"in the shadow of the image..."

At first it was hard to see where this essay was going, but after fully reading and re-reading the passage, it became more clear. Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen described a variety of advertisements that have some sort of effect on the public as well as the way information and cultural attitudes are passed along. I liked how at the end of the passage they tied it all together when they said "These are some of the facts of our lives; disparate moments, disconnected, dissociated. Meaningless moments. Random incidents...Viewed alone, each by itself, such spaces of our lives seem insignificant, trivial...Viewed together, however, as an ensemble, an integrated panorama of social life, human activity, hope and despair, images and information, another tale unfolds from these vignettes."---Advertisements do represent all of those things in life. People themselves choose to be in that "shadow of the image", so to speak. An example is the grocery list. Among generic names for items, are brand names to represent generic items such as 'brillo' or 'cheer'. People buy what they see, and more often than not, they like what they see. All of us live under some commercial image, whether we claim we do or not. It's just how our society has been for many years. It's not totally a bad thing unless someone becomes too saturated with commercialization. I mean, who doesn't like having a little style or some nice things? The products Amercians have seen in commercials and advertising are tools for developing ideas on what to wear, what cold medicine to take, etc.