Another day as a guest in the lunchtime show. There was an unusual jam near Victoria that made the bus journey double in time, so at one point I got to the tube… well, the advertisements were actually different from those I saw last time!
I am getting to the conclusion that advertising is the biggest industry in the industrialised world. It is what pays for most of the media, and that includes not only commercial television and radio, but paid newspaper too, plus the vans and the van drivers that are necessary for the physical transport of the papers, plus the shelf space in supermarkets and bookshops – which we now know that are not free. It also pays for parts of the show business like major sports (think football), and even for transport! – think taxis and buses with adverts on them now, and of course the underground. It is difficult to see an activity that is not tainted by this industry.
Maybe saddest than this is to see teenagers and other students thinking it is cool to wear ‘that’ t-shirt, proud of using their bodies as an advertising board, and not even being paid for doing so.
In any case, I did the drive-time show after being interviewed and agreeing to act as studio manager, and it was a disaster – I am not a good radio DJ whose only function is to advertis – sorry play music. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.
