The selling of lefty ‘consciousness’ – Jackson Clarion Ledger

Christian Schneider, Syndicated columnist 6:51 p.m. CT April 17, 2017

Christian Schneider(Photo: Eric Tadsen/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Anyone who hasnt heard pop songstress Katy Perrys recent song,Chained to the Rhythm, is missing one of the most awful pieces of music to ever be inflicted upon the American public. By the time you hear Perry warble, So comfortable, we live in a bubble, a bubble/So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, the trouble, your ears will have filed for divorce.

Yet upon its release, this aural Antietam received positive reviewsin large part because it reflected Perrys new political activism. (Indeed, this must be true for, on her Twitter profile, Perry describes herself as an activist.)

Perrys fed up with the complacency of the capitalist entertainment culture that she has thrived off, chirped The Atlantic, comparing the songs theme to that of Sinclair Lewis classic political novel Babbitt. (Lewis novel won a Nobel Prize, though the author evidently never wore a cupcake bra.)

But rather than some foundational political anthem, Perrys song is a series of microwaved liberal bromides repackaged and sold back to liberals. Its a tried-and-true formula: Masquerade lefty culture as consciousness, and you make your terrible art critic-proof.

Recently, liberals and conservatives alike mocked an Internet adproduced by Pepsi that tried to cash in on todays left-wing protest culture. In the ad, which stars the inexplicably famous Kendall Jenner, a multicultural group of young, thin demonstrators march to demand something. (Perhaps Cokes secret recipe?)

Wielding peace signs and offers to join the conversation, the marchers stare down a line of menacing police officers until Jenner offers a cop a Pepsi, at which point he seems to say to himself, this 50-cent carbonated beverage has rendered my crowd control manual obsolete, and I, therefore, will not tear gas these morons.

Liberals recoiled at the ad, accusing it of stealing imagery from the Black Lives Matter movement and minimizing the issue of police brutality. Pepsi apologizedand pulled the ad, whatever that means it is still readily available online and also apologized to Jenner.

But Pepsis only crime is making the lame repurposing of progressivism so nakedly obvious.

Corporations always try to capture the zeitgeist and monetize it; ask any child of the grunge era who began to see ripped jeans and large flannel shirts in J.C. Penney catalogs. And when political issues bubble up, they take their place next to the Geico gecko and the Most Interesting Man in the World as tools to move product.

Take, for example, Audis embarrassing Super Bowl adthis year that tried to tangentially relate selling cars to women being paid less in the workplace. A father watches his daughter compete in a soapbox derby-type race, wondering whether he should have to tell her that no matter her qualifications, she will automatically be valued as less than every man she ever meets. The ad ends by saying Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work.

Evidently, no members of Audis all-maleBoard of Management are aware that the wage gap is complete nonsense, having been debunked by scoresof fact-checkers.

The Pepsi ad went too far because the caricature was too broad, but its the same idea that has saturated advertising for decades: Lefty activism is hot, so lets try to sell it to younger people who dont know better!

Naturally, theres nothing wrong with using free-market capitalism to trick liberals into buying products. Anyone who bought a Coke in 1971 because a hippie sang them a nice songwas helping the economy and creating jobs.

But the left should realize these ads are meant to trigger the same basic response in them that videos of Big Macs are supposed to trigger in hungry people. Just dont be surprised when Mayor McCheese starts wearing a pink knit hat.

Christian Schneider is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger.

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The selling of lefty 'consciousness' - Jackson Clarion Ledger