irony

Happy Hunger Games! Do you have your ticket to see a midnight showing of the movie tonight? A bunch of us at Bitch do, and I for one am beyond psyched. (Check back tomorrow for our review!) I've watched the trailers, listened to the soundtrack, and even have my outfit planned—based on the Ironing Board Collective's End of Days style predictions, of course. I have to wonder though, is it wrong to want so badly to see the Games?

Considering that the book series—and presumably the film—is about a not-so-distant dystopian future where the government controls its citizens and makes mandatory the watching of a game where kids battle one another to the death, at what point does this must-see movie mania get just a little too ironic?

Marketers are increasingly using Retro Sexism to sell products. This form of advertising uses irony and humour as a way to distance itself from the sexist and/or racist representations and stereotypes they perpetuate.

Retro Sexism (n.): Modern attitudes and behaviors that mimic or glorify sexist aspects of the past, often in an ironic way.

If you've been watching 30 Rock this season, you might be familiar with Kabletown, the fictional media company that is in the process of purchasing NBC on the show. If you've been paying attention to media news recently, you might be familiar with Comcast, the real media company that is in the process of purchasing NBC in real life. Art imitates life! Even when life is in a Brave New World state controlled by media monopolies! In an added twist, NBC has launched a Kabletown website that contains some jokes that are so over-the-top they would be hilarious, if they weren't describing a dismal media future that is all too imminent for NBC/Comcast. Looks like a fake website is covering a real merger in a more effective way than most news outlets. Thanks, Tina Fey?

OK, we are all pretty up on the concept of advertising at this point. Not to say that ads don't have an effect on us (they do), but when it comes to the reasoning behind most ad campaigns, we savvy media consumers are hip to what's going on. They're trying to sell us something. We get it. So what do we do with ads that let us "in" on the joke?

from Slog:

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