Selling Freedom

January 28, 2003 11:39 AM

Freedomads.orgis sponsoring a contest that challenges visitors to create video, print, or audio ads that "inspire people with an advertisement for freedom." How would you sell freedom?
posted by pjdoland (22 comments total)

"How would you sell freedom?"

Shouldn't it be free?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:43 AM on January 28, 2003

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
posted by muckster at 11:46 AM on January 28, 2003

Freedom sells itself - no advertising necessary. Just let people know it's available, and they'll come running.

It's tyranny that needs to be sold.
posted by UncleFes at 11:57 AM on January 28, 2003 [1 favorite]

if you look at the site it's freedom as in free beer, not free speech. or rather, big corporations shouldn't be taxed, capitalists are cuddly, etc. i guess that's why they need to sell it.
posted by andrew cooke at 12:06 PM on January 28, 2003

I would force people to buy it at gunpoint.
posted by bondcliff at 12:06 PM on January 28, 2003

I went to the site and there were no domads, free or otherwise, which was very disappointing. (Domads, of course, being related to nomads, but with blocked up noses.)
posted by kerplunk at 12:09 PM on January 28, 2003

FREEDOM: It's not just Another Word for "Nothing Left to Lose"
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 12:19 PM on January 28, 2003

Funny thing: no links to the site's sponsor.

Hm.

I smell a hidden agenda.
posted by silusGROK at 12:28 PM on January 28, 2003

It says right at the top that the site's sponsor is The Institute for Humane Studies.

Their agenda is hardly hidden. They "assist undergraduate and graduate students worldwide with an interest in individual liberty."
posted by pjdoland at 12:35 PM on January 28, 2003

I'd sell freedom by bombing Iraq.
posted by rocketman at 12:37 PM on January 28, 2003

It's a conservative / libertarian college fund type thing, at George Mason University. Funded by Koch Industries. Sort of like Lebowski's Urban achievers. Personally, I'm waiting for a contest from the Human Fund.
posted by condour75 at 1:20 PM on January 28, 2003

The ridiculous postings above seem to ignore the fact that freedom is not a product that can be "sold"; rather, it exists at this point in time solely as a marketing strategy by which the consumption of commodities (e.g. automobiles, beer, vacation packages, or toothpaste) may be coercively encouraged. It is a word employed not for its denotative meaning, but for its emotionally charged connotations as a "value" whose importance can be attacked only at the risk of censure from reactionary elements.
That said, my ad would be a video of a man autofellating himself while simultaneously driving an SUV, performing a partial birth abortion and firing a revolver out the car window.
posted by mokujin at 1:26 PM on January 28, 2003

Freedom sells itself - no advertising necessary. Just let people know it's available, and they'll come running. It's tyranny that needs to be sold. - posted by UncleFes

Possibly the best thing I've ever seen written on MetaFilter. You go with your intelligencia self, UncleFes.
posted by dejah420 at 1:39 PM on January 28, 2003

"my ad would be a video of a man autofellating himself while simultaneously driving an SUV, performing a partial birth abortion and firing a revolver out the car window"

When will you be casting?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:50 PM on January 28, 2003

pjdoland: I saw that it was sponsored by "The Institute for Humane Studies", but there was no link. Anywhere. Did you Google the name, or did you know it from elsewhere?
posted by silusGROK at 2:19 PM on January 28, 2003

I know people who work for the organization.
posted by pjdoland at 2:32 PM on January 28, 2003

Ah.

Thanks!

(You should let someone know that they aren't currently linked on the site.)

: )
posted by silusGROK at 3:13 PM on January 28, 2003

Anyone who needs to be 'sold' the idea of freedom does not deserve it and wouldn't know what to do with it if they got it. Freedom is not a right, and it is not a privilege, it is an aspiration. You can't be truly free, any more than you can be truly good. The ties of obligations, habits, love, lifestyle, etc bind us all. All you can do, short of dying, is be as free as possible.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 6:02 PM on January 28, 2003

How would you sell freedom?

What a deeply sad question. aeschenkarnos articulates very well why.

But the world is a sad fucking place, and the answer to the question is pornography, of course. Isn't it obvious? It works now - don't fix it if it ain't broke.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:02 PM on January 28, 2003

Q: "How would you sell freedom?"

A: "From the barrel of a gun."

Q: "How would you sell the gun?"

A: "On Ebay."
posted by troutfishing at 9:19 PM on January 28, 2003

Freedom! Buy one, get one...uh, never mind.
posted by Vidiot at 4:58 AM on January 29, 2003

How would you sell freedom?

Through taxpayer-funded government schools staffed by unionized, tenured (but chronically "underpaid," whatever that means) teachers, of course!
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:12 AM on January 29, 2003