posted on Feb, 18 2008 @ 10:33 PM
You ask: ' Is Hollywood Preparing the Public ? '
I regard more a case of Hollywood exploiting the public.
As they say: ' First we create the demand .. then we supply to that demand'.
Public imagination has grasped theories such as 'aliens' and 'UFOs', NWO, Atlantis, etc. etc. and appears reluctant to let them go.
The demand was created ( intentionally in some instances) ... and now they're making money supplying to that insatiable demand.
Or .. 'Give 'em what they want '. You'll always make money doing that.
Why not ? When hoola-hoops were the trend, they couldn't produce them fast enough. Those hoops were a money-maker. And it's cyclical ..
hoola-hoops (and yo-yos, etc) keep coming back into fashion .. and entire new fortunes are made.
Atlantis has peaked and waned. Every time it wanes, someone 'rediscovers' it and it becomes a popular topic for debate again. Like Hollow Earth
theories .. or the Crystal Skulls .. or the 'demonic' theme (think 'Omen' and the Damien movies. Or the re-makes of Amityville, etc. etc.)
If you were a movie producer and the 'college hi-jinks, sex, nudity, swearing, vomiting movie trend had run its course and was no longer making money
for you .. you'd look around for the 'next big thing'. Some ambitious junior who wasn't even born the last time Atlantis, Crystal Skulls etc.
etc. were in vogue would 'rediscover' them and present them to you as 'sure fire'. As a movie-producer, you're there to make profit. And you
realise that an entire new generation of bums-on-seats exists. They'll buy Atlantis and Crystal Skulls and the like with the same awe and enthusiasm
as previous generations. You're back in the money again.
It's the same with any product. Few years ago I watched a documentary about the thousands in the Phillipines who live, literally, on massive rubbish
dumps. They make their living scrounging old toothpaste tubes, product wrappings, bits of bone and brick, etc. and selling it on to people who in
turn earn their living by doing things with it.
The family featured in the documentary lived .. again literally .. in a cardboard box. More correctly, their home was a jumble of cardboard boxes
taped and pushed together, 'reinforced' with plastic-tie, etc.
Inside the home lived the wife and two young children. They had beds made of things found on the rubbish tip .. furniture made from plastic bottle
cases, etc.
In pride of place was a tv which was huge, compared to the size of this house. It was a virtual shrine and held religious artifacts, some photos,
prized consumer items and so on.
The man of the family worked 12 to 14 hours a day sifting through garbage on the smoking rubbish dump in the company of thousands who, like him,
supported their families in this way.
The wife was a pretty little thing in her late teens or early 20s. She spoke reasonable English. The children were beautiful little dolls.
The documentary crew were there when the wife returned from doing her family's shopping. The cameras captured her pride as she withdrew from her
bags two bottles of Coca Cola ... a tube of Colgate toothpaste .. and a jar of Nescafe.
'Why have you bought these very expensive imported items' asked the documentary team, '... when for the same amount of money, you could have
purchased ten times the quantity of staples such as rice, pasta, vegetables ? Your husband worked an entire week to purchase that Coke, Nescafe and
toothpaste .. worked the equivalent of at least two Western working-weeks. '
The pretty (and seemingly quite intelligent) woman looked at him. She appeared surprised by the camera-crew's ignorance. Then, like a professor
explaining to a group of clueless students, she explained:
'This Colgate is good for our tooths ', she said, ' .. it's full of cal-si-uum. See ? ' and she held up the Colgate to the camera, pointing to
the information written on the pack: ' Extra Calcium for dental protection'.
The Nescafe, she said, was 'very good. Very good for when you need to be energetic and feel good. She patted the jar lovingly as she replaced it on
the tv-altar.
And the Coke ... well ... did it need explaining? ... was her expression.
Coca Cola is from A-mer-ee-ka. It is the drink of the A-mer-ee-kans ! Said in the manner of someone describing the Elixir of the Gods ! Coca Cola
was 'the' status symbol to have sitting on your tv-shrine. It meant you'd made-it. Her family's dream, she said, was to 'go to A-mer-eeka'.
The documentary crew explained to viewers that it was made 'very easy' for these poverty-striken people to obtain a television. They were able to
take it home and repay the loan in tiny monthly increments.
But why ? asked the docomentary crew ?
Then it was explained that these wretched families were a good credit risk when it came to tv's. They would go without food in order to retain their
tv. Because tv was the only thing that made their lives worthwhile .. provided them with hope that some day, they too would live like those they saw
in programmes and commercials. They'd walked away from their rural homes and headed to the cities, believing those cities would provide the lives
they craved and satisfy the tv-inspired dreams and ambitions.
The documentary-makers next took us into the offices of someone who worked for Colgate or Coca Cola or whatever .. can't remember.
Anyway, the film-crew asked this man WHY his company was spending millions of dollars each month to advertise expensive Western products (such as
Coke, Nescafe, Colgate, etc) to poverty-stricken peasants and garbage-tip workers.
The man smiled and spread his hands expansively. ' We're creating tomorrow's market.' he said, ' Sure, at the moment it's only a small market.
But it's growing like you wouldn't believe. We're investing millions now and sure, we're losing compared to the amount of products sold. But in
five years .. ten years .. we'll recoup that money a hundred times. '
The film-crew protested that surely this was unethical, considering the poverty rampant in a population that was now dredging foul and rat-infested
garbage tips for used toothpaste tubes .. in order to turn hundreds of those tubes into the money it cost to purchase one new tube of Colgates
?
'Hey, it's a market baby ' said the entrenpreneur .. ' They see it on tv .. they want it.'
' But it's still unethical, when what these people need is affordable food and education for their children .. not ridiculously expensive Western
products'.
' Business baby .. business ' replied the man in the office ... ' First we create the demand --- then we supply to that demand '.
Demand and supply. Forums and books and magazines and 'ex NASA exposes' creates the interest .. then the demand. Movie producers supply to that
demand. The theory of a NWO and aliens and UFOs and other 'conspiracy' issues keeps forums like this in business .. and the interest and demand for
'more' and 'truth' thus created is then just waiting to be exploited -- harvested. Hence, new movies .. box-office hits. Profits. Customers
are happy. Producers are happy. And there's a new 'secret' topic to be re-discovered every hour.