You might appreciate the book Born To Buy by Juliet Schor. It's about the insidiousness of marketing (specifically to children) and how it affects childhood and society. Actually made me quite angry as I was reading it. If I weren't anti-ad before, I am now!

(I'm going to even go so far as to pour out my coffee into a non-Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts cup while I'm at work... my students don't need to see me proferring a brand name, either!)

if anyone can tell me where to stick this in the template of blogger so it works, please do so. :-)
thanks!

Keri: I did not realize this huge debate had been going on about blogs and ads. Wow. My opinion is that people are entitled to believe and think what they want. I just choose to not live on auto-pilot and do my best to live an authentic life.

Hello there Keri, I've been following the conversation and I've placed your great graphic on my journal. I grew up in the area you have just moved to and am now living in Utah. I find myself checking in with you and your journal quite often, sensing a hands on approach to life that I resonate with and miss on many levels. Thanks for this. - Jenny

I have to say... I probably would have considered myself in the "oh, ads don't affect me" camp.
But your gentle insistence that there is an effect-- that too many things are commercialized, that we are becoming numb to the way we are being manipulated because of the sheer volume of data-- has opened my eyes at least a little wider.
And so, thanks. Since it's all choices, best to have the choices be as conscious as possible. And I find I'm reflecting more, which I'm very grateful to you for.
all the best,
d

Dear Keri,
Perhaps I've misinterpreted you. I did go back and read your original post on this topic. What I read there was that you initally thought, 'Good on her'. After some thinking, however, you concluded that you felt a "loss of respect" for those who had ads on their site. That's a personal comment, no matter what kind of spin you put on it. It has stuck with me and has colored everything else you wrote on the subject from that point.
For Dapne, who wrote, "unlike many readers who disagree with you and probably don't have a blog or have very little traffic on it your blog generates a lot of visitors, comments, etc and therefore your personal stake in this is high". I'm a writer, Daphne. It's true that I don't have a blog, but this issue affects me personally as well.

I really respect how you have managed to create a warm open forum for this topic, and gently encouraged people to think and talk freely. Not necessarily to think like you do, but just to think. For themselves. That is brave and wonderful.

In fact, I'm still, like you, ruminating on what I think of the pervasiveness of marketing/advertising and its role in my life, how all this outside noise has or hasn't impacted me.

I had previously commented that I was resigned to the continuing inevitability of money influencing genuine work, as well as noting how sad it was to live in a world based on seeing someone by their demographics instead of their person. But now I have even less answers about this very complicated issue, but a larger feeling inside of kindness. This has caused me to remember to live a tiny more consciously, a tiny bit more aware.

It has also spread out, causing me to have conversations about this with other people - some of whom run internet advertising companies, others who are writers, poets, etc; creating a wider, more open dialogue and exchange. Thank you.

I just created my own blog this week. Don't really know what I'm doing, but I love to write and think and get a little bit offbeat and share ideas and make people think and ask questions and learn and imagine what comes next after this life. Feel free to check it out. www.jodyferlaak.blogspot.com

For Kay,

I don't think Dooce is an underdog anywhere - she's an Internet celebrity. I've been reading her blog for years and I'm still reading it - I just don't want to have ads on my own blog.

And Keri, I put the owl up already. Great job!

thank you so much for that daphne. i hesitated writing that heading. i've never done something like this before, i have always done things that people approve of (read: everyone). this has greater meaning for me, it is teaching me to be stronger. i don't know why i am being called to do it, but i must follow it. it is hard to just be o.k. with people being upset by my actions.

Adorable icon and I respect that you are still in process about this issue i.e. saying something, changing your tone on it, deleting it, adding something else. You are figuring out how an issue relates to you and letting people in on your thought process so they just shouldn't take everything as a definitive black or white. Plus unlike many readers who disagree with you and probably don't have a blog or have very little traffic on it your blog generates a lot of visitors, comments, etc and therefore your personal stake in this is high and all the more power to you for not wanting to reap material benefits from that in itself. I don't see how anyone can think you are criticizing 'dooce' - you said you weren't in your first post, plus she has a very different take on how she uses her blog: she's made it her 'job' with an 'income' and you wrote that you respect that. The people who love reading dooce will always read dooce with or without ads and the same for you.

The other comment I wanted to make was your post heading is so unlike you "here goes nothing" I've never even heard you whisper anything remotely defeatest on your site! Buck up! It is something that you believe in and we all get that. People in expressing a difference of opinion often feel they need to make it personal and that's ridiculous.

Keep your spirits up!

Keri,

I have been following along over the past several days (quietly). I just want to tell you that I appreciate you so much for championing this issue.

I've added your fabulous little owl to my blog. Thank you!

KEri,
I adore the OWL and will be adding him to mine as soon as I can figure out where to paste it =)

"Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be"
George Sheehan quote

N A M A S T E ,
MB

earlier this week i ditched my google ads (admittedly, easy to do as they earned next to nothing), after thinking about the issues brought up in the discussion here. the clincher was that i have begun to see my blog as a kind of sketchbook or creative work, and i didn't want advertising to be part of this, especially since sometimes ads that made me uneasy were being included (japanese dating agencies etc), and also recently i have been trying to live my life in a less-commercial way.
i am ashamed to say that i had included the ads without much consideration, because it seemed that "everyone had google ads", so thank you for showing that this is not the case. i am happier with my blog now that it is proudly "ad-free". and the icon is very cute, thank you for sharing.

Mel,
Thank you for your comment. I agree with your point and have removed #3 from the statement. It is not my intention to judge people, I was not thinking about the implication when I wrote it. As you can see I am still 'finding my way' with this. Wording is VERY important. The project will evolve, (just as I am.)

Kay,
I urge you to reread my comment on the issue, This is NOT a personal attack on anyone who chooses to have ads on their site. Many of my good friends have ads, they do not take this as a personal attack, (merely a difference of opinion). I just want to make a statement about my work. I see my blog as an art piece, no different than a painting or a sculpture.

I certainly would not like advertising on one of my paintings.

I do not judge those who choose to have ads on their site.

HA! I think it has been fun reading the 'long drawn out thing' and the various comments. Of course, I would probably be disliked because of my viewpoints on this, so no need to even state them because I think it's your blog and you can say and beat a dead horse anyway you want...and quite frankly-I like it :)
I feel just the fact that this is causing us to 'think' ...is a job well done.
Here's my only interjection:--nothing is absolute--

Love your 'Unevenly' journal entry- have a great weekend!

Done ^_^

I think it's sad that this doesn't bother some people, that they're happy to be told what to buy, what to wear, when to wear it.

A bit of "phonyness" is not the issue; it is payment - monetary or otherwise - influencing the "opinion" (or at least, comments) of the blogger which is at issue (at least, to me). It's the issue of a corporation telling the blogger what to write, when to write it... telling the viewer what to buy, when to buy it...

Just curious...what are your thoughts on non-profit advertising (i.e. Red Cross, Oxfam, etc.)?

I certainly respect your right to your opinions, and I respect that it has not been easy for you to become so vocal about the issue. However, #3 ("3. That I am dedicated to preserving the honesty and integrity of the blogging medium.") seems to say to me that (a) ONLY blogs without advertisements can be honest, and (b) implies that because a blog has no ads it is therefore true to some greater cause (surely we've all read some bits of phony-ness that were nevertheless ad-free!). The judgement ("if you don't see it my way, then you have no integrity") implicit in this is very disconcerting to me, and not something I care to participate in.

Why the need to throw around such judgement, rather than simply living by example? This seems out of character from the tone of your blog prior to this argument.

Keri,
I've been a big fan of yours for a couple of years now. I still am. But I'm disappointed in the way in which this topic has dragged on. I understand that it's something important to you. But given that Dooce's actions basically started this, it's hard for me not to see everything that has followed somehow a criticism of her. Even though you (and other people) have had more general points to make about advertising, I think there is nonetheless an implicit criticism of the choices that she's made. Perhaps it's time to accept that different choices are right for different people. It's something you want other people to accept about you. Oddly enough, I only discovered Dooce because you mentioned her. I now feel like she's an underdog here and, because it's my nature, I've now become a defender and supporter of her choice, and a regular reader of her blog!