Private or Public? Who knows anymore?

Starbucks:
First of all, not my favorite coffee place in the world. I am more of an Alterra girl myself. Could not really tell you why; perhaps there still that stigma that hangs over Starbucks because it is this large mulit-national company that has invaded the globe. In a graphics class of mine we had to create a picture of what we thought the future would look like and one kid created an image that was wall-to-wall Starbucks. There was one on every corner, the streets and manhole covers had the trademark symbol on them. Crazy right? Well it may not be that far off. For my assginment I decided to go to the Starbucks off of Van Buren in Milwaukee. This area, with the Metro Mart and downtown being so close, is kind of an upper class area for the most part. Walking into the place I felt the eyes on me. People wondering who you are, what you're wearing and why are you in their coffee shop." Ok so maybe they just happened to look up when I walked in, but that was what it felt like. I get my latte and sit down to "read a book" but really I was people watching. There is the argument that public space is disappearing and that all public space is privatized. People in this coffee shop were all sitting alone. So it seems as though they wanted to get out of their homes but yet they are all alone. One guy was on his computer, working probably, on a saturday mind you. It just seems that with the internet and then these "private" public spaces people go out to be alone and go home to connect to the rest of the world. Humans are certainly an odd breed dont you think?

AdBusters

I just love Adbusters. I like advertising because its a great, creative and a lot of fun (sometimes). But it is fun to be able to laugh at it too. It helps us realize how much of a consumer driven society we really are. Here are some ads from their gallery that
though were particualry great: