Economy
Related: About this forumWelcome to Coca-Cola Town, USA: America’s scary corporate naming problem
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/06/welcome_to_coca_cola_town_usa_americas_scary_corporate_naming_problem/We now live in a world with KFC-sponsored manholes and McDonalds-issued report cards. Here's why it's killing us
Welcome to Coca-Cola Town, USA: Americas scary corporate naming problem
Jonathan Zimmerman
Monday, Oct 6, 2014 06:58 AM EST
For the past 20 years, Ive been taking the train to the Market East Station in my hometown of Philadelphia. But Im not going to be doing that again anytime soon.
Thats because Market East no longer exists, at least not officially. It became Jefferson Station earlier this month, after Thomas Jefferson University Hospital paid Philadelphias regional transportation authority $4 million to put Jeffersons name on the station for the next five years.
And this isnt just a Philly thing, either. Around the country, the names of our public spaces are being sold off to private donors. Brooklyns busy Atlantic Avenue subway station is now the Barclays Bank station; Chicago is selling naming rights to its L stops; and Cleveland recently named an entire bus route The Health Line, after receiving $6.25 million from the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals.
In several other cities, meanwhile, Kentucky Fried Chickens logo festoons manhole covers and fire hydrants. A few municipalities have sold ads on their police cars. And seven states now allow pizza chains and other companies to advertise on school buses.
Orrex
(63,212 posts)zeemike
(18,998 posts)So get used to it...when they own you they want to slap their brand on your ass.
Moostache
(9,895 posts)If you base your buying decisions on name brand recognition or advertising, you are the problem.
If people based their purchases (and more importantly their VOTES) on reality - on need and on consequences - then you would see a much different approach from corporations. I agree that capitalism needs to be regulated to avoid the mess we have now, but at its core, the real problem is people are too stupid for their own good.
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)Backlash away!!!
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Formerly known as the Ford Amphitheater, and most recently as the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheater. I think it's something else now.
It's the place where all the big acts, like Springsteen and Santana perform.
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)Historic NY
(37,449 posts)in fact it was pointed out the FAA designation was still the same when it was an army air corp field. In the end it destroys the past all for the sake of corporate advertising.
Nay
(12,051 posts)than the regular rest stops, although the regular ones are by no means shabby. It's a shame that everything is being sold off this way.
proReality
(1,628 posts)Corporations fight paying taxes, but when they see a way to pound their names into our heads, they'll happily fork over large sums of their profits.
marble falls
(57,084 posts)"Thats good news for business, which can engage old customers and target new ones. And its good for our cash-strapped local and state governments, which can make long-needed improvements to crumbling infrastructures. Everyone walks away happy. Right?
Wrong. Our public spaces communicate important lessons about who we are. By selling these spaces to private interests, we teach our children and ourselves that nothing is truly shared; that everything is for sale, typically to the highest bidder; and that the clutter of commercial messages is the price we have to pay to sustain our common lives."
This how Nestles has acted in buying up water sources. Corporations are mining the Commons away from us. Capitalism is not a Democratic process.
asjr
(10,479 posts)we have nothing to fight against it.