"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy."
-ursula k leguin, the ones who walk away from omelas
so i was thinking... do advertisements for staple products accomplish anything? like the "got milk?" ads, for example. now, some of those were great ads, it was an excellent campaign. but who was seeing those who doesn't know pretty much all theyre going to about milk? did it really affect their sales at all? i don't think anyone watched a milk commercial and went "hey, that milk stuff looks pretty good! maybe i should try some"
