"Advertising and the End of the World" with Sut Jhally
I. Advertising and Culture
A. Clearly, advertising is a key aspect of our culture, given how it has infiltrated almost all aspects of our lives, especially our media systems. Advertising tells stories about our hopes, dreams, aspirations -- our way of life.
B. Anthropologist from Mars would conclude from studying advertising that ours is a culture dominated by a belief in MAGIC: things or goods have immense powers. (parenthetically, this Martian anthropologist might also conclude that we have sex on the brain, given the pervasiveness of sex to sell stuff.)
II. Capitalism has remade the world
A. No economic system has ever been so productive as industrial capitalism, churning out an immense number of products. The problem of capitalism is not really production, or even distribution, but CONSUMPTION -- how to sell all the stuff produced. Hence, we've created a whole industry devoted to the business of consumption -- ADVERTISING, which is a $175 billion/yr. industry (as of 1997) and represents the greatest propaganda effort in human history.
III. Wrong and Right Question
A. The WRONG question is: does an ad help sell a product? (Of course, this question is the "right" from the market standpoint, but we're interested in advertising's impact on the broader culture.) So, the RIGHT question is: what impact does advertising have on culture? And we can get at this by addressing how advertising answers some basic questions.
IV. Three basic questions
1. HOW DO WE BECOME HAPPY? Every culture has a story of happiness. Advertising's answer is that commodities make us happy, economic growth. Also has to do with the FREEDOM of choice (which is why the former Soviet Union was so dismal).
a.) Is it true? According to so-called happiness surveys going back to 1945, apparently not. Have a lot more stuff today, but we are not any happier (subjectively).
b.) Most people place so-called SOCIAL VALUES (love, friendship, family) above material ones as the basic elements of the "good life." Recognizing this, advertisers try to market products as if they will help us attain those social values, which is really a "CRUEL ILLUSION."
2. WHAT IS SOCIETY?
a.) Advertising addresses us as INDIVIDUALS, seeking to satify our wants and desires. Consistent with Margaret Thatcher's statement -- no such thing as society; society is just a bunch of individuals acting on their own. (Which, I would stress, is contrary to the view of society I developed earlier in this course.)
b.) By its nature it encourages greed, selfishness, and not a concern for broader social issues: issues such as poverty, environmental pollution, etc. are pushed to the margins.
3. FUTURE?
a.) Advertising is all about the PRESENT, just as business in general is very short-term oriented. The problem is we are facing resource and environmental issues that are by their very nature LONG-TERM. Can't address these issues individually; they are a matter of collective social responsibility. Going to require long-term planning, sacrifice, and leadership, NOT immediate, short-term, self-interested approaches which is what advertising is all about.
V. What to do?
A. Mr. Jhally cited a statement of an Italian thinker, Antonio Gramsci, who said we need to have a "pessimism of intellect and optimism of will." That is, be realistic and critical about the current situation, yet optimistic and hopeful in acting to change the situation.
REMEMBER TO COPY OR PRINT THE ABOVE COMMENTS. I MAY ASK A QUESTION OR TWO ABOUT THESE POINTS ON THE FINAL EXAM.
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FAMILY ACTIVITY ON "CONSUMING KIDS," THE VIDEO
Next week Tuesday (4/12) we'll be seeing the video program, "Consuming Kids," based on the book we are currently reading. After seeing this program, I want the two families to discuss it in the context of the following passage from the book (which we'll begin to talk about next Thursday). Susan Linn observes: "In the long run, our children's immersion in this commercial culture has implications that go far beyond what they buy or don't buy. Marketing is designed to influence more than food preferences and choice of clothing. It aims to affect core values such as lifestyle choices: how we define happiness and how we measure our self-worth. Meanwhile, the very traits that today's marketing encourages -- materialism, impulsivity, entitlement, and unexamined brand loyalty -- are antithetical to those qualities necessary in a healthy democratic citizenry. Instead of being a mainstay of American life, intensive advertising to children may be eroding its foundations." (p. 8)
I would add to this, that you should not only consider how marketing may undermine the creation of a democratic citizenry but also, more broadly, may be undermining the health and well-being of individuals as well as the larger society. So, in that broad context, I want each family to identify any THREE points from the video that support that broad argument. I also want each family to come up with ONE critical point; that is, one point which you believe the video may have overlooked or downplayed which would represent a challenge to Ms. Linn's point above.
I will give the families time in class to confer about this after the video on Tuesday and then on Thursday. A representative from each family will be called upon to present your family's findings to the rest of the class on Tuesday (4/19), and someone from each family (not necessarily the same person who presents the findings in class) will post your family's findings as a comment on this blog post. I may use this as a basis for a question or two on the final exam.
This exercise is worth 5 activity points, and you must participate to earn those points.
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2 comments:
Magenta Group:
OUR FINDINGS
Three themes or topics that we came away with from the film:
1) The film showed how advertisers tug at kids emotions and morals to get them to buy their product. They send the message to the child that they may not be accepted by society unless they have their product which stunts their moral growth as they learn to go along with society's perception.
2)The overall trend of advertisement research is becoming more and more invasive into kids lives. Example from the film talked about researchers watching children take bathes and study their habits, or how they get dressed each day.
3) Over the past generation there has been a 94% decline in creative play. Children decline to go out and play from sunrise to sundown like kids of past generations. With the leaps in technology, kids are now spending most of their time playing with products that produce artificial imagination. It does all the thinking for the child, all they have to do is react.
One Critique of the film:
1) We concluded that the film properly discussed how children are used to veto parents purchasing decisions and make the prone to buying what the child demands. However, it did not really discuss in depth the effects advertisements have on the parent-child relationship.
Blue Group-
From the video, our group found that
1. Advertisers and Marketers push products by claiming they have social meanings, and will have social implications if you don't buy it. They push ideals that say "what you buy makes you who you are."
2. Also, advertisements are pushing the value of looks in females and violence and aggression in males. Girls are being told that they need to look like the girls on tv to be happy, and boys are being taught that in order to be a man they need to be aggressive.
3. Finally, childhood health issues are becoming an increasingly large problem because of advertising. Childhood obesity, diabetes, and other eating disorders are on the rise and there are links to advertising as a cause for this. For example, in the video they talk about marketers pushing the 'collection' of matchbox cars and having 2 of the pieces to collection only to be found in McDonald's happy meals.
One criticism we found was that when the video was trying to portray their point that children's tv shows and movies were promoting unhealthy spending habits and consumer dissatisfaction they used clips that really only showed the antagonist of the shows/movies displaying these qualities. Ex. The clip of High School Musical 2 was showing the 'drama queen' who wasn't the main character role model of the movie but was actually kind of thought of as over-the-top and silly.
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