25th November
ADVERTISING, PUBLICITY AND THE MEDIA
Times Square, New York -Advertising is bombarding our contemporary world
1990’s estimate -11thousand new tv advertisements every year x4
-25million print adverts made every year
SLOGANS/ SIGNS/ MESSAGES, advertising is inescapable and invades our subconscious.
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
Wrote-
Communist Manifesto – 1848.
Das Kapital – 1867
Marxism/ Marxist
Critique of consumer/ commodity culture-
We construct our identities through the consumer products that inhibit our lives.
You shouldn’t define yourself with what you own, but who you are
Stewart Ewen terms ‘the commodity self’
Symbolic Associations
-Perfume adverts
-Sex Appeal
-Sophistication
Perpetuating false needs
-Aesthetic Innovation
-Planned Obsolescence – products designed to break
-Novelty
Commodity Fetisham-
Advertising conceals the background ‘history’ of products. In other words the content in which a product is produced is kept hidden.
Reification-
Products are given human association
They may be perceived as funny, sexy, romantic, cool
All to create a closer bond with the owner and the product, to become attatched
Advertising works in a fashion to trick people into consumption.
Herbert Marcuse, author of 'One Dimensional Man' (1964)
John Berger (1972) "Publicity (advertising) persuades us by showing people whose lives have been transformed"
Advertising perpetuates stereotypes.
It seeks to make people unhappy with existing material possessions.
It potentially manipulates people into buying products that they don't really need/want.
It encourages addictive, obsessive and greedy behaviour.
It encourages unnecessary production and consumption therefore depleting the worlds resources and spoiling the environment.
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