Back in 1985, because that’s when everything awesome happened, there was a made for TV British movie called Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. This was the back story for the Max Headroom Show. In America Max is best known for advertizing Coke. This post isn’t about Max, its about 20 Minutes into the Future.
The world of 20 Minutes into the Future was a lot closer to 20 years into the Future. (Side note: The Transformers movie came out in 85 as well and took place in “the far future” of 2005) Of course this is for an audience that wants to believe that 20 years into the future, we’re going to be living on the moon, have flying cars, etc etc. Instead they have electronic money that is transfered in ‘credits’ and morbidly obeese people who don’t leave their house because they’re glued to their TVs.
The major plot of 20 Minutes into the Future is that one of the TV companies has invented a form of subliminal advertizing. It involves showing commericials at high speed that somehow beam themselves directly into the watcher’s head. Turns out that such a thing is fatal and makes the watcher’s brain explode. (Scanners came out in 81)
I couldn’t help but think about this as I was fast forwarding through the commercials on my DVR box the other night. Are the commercials fusing into my brain and saying “Buy buy buy?” or am I just waiting for the day when my head explodes? Or both?