I, POD

A funny thing happened in October of 2001.  No, I'm not talking about the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, which threatens the very core of our democracy (though that's kinda funny too, if you get off on that sort of thing...which I don't).  I'm talking about something far more serious.  I'm talking about the Ipod.  Originally released on October 23, 2001 (I know, it doesn't seem like it has been that long, but I checked), the Ipod went on to capture more than 70% of the digital music player market in just 4 years.  Sure, there were and continue to be other MP3 players that are just as good as (if not better than) the Ipod, but that didn't stop it from selling like  coke at a Bush family reunion.  Why is the Ipod so popular?  Easy.  Marketing.

Have you ever looked at an Ipod ad?  Have you ever looked at one...on weed? Well I haven't, because I get the message just fine sober.  Let's take a look:  Silhouetted figures rock out to their favorite tunes in front of some fluorescent background (green if it's a guy, pink if it's a girl).  Only the glistening Ipod is visible.  What's the message here? Some may claim that it's about the power of music.  Perhaps the darkened figures mean that you'll 'lose yourself' in your favorite songs when you listen to them on an Ipod.  Maybe it's more of an "insert yourself here" ad,  where we're tempted to think that if we buy Ipods then we too will be able to dance and look cool.  Either message draws on that age-old desire to belong, to 'fit in,'

either with the music or with the social upper class.  Perhaps the message, then, is that with an Ipod you can stop worrying about the problems of individuality and exist merely as an attractive silhouette.  No longer will you be troubled by what it means to be John, Robert, or Maria.  You will be a darkened receptacle of music.  You will be a pod.  I'm not saying that this is the  actual effect of Ipods, merely that it is this message which prompts people to buy them.  Even so, it's troubling.  In our culture which claims to value so highly the power of the 'individual,' the most effective way to sell anything is to promise that it will erase individuality.

That or sex, and it's entirely possible (and probable) that the ad execs behind the Ipod campaign toyed around with the idea of silhouettes doing it.  Hell, maybe they're already in there, anonymously plugging away for a couple frames that we don't even conciously realize are there.  I have no major beef with the Ipod.  I mean, MP3's have significantly less sound quality and the Ipod certainly didn't do much to stem the commodification of music, but I don't have any major beef with it.  My issue is with the message in the marketing.

"We're all so freakin' eclectic!"

I'll be the first one to admit that I'm at a loss at what to do to solve this problem.  Sure, I've got theories on what people and economic systems are responsible for this dilemma, but for now I'll keep them to myself.  I have to do something to keep my individuality.  I mean, that's what's important, right?