Advertising, Publicity & The Media

Lecture Notes - 25/11/09

Advertising - Influences and effects us all, subconciously look at adverts throught everyday life and society.

Advertising persuades us that objects will have a dramatic impact on our lives. Perfume and clothes for example. Furniture.

- Sells Lifestyle
- Stops people being happy with their life as it is, spending money is the only way to better it
- Aspirational
- Emancipation = Spending/Consumption

Judith Williamson - " To succeed in life and be liberated people we must consume"

Karl Marx - Consumerism theory

Commodity Fetishm;

Clothes you wear, items you own, "ailenation from our real lives"

Layer of fetish value

Reification;

A by product of Commodity Fetishism. Advertised products themselves have a sexual appeal, Humans become more objectified.

False Need;

Advertising works through instilling us

False Needs - Novelty (Up to the minute)
False Needs - Idols (Celebrities, fashion)
False Needs - Symbolic Association
False Needs - Belonging, Togetherness, 'Happy Family'

Ideology;

A system of ideas. A way of thinking about the world. A system of ideas/beliefs which gave us a false conciousness about the world.

We are taught what we think about the world by various ideologies. Religion, for example.