- What different ways do people think and feel about advertising?
- People associate goods and services to ‘happiness’, and to add on, I also feels this happiness fits into helping the consumer find a ‘sense of belonging’, as buying that good or service helps consumers associate themselves as one of the many people that bought a specific good, or the advert catches a consumer attention (the consumer feels wanted – a sense of belonging)
- ‘there is something in it that speaks deeply to human beings’ moments of high anxiety’ – the moment is salient when it comes to advertising as the ‘moment’ also depends on the setting, an example being if the consumer is sad due to X reasons, she may buy medicine or comic books that make her laugh, consumers when possessed by great anxiety make irrational decisions, and companies thrive on this
- Advertising is interestingly also called ‘propaganda’ by Sut Jhally, this means that some people feel that advertisements are misleading and biased. This is so true and yet so disturbing as adverts were also thought of as mere ‘adverts’ not ‘propaganda’, but if we further dissect this notion, adverts do tend to elucidate their goods as Godlike, idealistic, than what they are originally. Adverts also tend to be one sided and don’t describe the ‘flaws’ of their goods, an example being – an advert for a car will not mention the amount of fossil fuel that burns and the harm it will cause to the environment
What are Jhally and Twitchell’s different positions? Why might they think what they do?
Both commentaries deal with the purpose of advertising, Twitchell describes advertisements as consumers being the sovereign, while Jhally describes advertising as the producers being ‘sovereign’ and the ones in control. In my opinion, both perspectives are valid and have powerful reasoning behind them. Jhally states that ‘It sells products by convincing people that their happiness is connected to buying products. And particularly by buying this product’ – she elucidates that producers convince consumers that their goods are happiness and bait them, the producers are the ones in control of the narrative of advertisement and the buying of goods. On the other side of the spectrum, Twitchell states that products sell because of the ‘articulate will of consumers’ , consumers are the ones that are in control of the narrative of advertisements, as ‘the will’ of the consumer is what the will essentially get the product off the shelves. Jhally further states ‘cumulative cultural effects, unless quickly checked, will be responsible for destroying the world as we know’, this is an extremely riveting perspective as it expresses the Godlike power advertisements possess as they can effect ‘culture’, a culture that shapes identity and thus humanity. Ads can change the way we perceive ourselves and others by creating these ‘stereotypes’ and ‘ideals’.
How have the commentaries shaped your understanding /provoked / expanded ?
These adverts will help us greatly gain more perspectives on the purpose of advertising and the psychology of the selling and buying of advertisements. It also gives readers an insight into the future, a hypothetical one, but a future that seems to carry more truth with it everyday. These commentaries also provide readers with an overview, rather than picking one or two ads and then expanding, as an overview allows the reader to comprehend the ‘general’ advertisement today. It also created new thoughts into the readers head – Is advertisement propaganda ? Can it be used to manipulate ? Can it cause tectonic like shifts to culture ? And more importantly – What will advertisements and their role play in the future ?