A Broader Definition of Advertising Instruction
In studying advertising, students are focusing on more than
simply studying television or magazine ads. They are also studying all aspects
of marketing, mechandizing, promotion, sponsorship, and branding associated
with being members of a consumer culture in which all aspects of experience
are commodified. Moreover, they are examining larger issues of consumption associated
with environmental impact as well as construction of values and identities in
a consumer society-the subject of Sut Jhally's Advertising and the End of the
World (for a video clip):
http://mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismPoliticsAndMedia/Advertising_EndOfWorld
Advertising in a consumer culture. Understanding advertising
therefore requires an understanding of the larger consumer culture. In that
culture, consumption is more than simply a matter of purchasing goods. In the
past, the economy was built on simply exchange of goods in which the focus was
on production and distribution of goods between individuals based on basic needs
for food, housing, and health. Advertising during the 19th and early 20th century
focused primary on providing information as to how a product served these basic
needs. (For examples of early ads:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/
http://www.admuseum.org/ads/resources
http://mediahistory.umn.edu/advert.html
An ad for Arm & Hammer Baking Soda simply described the functional uses for baking soda. After World War II, with the rise of a consumer economy, in which products or goods are consumed for more than just meeting basic needs, the focus shifted to consumption as active work involved in defining one's identity and social relationships, consumption that influences global economies and markets (Miller, 1997). Consider the work you do in presenting yourself through the objects you include in your home for display to others, your clothes, media choices, car(s), or hobbies, as well as ways of differentiating your own choices from those of others in the home (Miller, 1997). To guide and socialize you in making these choices, businesses now spend billions of dollars to equate certain lifestyles or identities with certain brand images or signs-of, for example, being upper-middle-class with owning a Cadillac or wearing Christian Dior clothes. The meaning of being a certain kind of person is therefore equated with a meaning system of signs and images constructed by the advertising industry.
Advertising is therefore endemic to our consumer culture.
It is:
- Ubiquitous: it is now found in not only media texts, but also in all contexts
of life: in sports arenas, bowl games, web sites, schools, restaurant bathrooms,
clothing, highways, etc. Consumption of goods has now become a global activity,
influencing cultures around the world, even in poor countries. Adolescents throughout
the world have become increasingly conscious of brand names and consumer pastimes.
- Anonymous: in contrast to books or songs, you never know who created the ad or wrote the jingles, so there's no sense of accountability to what someone it promoting, or no way to challenge the producer of ads.
- Symbiotic: in that it's meanings are symbolic of or tied to larger agendas, social organizations, or campaigns. For example, Ronald Reagan political campaign ads employed the Bruce Sprinsteen song, "Born in the USA," while Ford ads employed "Born to be Wild."
- Intertextual: in that ads are continually making references to other texts in the consumer/media world or in the culture. For example, the Coke SuperBowl 2002 ad with Britney Spears made references to previous Coke images from the soda fountain era of 1950s.
- Repetitive: ads repeat their messages endlessly; the same
ads may also appear many times during an ad campaign often in the same genre
form, for example, the Energizer Bunny ads employ the same parody/spoof genre
form.