I was just looking at the blog from onfocus.com, which I discovered today and like very much. They had a link to that same article about advertising memory-morphing as I posted yesterday. And they had a quote snippet that I can’t believe I overlooked when I mentioned it yesterday:

“What is important these days is not what advertising does to consumers, so much as how consumers use advertising to make statements about themselves to other people.”

Damn. That’s totally it right there. When you communicate to people the kind of music you like, the shows, the movies, the clothes, the electronics - the brands that you align yourself with say things about who you are as a person. And theyre saying that people aren’t only affected by advertising, but mold advertising around themselves to communicate common experience and feelings which are tied up in the forms of these ads to other people. I’ve always known this, but have never seen such a concise one sentence explanation as the one above.

In fact, I think that quote is an excellent summation of what purpose the amazon ads serve that I have added to my website (in addition to possibly someday making me some affiliate $$$). The ads, for me, help communicate quickly the kind of cultural context that I want my work to be understood from. They are almost like short-hand for bigger related realms of content that I want people to keep in mind while looking at my stuff.