The private pleasure we take from observing public pain
Article Abstract:
Media coverage of the sex lives of celebrities seems to have reached record levels in the UK. Similarly, ordinary people can now no longer expect details of their sex life to remain private. Many people find this rather distasteful, but cannot bring themselves to protest openly, as they also feel that they have the right to know such details. This is a reflection of an increasingly visual culture in which people are not prepared to believe anything until they see it in pictures. It is now time to admit that many people in modern society get their private pleasure from the public pain of others.
Publication Name: The Independent
Subject: Retail industry
ISSN: 0951-9467
Year: 1998
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We won't swallow any more lies about food
Article Abstract:
Britons as a nation seem to have developed a very ambivalent attitude towards food. Eating is surrounded with a great deal of guilt and anxiety, especially in the light of recent food safety scares, and yet food is also portrayed as fashionable and giving ultimate gratification. The free market has given ordinary people much more choice in what they eat, but has also made people feel more unsafe. There is a strong sense that food is tainted and that it has lost any connection with nature.
Publication Name: The Independent
Subject: Retail industry
ISSN: 0951-9467
Year: 1997
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When Ikea sells women's lib, it's time to move on
Article Abstract:
Furniture store chain Ikea is using the language of political revolution in its latest advertising, encouraging women to free themselves from traditional approaches to home furnishings. The advertising manages to link the ideas that female taste is instinctively anti-modern and that feminism have achieved its aims and is thus only useful as a lifestyle accessory. It implies that women who are achieving more should want their homes to look more masculine.
Publication Name: The Independent
Subject: Retail industry
ISSN: 0951-9467
Year: 1996
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