Dumb People Shop. Smart People Get Subsidies to Mock Them

Two Czech film students have pulled a fast one on their Prague campatriots. For weeks, they advertised the hell out of a new hypermarket to be opened on May 31, called "Cesky sen" (Czech Dream). Billboards, newspapers, magazines, television spots, all promising a "surprise" for the first customers … they even recorded a little theme jingle, according to Radio Praha's account. Then on opening day, hundreds of burghers trekked out to a field, only to discover that there was no market at all, and that they were being filmed for a Candid Camera-style documentary. Ha ha ha, look at the dumb bargain-hunters!

The students said that they weren't afraid of manipulating the emotions and expectations of people, as they did just the same thing that advertising does. They financed the project with a grant from the state fund for the support of cinematography, and they will return the money if their film makes a profit.

Link via Scott MacMillan.

Comments

[Lonewacko]

There was a word added to the English language as a bet. The winner of the bet plastered the word all over (I think) Dublin, causing people to use the word. Unfortunately, I forget which word it was...

Anyway, it's not like I would try something like that.

[Xrlq]

Now it's time for the state to say "ha, ha, the joke's on you" and demand their grant money back.

[Plutarck]

I'm noticing a massive trend in culture, such as with female sexuality and behavior, and exhibited here as to advertising. I'll call it "Lowering The Bar", wherein one claims or points out a different or 'double' standard, and then proceeds to claim that it is the lesser standard that should be applied to them, not that the greater standard that should be applied to someone else. You might also call it "Stealing the Bad Standard".

So for instance, if one in general will go around randomly screwing anything that moves, if men don't get labeled anything negative for it, then women shouldn't either. Odd - why shouldn't women retain it, and men simply be given a similar such term of their own? Maybe one standard is good and one standard is bad, but the argument used of claiming a "double standard" does not logically support the contention that the lesser one is better or should be chosen for them or made a universal.

Perhaps this could best be called "The Double Standard Fallacy".

Ooo, I think I've managed to independently invent a logical fallacy! I don't care if someone did the same thing first, either, so hah! Hah I say!

[julian]

If I recall correctly, the word alluded to in the first comment is "quiz."

[Anonymous]

Deep, man. What a concept.
Saving the 7th art from the shallowness of Ford, Wells, Fellini, Godard, Fassbinder and on and on.

[Lonewacko]

From a FAQ:

This is first recorded in 1775 in the sense "an odd person". It is *doubtful* that "quiz" came from an alleged incident in which James Daly, a late-18th-century Dublin theatre manager, made a wager that he could introduce a new word into the English language overnight, and hired urchins to chalk the word "quiz" on every wall and billboard in Dublin. "Quiz" may come from the Latin "Qui es?" (= "Who are you?", the first question asked in Latin oral exams in grammar schools), or it may be a shortening of "inquisitive".

[Gene 6-Pack]

If the first three people told to "Smile, you're on Candid Camera" had busted Allan Funt in the snot locker, the world would have been a better place.

[Eric the .5b]

1) It's not satire, it's a hoax.
2) It was funded with taxpayer money (this is a libertarian site).
3) It was rude.

[Harvard@Cal]

"God, where's the freakin' enlightenment, people?!?"
So, gratuitous cruelity is now "enlightenment".

Ohh, maybe they can get another grant for filming a dog doused in gasoline and having a set of firecrakers strapped and lighted on its tail. "A Commentary on the Social Interogative Privileging the Simulacrum of the Capitalistic Other" or some such crap. Then they could go back to their basement room and har-dee-har it up until mom told them to keep it quiet. Frickin' losers. Frickin' jerkoff losers, at that.

So if we make a mockumentary about the lighter side of child-murders, only baby-killers and thier buddies will find it sickening?

[Lonewacko]

I'll assume Harvard@Cal isn't joking. Their mockumentary was about tricking people into thinking a shopping center was opening. No dogs were harmed during the filming. The world needs more cacophony, not less.

[Jim]

These guys didn't prove that advertising is manipulative - they proved that smart-assed anticapitalist art students are manipulative. When anyone in business advertizes a good or service, IT ACTUALLY EXISTS TO BE PURCHASED (with the rare exception of fraud, of course). The fact that so many people showed up could even be construed as a measure of trust the people place in advertized messages being at least nominally truthful in general. Rather than being an indication of the manipulative power of advertising it shows that it is a reliable and effective means for consumers to locate goods and services they need.

To put it more bluntly for the mentally challenged (who probably aren't reading this site anyway), if I yell fire in a crowded theatre when there is no fire present, that's manipulation. If I yell it in a crowded theatre when there actually IS a fire, I'm a hero. Definitely a difference.

[Jim]

"The Double Standard Fallacy" - good one, Plutarck. I'm going to have to use that sometime.
How about 'The lesser standard fallacy' or, better yet, 'the better of two evils fallacy'. Kind of catchy also.

BTW, this is the logic that kids use to try to persuade their parents into allowing some forbidden behavior. To which the parent is entitled to invoke the 'Lemming Fallacy' with the classic Reducto ad Absurdum, "If everyone jumped off a building, would you do that to?".

Can I get a trademark on the Lemming Fallacy? That's the same one used in politics by gun controllers and socialized medicine advocates. "All the other industrialized nations have gun control and public health care. Why can't we?". Say this outloud and whine it. Sounds a lot less sensible this way. (Kind of off topic but that was fun).

[Jim]

Oops, I meant the child invoked the Lemming fallacy - the parent is the one who calls them on it. Guess I stole the bad standard there...

[Anonymous]

Right. But then we'd never have internet minicams in college dorms either.

[quaker120]

God, where's the freakin' enlightenment, people?!? This board is starting to sound like a bunch of Republicans.

This story is satire. Satirists ask questions. In order to ask those questions, they mock people. That's their right as artists.

In my experience, people only get pissed off about such mockery when it challenges their own beliefs. This board's reaction is yet another case. Had this stunt been pulled on the anti-globalization "anarchists," animal rights activists, anti-smokers, or some other wacko-Left contingent, you'd all be laughing your arses off.

[librarian]

Jim, hate to burst your bubble, but we can't give you a TM on your fallacy.

Please, educate yourself.

Ready? Go:
http://snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm

[Jim]

So the Lemming fallacy truly is a fallacy- how deliciously ironic. Still, everyone understands the meaning even if it perpetuates a myth. As a fictional representation of a concept, it's still got legs 😉