Chapter Seven

Chapter 7: Advertising, Consumer Cultures, and Desire

We are constantly surrounded by advertisements—so much so that we don’t even realize them all of the time and we become desensitized to them, forcing advertisers to be on a constant search for new techniques that will capture and hold our attention. Ads make promises to consumers (whether or not they can keep them) and present an “abstract world” that does not necessarily line up with reality. Some ads disguise themselves as more than ads—some as art, entertainment, or “culture jams.” Consumerism is something that is deeply ingrained in our present society much as capitalism is in this country. Capitalism functions when people consume large amounts of goods beyond what they need to survive. Mobility was an important part of the spread of capitalism, because it allowed urban populations to grow and become more concentrated. Because of mobility becoming more important in consumerism, the city streets became “forums for advertising.”

Part of consumer societies is the idea that some of one’s self-image is constructed through their purchases and through their use of commodities, which are said to fill the void of a closer-knit community and give meaning. “The idea that consumer products will offer self-fulfillment is crucial to marketing and consumption.”

When arcades became popular, people changed their idea of “shopping” from a mere necessity to a pleasurable experience and even as a form of entertainment. Arcades became places not only to shop, but to walk around and look at beautiful buildings and artworks.

Anne Friedberg wrote that an increased “mobility of vision” was displayed in the interest of 19th century panoramas, dioramas, and the emergence of photography, and later, motion picture film.

The automobile became a symbol of “individualism, freedom, and conspicuous consumption” and people began to see that embracing these ideas as part of a “broader social engagement with consumption as a kind of civic duty.” The paradox that lies within using commodities to fill emotional needs lies in the fact that people generally think they will be happier if they consume more goods, but this is not the case.

Advertisers seek to create consumer relationship to brands so that brands become necessary, familiar, comforting, and “loveable.” Advertisements establish relationships between the product (signifier) and the meaning (signified) to sell products and also the connotations associated with those products. To promote ethnic awareness and political correctness, many advertisements now use models from several different ethnic backgrounds.

Marxist theory doesn’t exactly extend to today’s advertisements and the idea of contemporary consumerism because Marx did not foresee the complexity that the system has taken on today. Consumers today are increasingly interested in where their goods are produced. Issues like fair trade and worker conditions are becoming the focus of more business practices for the general public.

Pop art was an “attack on distinctions between high and low culture.” People who produced pop art took things from television, comic books, advertisements, symbols, and brands, to make “high art.” Andy Warhol was famous for this—especially for his artwork employing the image of a Campbell’s soup cans.

Establishing a brand is something that advertisers and companies strive for. However, a company can be too successful at this, and the brand name ceases to refer only to the brand but encompasses the whole kind of product—Kleenex for tissues, Xerox for making copies, Coke for any soft drink. This is known as genericide.

Guerrilla advertisements seemed very strange to me. The idea that a company or business would hire someone to act like a person not working for that company or business—say, to act like a tourist and praise the features of the camera they are using—seemed slightly bizarre and even a bit unsettling. Also, advertisers and companies are finding ways to advertise by tapping into social networks like Facebook and MySpace. I’ve even noticed recently that ads pop up in the middle of YouTube videos.

Overall, in “late consumerism, the boundary between the mainstream and the margins is always in the process of being renegotiated.”