The same machine that made Britney Spears made Miley Cyrus. When mass media present famous underage girls in a sexual context, it’s commerce; when teenage girls take nude photos of themselves, it’s child pornography. The same mass media that is complicit in this form of human exploitation was also complicit in the housing bubble, the Iraq War, and the tech bubble. Advertising is an odd industry: there are huge profits, but almost no capital; advertising firms don’t (literally) own printing presses, newspapers, television stations, retail outlets, or the like. They do however own lots of catchy phrases and stylized images…
