Using footage from amateur-videos and material from media agencies - in Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars Snyder analyses the conventions and complications that arise in the production of an iconic image of war. At the same time, Snyder focuses on the international acceptance of consumer goods, extending beyond all ideological boundaries; he provides the viewer with a sobering look at the globalization of the market economy. The narration starts, "News stories, scripted for consumption, merge the spaces of recent conflict. Plots, characters, and camera direction produce images for decoding. The sets can be cities, mountainous landscapes, hide-outs and tourist resorts. The plots include documents, dossiers, manuals, reports, un-released videos, un-circulated images, found mobile phone SIM cards, confiscated hard drives, and a largely unseen spectacle of incidental props.”
Snyder strings together images culled from government, amateur, and photojournalistic sources to loosely outline decades of foreign corporate involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The repeated appearance of products such as Mars candy bars, Toyota trucks, and Casio watches expose the capacity of media images to serve as accidental product placements. (2004-2005)