Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore - io9 Comments

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

quetzilla — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:20:26 PDT

iPunk, coming in 2009 from Apple.

quetzilla

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

mewlink64 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:35:29 PST

These hardly seem very cyberpunk. The PS2 and the Dew ones kinda do, but the others? Nah.

mewlink64

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:14:37 PST

@raychie: Everybody knows a manifacturer does manicures while making stuff.

Annalee Newitz

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:14:03 PST

@noncornbatant: I love that a conversation about cyberpunk somehow came around to Huckabee's regressive tax policies.

Annalee Newitz

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

noncornbatant — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:08:03 PST

@eac_o_system: Oh, but Huckabee isn't an economic populist -- he just plays one on TV. Unless you think a national sales tax (the most regressive possible tax) is somehow going to help the poor people he panders to.

noncornbatant

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

raychie — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:43:27 PST

i don't know what an SUV manifacturer is, but i know what a manufacturer is

raychie

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Corwin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:22:15 PST

@annalee: 3:10 to Yuma was a great flick. I watched it twice with my buddies and then we discussed the different father issues that various characters had. The only real criticism I had for it was when Ben Wade whistled to his horse and somehow, over the intense sound of the steam train, the horse heard the call and followed. It gave the Ben Wade character a sort of supernatural quality that I think was unnecessary.

Corwin

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:06:58 PST

@92BuickLeSabre: Unforgiven and Lone Star I'll give you. But more recently there's been a real renaissance with 3:10 to Yuma and Firefly (hey it's a Western) and the Assassination of Jesse James. Let's just say that there were precious few great Westerns in the 80s and 90s. And goddamn I love Westerns, so I missed 'em something fierce.

Annalee Newitz

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

hokku — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:37:02 PST

You could argue that these things don't dilute the purpose of cyberpunk but rather validate the statements made in the novels as most of the stories have corporations and media infiltrating all aspects of life and culture with advertisements.

The punk isn't getting taken out of cyberpunk; these things are just signifying the separation between those who want to make mainstream and frivolous technology and those who want to make useful devices without soulless dollars.

hokku

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

92BuickLeSabre — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:26:30 PST

@Annalee: Unforgiven? Lone Star? The Three Burials? Tombstone? (Okay, maybe not Tombstone.) Actually, I'll even throw Dances With Wolves out there.

92BuickLeSabre

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:38:03 PST

@Balam: Actually I'd say the Marlboro Man did ruin the Western genre for over a decade. Note that it wasn't until the last year or so that we had a really interesting, innovative Western.

Annalee Newitz

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Eac_o_System — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:19:47 PST

Huckapunk ... taking Mike Huckabee's economic populism and rabid Baptist Christianity to the ne'r-do-well's underworld!!!

Eac_o_System

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

StickyPurpleCat — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:10:01 PST

Some of these didn't really strike me as cyberpunk, especially the Levi's commercial (which is old as dirt, btw.)

As far as the eskimo/Inuitpunk, we're already all over that one. Five minutes at any high school or college campus and you'll see all the ladies are wearing boots with fur trim, and poofy jackets that match.

StickyPurpleCat

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Learethak — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:52:38 PST

@designguybrown:
Emu = Australia
Eskimo = Arctic

You must have meant Ostrich, we get those all the time here in the frozen north. :P

Though I must admit the thought of great herds of Arctic Emu stalking the ice fields in search of their favorite prey... does make me shiver a bit.

Learethak

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

GameraTheGreat — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:25:59 PST

Howzabout.......Crochetpunk!!!

GameraTheGreat

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

92BuickLeSabre — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:33:49 PST

...oh...

I do appreciate, however, the use of The Alan Parsons Project in the dairy ad. Given that the world presented looked a little like an APP album cover.

92BuickLeSabre

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

mighty_squid — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:33:34 PST

Steampunk is more interesting then cyberpunk. We are already living in a cyberpunk world. Steampunk is what could have been and is generall very cool looking to boot.

Cyberpunk is so 90s. ;)

mighty_squid

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

92BuickLeSabre — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:31:19 PST

I think my vision of cyberpunk must be narrower than others, cause these didn't all automatically make me think "cyberpunk."

That being said, the Mountain Dew ad was pretty much the lamest thing I've ever seen.

(I'll withhold comment on the razor ad, given my lack of interest in being a skeeve.)

92BuickLeSabre

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Balam — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:26:38 PST

The problem isn't with cyberpunk, it's with an advertising industry which is quite skilled at mining subcultures or countercultures for any 'edgy' imagery that can be repurposed to hock their schlock.

* Has the Marlboro Man killed the western genre?
* Did Debeers ruin romances?
* E.T. is still scifi despite the Reeces' Pieces tie-in, right?

Otherwise, to be fair, if scifi has cribbed something from advertising (Cayce Pollard from Pattern Recognition, do we have to say that advertising is dead?

Balam

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

designguybrown — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:21:32 PST

i vote for eskimo-punk - we're talking igloo-like architecture, fuzzy-fluffy-billous everything - clothes, hair, and pets... we're talking about anti-wheels hype--> sleds!
we're talking the ultimate anti-global warming counter-culture where we've got mukluks, parkas, and anoraks
we're talking about art and form that is sinewy like the bone from a freshly gutted emu or simple undulating forms in basic primary colours.
we're talking about landscapes of pure tundra nothingness, wind-blown desert-like austerity -> getting into a type of madmax with spears and sleds or super-exotic iceberg and ice-flow type of living - you know you want 24-hr+7-day snow!

designguybrown

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

d00d34 — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:20:40 PST

the philips razor was pretty sexy, but it was kinda freaky.

d00d34

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:17:53 PST

@JoshJasper: recursive advertising punk . . . cybertising?

Annalee Newitz

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

cjk — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:07:15 PST

I'm sorry, I really don't see these as necessarily being even grossly disproportionate thievings of cyberpunk...except maybe for the PS2 one. Science fiction? Definitely. But cyberpunk? The razor one definitely not, if anything that just screams "bizarre porno version of 'I Robot' I haven't downloaded yet but need to", not "coopting cyberpunk".

Of course I might be being a bit narrow-minded in my definition of "cyberpunk" as a view of science-fiction oriented futures that are neither entirely dystopic, but neither utopic, rather a mixture of gross socioeconomic sprawl (hehe, Sprawl) with mostly realistic interpretations of future technologies and governments and economies.

cjk

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

Gann — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:58:21 PST

ecopunk ftw!

Gann

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

froggy — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:42:26 PST

i haven't seen something as lame as the Montain Dew add in a very, VERY long time. wow!

froggy

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

lucyjae — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:39:23 PST

that razor ad is also quite sexist and skeeves me out every time I see it.

lucyjae

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

hn333 — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:34:38 PST

You sure this is cyberpunk ?

hn333

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

JoshJasper — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:33:26 PST

We'll call it self recursive punk

JoshJasper

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

JoshJasper — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:33:10 PST

Let's punk people who punk things.

JoshJasper

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

MasterOfPastures — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:32:31 PST

Steampunk? Medievalpunk? Nanopunk? Spacepunk?

MasterOfPastures

Cybervertising Proves Cyber May Not Be So Punk Anymore

strider_mt2k — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:27:10 PST

The future ain't what it used to be.

strider_mt2k