For example, the fact that these images belong to the moment but speak of the future produces a strange effect which has become so familiar that we scarcely notice it. But we accept the total system of publicity images as we accept an element of climate. A person may notice a particular image or piece of information because it corresponds to some particular interest he has. We are now so accustomed to being addressed by these images that we scarcely notice their total impact. Often they refer to the past and always they speak of the future. Publicity images also belong to the moment in the sense that they must be continually renewed and made up-to-date. Or we see it on a television screen while waiting for the commercial break to end. We see it as we turn a page, as we turn a corner, as a vehicle passes us. The publicity image belongs to the moment. One may remember or forget these messages but briefly one takes them in, and for a moment they stimulate the imagination by way of either memory or expectation. In no other form of society in history has there been such a concentration of images, such a density of visual messages. No other kind of image confronts us so frequently. In the cities in which we live, all of us see hundreds of publicity images every day of our lives. John Berger, Ways of Seeing (excerpt), BBC (1972)
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