By Jimmy Magahern | Phoenix Magazine
It’s become a common trope of the dystopian sci-fi movie: the dark, futuristic metropolis where every visible space in the cityscape is plastered with the logos of corporate overlords.
The 2006 comedy Idiocracy played such rampant commercialization for laughs, depicting a dumbed-down population where even the citizens are named after corporate products. David Foster Wallace’s grimly comic 1996 novel Infinite Jest painted a hyper-commercialized future when years are named for corporate sponsors.
In January, the Mesa Fire and Medical Department, in an effort to offset approximately $1.4 million in budget cuts, began welcoming private businesses to sponsor health and safety messages on its firetrucks, inching us one step closer to such a future – or so it might seem, judging from the rash of calls the city received after the plan was announced in November.
