Selling available brain time

July 14, 2004

For several days now, there’s been an interview circulating, particularly on http://www.acrimed.org/article1690.html. It’s also been published in the Voltaire Network newspaper. The “advertising sons,” as Jacques Segala liked to call himself—the inventor of the concept of “quiet force”—now hide their intentions less. We’ve entered the age of “mind control.” Here are some excerpts, provided by a reader.

Acrimed (action – criticism – media) provides commentary based on an AFP report from July 9, 2004, quoting Mr. Patrick Le Lay, CEO of TF1. These quotes are taken from his book “Leaders Facing Change” (published by Huitième Jour).

“… Essentially, TF1’s job is to help companies like Coca-Cola sell their products…”

“… For an advertisement to be effective, the viewer’s brain must be ‘available’ for it. Our shows serve to make the brain ‘available’: they entertain and relax viewers, thereby preparing them to receive any message. What we sell to Coca-Cola is simply ‘available human brain time’…”

“… Thus, according to its own CEO, TF1’s main purpose is to broadcast programs designed to paralyze viewers’ brains, so that they become receptive to any message. TF1 aims to create a new kind of human being: stupid, dull-witted, empty-headed, and open to any message or nonsense. The ideal viewer, according to TF1, is one who’s bombarded with illusions and vulgarity; he no longer knows what’s true and what isn’t. He has no desire or energy to distinguish between truth and falsehood. He’s prepared to accept anything. He even loves his own alienation; he hums along to Coca-Cola commercials, believes that Ariel really does make clothes whiter, despises culture and critical thinking, and idolizes Sarkozy. In doing so, TF1 doesn’t just sell ‘available human brain time’ to Coca-Cola; it sells obedient, apolitical brains to those in power—brains that can be easily manipulated by propaganda. Just like American brains, which were willing to go to war against Iraq yesterday. Or French brains today, who care more about the European Football Championship than about European elections or Raffarin’s latest electoral defeat. They’re indifferent to the destruction of public services, and accept the fatalistic belief that ‘there’s no other way.’ When Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, heard the word ‘culture,’ he pulled out his gun. When TF1 hears the word ‘brains,’ it broadcasts its programs…”

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