Everywhere
we look, we see advertisements and logos. These features of
capitalist commodity culture have become not just ways of
selling goods but an inescapable mode of modern communication
(Cartwright and Sturken, 2001). In the commodity culture of
the twenty-first century, advertising images and corporate
logos are no longer simply a part of the marketing strategies
of consumer goods manufacturers, but features of our culture.
Many members of the advertising profession see advertising
as consistent with the needs of a democratic society, helping
to make consumers aware of available market choices and educating
consumers about product benefits (Myers, 1996). But the vision
of advertising as a democratic information service is distorted
by the fact that “it is the job of each individual advertiser
to promote one product at the expense of competing products,
and, implicitly, to systematically foreclose the appeal of
alternatives by creating desire” (Myers, 1996, p.485).
Marxist analysts have constructed advertising as the iconographic
signifier of multinational capitalism (Nava, Blake et al,
1997). This construction portrays capitalism, commodity culture,
and therefore advertising as inherently flawed, as bad and
beyond redemption. By analysing single ads, theorists come
to conclusions where poor consumers are duped into buying
more than they really need. Consumption will never fulfil
the true human needs, because the fulfilment of these needs
would mean changing our lifestyles and societies, it will
never happen. According to Marxist theories large corporations
control everyday social and cultural identities nationally
and globally, whilst their global brands make the world seem
more uniform, denying real choice.
Although Marxist criticism gives a good account of the state
of the contemporary consumer societies, it tends to dismiss
or ignore the trends in twenty-first century culture. Adverts
and logos are an essential feature of post-modern life, where
individuality, consumption, freedom, fragmentation and heterogeneity
are the main features of Western societies. Post-modern cultures
and societies are constantly changing and cultural practices
are constantly being reinvented. Advertising is part of the
culture of capitalism where meanings are a constant site of
struggle. Commodities are understood to be a central part
of these societies and individuals participate in the exchange
of commodities in search of new trends, new meanings for coolness.
Post-modern culture is above all a mix of different things.
Art, politics, trends, consumption, economic issues and social
relationships all mix with each other and in the end none
of the features of contemporary life would have a meaning
without the others. Although the influence of large corporations
is bigger than ever, there still remain sites for resistance.
Resistances and subcultural trends work in a constant cycle
with market forces that appropriate them into the mainstream
culture. Therefore, the impact of advertising and branding
is constantly being renegotiated. However, despite being a
well-established part of contemporary culture, advertising
continues to attract moralistic disapproval. One could ask
why does advertising attract more disapproval than other forms
of post-modern culture, say, television, magazines, cinema
or the music industry?
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