where Psyop comes in

December 5, 2003 7:15 PM

Psyop Anthem You'll never notice you are dyin' just as long as you keep buyin'. Unabashed pro-consumption animated short. [warning: 34MB mpeg. via everlasting blort]
posted by eddydamascene (16 comments total)

I'd buy that for a dollar.
posted by ColdChef at 7:25 PM on December 5, 2003

I'd buy it if it were at the 99 Cents Only Store.
posted by wendell at 7:38 PM on December 5, 2003

I don't buy that.
posted by eddydamascene at 7:45 PM on December 5, 2003

I don't get it, but I love it
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 8:53 PM on December 5, 2003

I'm pretty sure it's satire. Note keywords "pretty sure". In this Huxleyesque time and place, it's really hard to tell sometimes. I couldn't get any of their other clips to work...but my system is weirding out, but that may just be me.
posted by dejah420 at 9:04 PM on December 5, 2003

I don't get it, too, but I love it, too
posted by skryche at 9:29 PM on December 5, 2003

I'm pretty sure it's satire.

The other clips include commercials they've done for Starbucks and Lugz, so there's no doubt this is a real design firm. I may be reading too much into this, but it looks like they're consciously co-opting the images and messages of the anti-consumerism movement.
posted by eddydamascene at 10:05 PM on December 5, 2003

Amazing illustrations, I love the style and animation of it all. Beautiful.
posted by mathowie at 11:12 PM on December 5, 2003

I think I need a shower now.

I found the logo on their site pretty damn cynical too...
posted by insomnia_lj at 11:21 PM on December 5, 2003

If there are any doubts about the veracity of their status as an ad company, watch this gem they made for Pfizer and cringe at its evil anti-cholesterol-drug pushing brilliance.
posted by LimePi at 11:43 PM on December 5, 2003

The hand feeding the little bird, "you wont notice you're dying as long as you're buying", the consumers marching in lock step similiar to armies marching. There's no doubt that the piece makes fun of modern consumerism.

I'm surprised that there's discussion as to whether the piece is supportive or critical of modern consumerism. Why? Just because it's light and funny and makes a point. I suppose most people think that the piece is just too entertaining and bubbly to be satire.
posted by chris0495 at 9:55 AM on December 6, 2003

chris0495- I think people are more confused because Psyop is in fact an advertising design firm whose ads for several major companies can seen on television. It's odd that an seemingly anti consumerist culture animation is tucked in amongst a display of the work they have done to help endorse and encourage consumerism.

Stand alone, it seems obvious what the message is, but in context of Psyop members making a living off enticing people to buy things, it seems very odd to have an anthem displaying the manipulating and killing of consumers (little bleeding lobotomy patient, shelves collapsing on dancing characters, smoke stacks and chain saws, Atomic bombs dropped by the bird in their logo). Unless, as suggested by eddydamascene above, they're consciously pursuing satire, or something. In any context, it's a surreal and decidedly unnerving bit of work. "Lean back your head and open wide!"
posted by nelleish at 10:53 AM on December 6, 2003

The "Bombay" ad is just gorgeous.
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:05 PM on December 6, 2003

Advertisements created for people who work in advertising operate by a different set of rules than ads meant for the outside world; cynical in-jokes about the industry aren't all that unusual. This doesn't read as satire at all, to me; it reads as a design firm demonstrating to their customers that they can do Edgy and Hip.

(Which they can; they're quite good.)
posted by ook at 3:42 PM on December 6, 2003

Thanks, ook!
posted by eddydamascene at 4:44 PM on December 6, 2003

Oh, how cynical! I can't decide if I like or hate these guys. I do appreciate their candor.
posted by funkbrain at 5:52 PM on December 6, 2003