TV

Now they’ve got TV screens at the gas pumps. While filling up the Hyundai Sonata I saw loud advertisements for an energy drink, heartburn medicine, and a sitcom — because god forbid I spend more than three minutes in public without a screen selling me something.

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The Normal – TV OD
from TV OD/Warm Leatherette. Mute, 1978
“I don’t need a TV screen. I just stick the aerial into my skin and let the signal run through my veins…”

02.06.10  |  Notebook  |  tv  |  Tweet It
2 Remarks
  1. (S)wine says:

    and before this, 10 or so yrs. ago, there was just audio being pumped out there as you stood in the freezing rain filling up.

  2. John says:

    I agree about the televisions. I saw my first one at a gas pump in San Diego, CA a few years ago. Now they’re in the checkout line at the grocery store and the city of Chicago has installed them on the busses and at public train stations. Enough is enough. If advertisers get to leave their mark on every corner of our “public space” then there is no longer such a concept as a public space.

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James A. Reeves is a writer, designer, teacher, and law student. He's currently finishing a big book about America, available on W. W. Norton in 2011. He lives in New Orleans.
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