Immersed in Fast Company

[Mike Gange]

 By Mike Gange

 

Today I am a cheerleader. And I’m cheering for FAST COMPANY magazine. The April 2011 Edition in particular.

Usually when I buy magazines, I end up reading one or two of the articles. I devour the ads, however, and the magazine format gives me lots of time to get my eyes on the product and ad and really dissect the construction of reality.

I certainly perused the ads at length in this magazine, as always. But instead of one or two articles that caught my interest, I have ended up reading this one cover to cover. Well, not in that order, of course. I bought the magazine for the cover story about Google. But then I found the article on Morgan Spurlock’s new film, which I certainly will want to see, given my penchant for ads. The movie is about product placement, of course, that sneaky, insidious form of advertising which is more than creeping into our popular culture. Spurlock, you will recall, gave us “Super Size Me,” the movie that slammed McDonald’s restaurants for their fast and fat food content.

There is also an article on water, good old drinking water, called “A Sea of Dollars.” The article has a graphic that is excellent for the classroom. Water consumption is shown in a variety of ways: 300 tons of water are required to manufacture one ton of steel; 5 liters of water are required to produce 2 liters of Coke; 5 000 children die every day from lack of water. Seems like the developed world has its priorities wrong.

The back page also has a wonderful graphic on Facebook. It’s all about the business, you know, not about the connections we make. Facebook made $1.86 Billion dollars in advertising last year; brands with the most fans – Coke, with 21.6 million, Starbucks with 19 million, Oreo with 16.2 Million, Disney with 15.6 Million and Red Bull with 14.7 fans. OK, now, Coke, Starbucks, Red Bull, those are all young adult products, right? But Disney and Oreo? That these are brands usually associated with children is a real indication that media education teachers need to teach more about Facebook.

This kind of journalism took the researchers days, maybe weeks to track down, and being presented in a graphic as it is makes it that much stronger than a whole article of condemnation.

There are some ads in there for Mercedes Benz and Porches, which go against the environmentalists’ souls. I guess you have to expect that, since that is how this magazine makes their payroll and keeps their cash flow alive.

While I am cheering for the magazine FAST COMPANY, I can’t deny they have to make a living too.

[Frank W. Baker]

Nice companion writeup about SPURLOCK's latest doc in the most recent Sunday New York Times newspaper:

Financing the Hand That Slaps (or Nibbles) You