Posted by sean at 169.71.1.248 on May 03, 2002 at 11:53:57:
In Reply to: GAP IS THE AXIS OF EVIL! posted by Isis on May 03, 2002 at 10:44:55:
: Fucking Gap commercials. This corporation does more environmental damage, employs more underwaged Third World minors, and screws more of the youth of America out of their hard earned pocket money, for what? A badly sewn white t-shirt and beige capri stretch pants? Could we be more conformist if we all walked around in Maoist unisex overalls?
more than who?
All corporations of that size are evil, or, to put it properly, the people who run the corps are so fucked up that they don't see that as evil. Gap is just better at it than the other companies. I have no love for them, but to act as if just because they're making money, they're supposed to hold themselves up to a higher level than their competition is silly. The source of the problem is nowhere near Gap; Gap has just taken advantage of Reagan's destruction of labor laws [not to pin the blame on anybody; there has been plenty of time since to fix it].
: Yet they've got the cash to make these fabulously hip commercials, to lull us into submission. First Supertramp was DEBASED -- and my onetime idols Alanis, Liz Phair, Sheryl Crow, etc. destroy their own dignity by bopping around in ribbed turtleneck sweaters. Now the Coen brothers, Hopper, Brian Wilson? How can they sleep?
Because in the real world, people need money to survive, and when you make incredibly quirky films, as the Coens do, and don't want to have to make conventional Hollywood stuff in order to make ends meet [sure, "O Brother" was their most popular movie yet ... but "Wasn't There" was their least, at least since "Hudsucker"], you're going to do a commercial every once in a while.
: They're suckering some of these celebrities into supporting them by offering to donate money to the charity of their choice, granted.
Did they say that? Even better then.
: But Gap is an EVIL EMPIRE. It's like the wicked Joaquin Phoenix emperor in Gladiator when he's like "they will love me and do anything I say...because I will entertain them!"
Except that Phoenix is the leader of a large group of countries that have been taken over through military force, and Gap is a money-making organization that markets itself extremely well in order to sell its wares to the most people possible while following the same corrupt manufacturing laws as its competition does.