Advertising and Consumer Society: A Critical Introduction

Description

This critical introductory text explores the role of advertising in contemporary culture and its connections to larger economic, social, and political forces. Written in an engaging and accessible style and incorporating a wide range of examples from around the world, the chapters introduce the key concepts, methods, and debates needed to analyse and understand advertising. From an investigation of advertising’s crucial function in media economics and our wider capitalist system to a consideration of the people who both make and watch advertising, this insightful text enables students to: make sense of advertising’s powerful influence as both an economic force and an artistic form; assess the various claims of these two perspectives on advertising; and understand how they challenge and complicate one another. This revised second edition includes a new chapter on branding and promotional culture, and substantially updated content on topics like digital and online advertising, surveillance and empowerment, as well as brand new topics like self-branding/influencers and using technology to evade advertising. Equipping students with the skills needed to partake in this lively discourse, the text is an invaluable resource for studying advertising critically. It is essential reading for students of advertising, media studies and communication studies. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Preface to the Second Edition Part I: The foundations of studying advertising Chapter 1: Introduction: Why study advertising? Why study advertising? Reason one: advertising is everywhere Reason two: advertising is weird Reason three: advertising is where the money is Reason four: advertising is beautiful, inspiring, and entertaining Reason five: advertising is political What this book is about The foundations of studying advertising Advertising and capitalism Art, agency, and other complications What this book is not about References Chapter 2: The history of advertising: Contexts, transformations, and continuity Four moments in advertising history The first moment: origins, industrialisation, and development The first advertising? Industrialisation and mass society The beginning of consumer society The second moment: professionalisation, consolidation, and redemption The problem with patent medicine The search for respectability The third moment: hidden persuaders and Creative Revolutionaries The fear of advertising “Think Small” and the Creative Revolution The fourth moment: digital advertising, algorithms, and social media The first online advertising Algorithmic advertising Social media advertising The changing nature of advertising References Chapter 3: Analysing advertisements: Form, semiotics, and ideology Advertising contexts, codes, and conventions The importance of medium Analysing static advertisements Analysing video advertisements Analysing advertising in video games Semiotic analysis of advertising Denotative signs Connotative meanings Anchorage and meaning Mythology and ideology Mythological analysis Ideological analysis Conducting an ideological analysis Careful reading References Part II: Advertising and capitalism Chapter 4: Advertising, economics, and ideology What is capitalism? Three definitions of capitalism What is political economy? Marxism and capitalism What is ideology? Advertising and ideology Advertising as ideological state apparatus Capitalist ideology in practice Selling capitalist realism Capitalist realism in advertising Capitalist Realism in practice From economics to ideology to advertising References Chapter 5: Commodities and commodity fetishism What is a commodity? The commodity in capitalism Use value and exchange value Equivalence of commodities The secret lives of commodities Commodity fetishism and the relations of consumption The concept of fetishism The secret powers of commodities The magic system The reality of magic The power of Dove The life cycle of the commodity References Chapter 6: The audience commodity, media fragmentation, and data surveillance The audience as commodity “Advertising turns into terror” Watching advertising can be hard work Imagining the audience commodity Maximising profit The mass audience Eliminating waste Breaking down the audience Fragmenting society Personalisation, surveillance, and online labour From suitor to hunter Dataveillance and the new audience commodity New forms of digital audience labour References Chapter 7: Blurred lines: Branding, promotion, and influence(rs) From brands to commodity-signs From cattle to corporations Brands and commodity-signs Branding and the production of difference Social media self-branding and influencers Social media and online identity The rise of influencers Promotional society and collapsing boundaries Native advertising, branded content and blurred lines Promotional culture and the society of the spectacle References Part III: Agency, art, and other complications Chapter 8: Advertising agencies: Organisation, agency, and internal conflict Advertising’s agency and advertising agencies The functions of an advertising agency Media buying and planning Account management Creatives Agencies in a changing industry The people who make advertisements Advertising professionals in their own words Advertising professionals as a (worrying) demographic Ambiguity and antagonism in the agency Agency as form from chaos References Chapter 9: Advertising as art: From creativity to critique Advertising and “creativity” (Not) defining creativity The problems with creativity Advertising and art What is art? Advertising inside the institutions of art Advertising as art Advertising against the market Advertising aesthetics Advertising changing the world The future of advertising as art References Chapter 10: Active advertising audiences: Identity, engagement, and resistance The active advertising audience The Encoding/Decoding model The uses and gratifications model Identities and communities Advertising and identity formation Constructing consumer communities Active audiences online Free labour vs. “Brand Protection” Cambridge Analytica and the power of online ads Avoiding and resisting advertising The advertising arm’s race Activist resistance References Chapter 11: The politics of advertising: Capitalism, art, agency, and dialectics Some may buy it, I’m not paying the price The politics of capitalism The politics of agency and art The dialectic of advertising “Wokevertising” What does Advertising do? References Index