrument that is greatly in need of a conscious revision.

I myself am deep in the process of re-evaluating and re-defining how I use all my credit cards, how I take on false labels like “home-owner” based on debt financing, and revisiting various forms of debt that on the surface seem benevolent like micro-finance(a major topic worthy of its own post in a later time).

Not much more to say other than Monsanto wants out of the bovine growth hormone business… That leaves them with their lucrative GMO seed business… I guess unlike dairies who routinely place labels on their dairy products stating “no growth hormone used, etc.”, which by definition meant that they were not using Monsanto’s hormones, there are no organic food products today that say “not using monsanto’s GMO soy, or corn, or other crops”.  Image is everything in the game of consumer cat and mouse game.

For more info, follow the following link:

http://www.thedeal.com/corporatedealmaker/2008/08/monsanto.php