Micheal Moore's Bowling for Columbine

[masterof_none]

I just wathced Micheal Moore's Bowling for Columbine today.
And from my personal opinion, he did a superb job in presenting his idea:
That gun ownership shouldn't be given freely, as if free speech.

well, the rest of the documentary is pretty much about the consequences of gun ownership. I think he did a great job in comparing the Canadians and the Americans about their fear.


But the thing that strike me most is when he interviewed Marilyn Manson, the rock star.

I guess, some of us know who he is. He sings rock music, well, that;s all I know. I'm not a fan of him but I know he has done crazy things. But what brought him into the scene is that one of the murderers at the massacre in Columbine high listened to Marilyn Manson.

So, as expected , Manson defend his position. He told us that why should he become the target (or scapegoat)?. It could be anybody...including the president. He elaborate more. He told Moore that in the US, media created fear. When you're scared, you tend to consume. I was thinking this whole point the whole night. and I think it is the point that Pei Wen was asking in the shoutbox: the ethics in advertising.

[masterof_none]

Let's say you have pimples. You want to get rid of those pimples..

But...What do the advertising people do?...
they'll make the pimple bigger, worse, become dark and ugly and suddenly ..tadaaa, introducing your pimply solution..bla bla bla...

Does this scare you?. Does the advertising scare those of you who have pimple?..well, maybe you said, well that's good, finally, we have solution.
But did you see that in the pimple commercials, they would show how these people with ugly little pimples would be isolated, no friends, people hate them..etc?

Let's consider one more thing. Do you remember the shampoo commercial in Malaysia?..I don't think they still have it there but notice that the lady's hair become like ugly grass or something, and her face looks old. and she looks like a witch . Finally, tadaa!, introducing, "whatever shampoo it was"..that solve the problem.. Does your hair would ever look like grass?..Definitely not. But notice the significance of that commercial...you finally say:
"oh my God, I need to get one of those, otherwise, I'll look ugly like a witch"...that;s how commercial works. And it definitely scare heck a lot of us. Just like Manson said .

[bachok83]

they'll make the pimple bigger, worse, become dark and ugly and suddenly ..tadaaa, introducing your pimply solution..bla bla bla...



nice .. nice nice.

are you referring to me?? 8) 8) 8)

[littlebigone]

advertisement working on fear? hmmm....don't think I've been affected by such things. I think that the best ads for cheap stuff is constant bombardment. Coz then when you go the shopping, and you see something that you've seen on an ad a million times, you're like hmmmm...it's that pokemon drink I saw in the ad the other day...then you're like wah.....on 50 cents....can buy lah...try only what....so you buy....you may get hooked you may not, but the ad has done it's job.

[masterof_none]

The cheap one may also be true...but in the US, there's a saying that:
YOu get what you pay for...

People don't by stuff simply it's cheap..but it's because the quality..
Like, whether you buy pasar malam watch that last only 2 weeks or a pricey Swatch that last 2 or more years..
maybe we can argue about the inferior goods, real income etc.But in general, we tend to buy stuff because of the quality...

But how the ads could affect us?.
I mean, from my pimple example above, or the shampoo example,
the approach tend to scare people..

Like Marilyn Manson said in the interview with Micheal Moore..
What makes the Americans so paranoid...
Paranoia is everywhere here...perhaps intense competition...
One of the factor is because of the Media....
the Media tend to scare people to sell stuff.
when people get so scared, they'll buy....
Like , selling weapon, rifles...since, gun ownership is easy,people are scared and want to protect themselves.
(if you watch the documentary...you'll know what I mean)

You can find more example on this if you look at the commercials...

[masterof_none]

To Bachok,
No offense intended 8)

[Thirdshifter]

Master of none,

It was a good documentary no doubt.

The problem with Bowling for Columbine is that it was full of deception and misdirection. Michael Moore was the violinist and many of the viewers were the fiddle, and Michael Moore played them beautifully. He edited a supposed Bush campaign tape inserting fallacious information, he pieced together different speeches by Charleton Heston to make it seem like one speech, Bowling for Columbine was tripe.

He said that guns weren't the problem, but he chased Charleton Heston around. He even went after Dick Clark. Why? Because a woman was working at a restaurant owned by Dick Clark when her son died from a gunshot wound when his uncle was supposed to be watching him. Please. Michael Moore invented a get rich quick scheme which involves a feigned concern for the disadvantaged. Meanwhile, this supposed baseball cap wearing defender of the common man lives in a $12,000 a month apartment on Park Avenue.

The whole "documentary" was twisted and all the interviews were quoted out of context.

But then again.. it is a very good <strike>Documentary</strike> Movie.

[masterof_none]

Good Insight. I;ve never thought about it.

But I know there's something wrong with the documentary when the guy who appear in it sued Micheal Moore for tricking him to say something .

Filmmaker would do whatever they want. They are artists.
Put the piece together and voila!, make money.

But , I think that, even M Moore has bad intention, I think we can learn something from gun ownership and the obsession of the Westerners towards gun and battleship. It bear some truth according to my observation. It makes me think.