Different stand point to the lecture, introducing advertising as a harmful social source manipulative but not in the sense that it becomes propaganda
- advertising is impossible to escape
- its everywhere
- instructions
- lifestyle
- ideals
- bill boards
- website popups
- sometimes forget adverts sometimes remember them but we're always affected by them
- probably the most dominant medium of the 21st century
- 25 million adverts, new prints, made every year
- KARL MARX (1818-1883) wrote communist manifesto - never wrote about advertising, wrote about capitalism but people have written about advertising as he would (Marxist analysis)
- Marxist cultural theorists would say "we live in a commodity culture"
- Judith Williamson quote - means people are measuring themselves and others by what they own or what they can buy - (you are what you own)
- we judge and categorise people on what they own
- superficial flimsy appearances
- shows peoples social values
- Commodities
- Mac/P computers - up to date with technology
- clothing brands - Topman, American Apparel - mainstream affordable - Dolce and Gabana not so much
- music genre - your taste in music is often the most defining thing about you in terms of the social connotations it brings, the messages it purports in the music and lyrics, the venues the music is played at - stereotypes are heavily tied to the type of music you listen to
- note: advert where people plug head phones into each other head and can hear what they listen to, think its BBC radio 1
- mobile phone brand and models - again up to date with the latest handset or contract, always evolving steadily
- the home you live in - if you had a large house with lots of space and niceties and luxuries you would be classed as well off and rich, possibly snobbish or spoilt whereas if you lived in a ghetto or council estate you'd be seen as trouble or a waste of space and not given much credit - judged on nurture instead of nature in a sense of the environment your brought up in
- how would we be affected if we took away all the commodities?
- would we be more equal?
- would people be encouraged to be more productive?
- publicity/contemporary culture
- glamour and envy coincide
- one is glamorous when envied by others
- glamour is being envied or being able to afford not to be envied
- publicity id the vehicle that purports this situation
- advertising on the surface sells things
- advertising's symbolic association
- false needs - ads promote the false desire, they do this to keep selling to keep the system going
- example the Ipod - self perpetuating cycle
- how does commodity culture perpetuate false needs?
- aesthetic innovation - idea of needing something because it looks better
- planned obsolescence - e.g. circuit boards are design to fry after a certain amount of time
- novelty - having the newest toys, gadgets, idea that we are more up to date
- Commodity Fetishism
- basically, advertising conceals the back ground 'history' of products. In other words the context in which a product is produced is kept hidden
- e.g. an object can be made sexy with the connotations of the situation they're used
- Reification - products are given human associations - personified
- boots are sexy
- mobiles are cool etc
- human bonding becomes connoted through things - flowers and chocolates on valentines day classic example
- we lose sight of the products worth
- e.g. Nike shoes - cost pounds to buy but pennies to make.
- advertisers say - advertising creates wealth for our world - beneficial for the economy
- encourages choices
- gives us the illusion of freedom - questionable, how free are you when your constantly being told your not good enough, you need this you need that, start doing this stop do that?
- adverts perpetuate stereotypes as much as they debunked them
- it becomes an ad-diction like a heroin
- cynicism advertising causing feelings of inadequacy and envy advertising things that are bad for you (sweets, junk food, alcohol)
- we never gain the happiness we see in the pictures.
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