A culture shaped advertisement

A sentence form the film stuck with me "a culture of advertisement ceases to be a culture at all." I have always complained as a child way back in China that our poorly educated, old generation of manufactures have no idea how to shape the image of their product. The advertisements on TV were lame, the choices they took of naming the brands are dumb. While their quality of the goods might match those big brands, no one wants to buy them therefore they have to go the route of being cheap and sacrifice potential profit. The cheaper it is the less people would want to buy it. While I realize all those successful firm's ads are not like traditional ads at all they are just very cool, interesting or funny short films that make me want to watch them over and over again.

I thought this kind of things are only associated with the materialistic side of the world. But then its more than that. When I see some "real-artists" who make real art and live a life in a free manner, playing awesome music with a very old guitar that has a hole in it, I would want to pick up clothes in Good Will and somehow all of the objects there smells like California and "beat generation". In the film they actually got a group of Linux user and they said it felt like "being a part of the tribe." I am a Linux user myself and I know what they are talking about. By possessing certain object it demonstrate an attitude. It's like a religion, and instead of a cross with a guy nailed on it, we worship either an apple or a penguin. It has nothing to do it's value or profit, it's about message, and gospel.