Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture: Advertising's Impact on American Character and Society
288
Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture: Advertising's Impact on American Character and Society
288Paperback(Sixth Edition)
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Overview
Berger explains how advertising works by employing a psycho-cultural approach, encouraging readers to think about advertisements and commercials in more analytical and profound ways. The sixth edition features updated statistics, two new chapters, and new discussions of the role of brands, social media, non-binary perspectives on gender, advertising and the 2020 election, the problem of self-alienation, and how all these elements relate to consumption. Berger also considers the Values and Lifestyle (VALS) and Claritas typologies in marketing. Distinctive chapters examine the “1984” Macintosh commercial, a Fidji perfume advertisement, and a moisturizer advertisement from semiotic, psychoanalytic, sociological, Marxist, mythic, and feminist perspectives.
Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture provides an accessible overview of advertising in the United States, spanning issues as diverse as sexuality, politics, market research, consumer culture, and more, and helps readers understand the role that advertising has played, and continues to play, in all our lives.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781538137819 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 08/12/2020 |
| Edition description: | Sixth Edition |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.99(w) x 9.62(h) x 0.66(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Foreword xi
Preface to the Sixth Edition xv
Acknowledgments xxiii
1 Advertising in American Society 1
Advertising as a Puzzlement 1
Growth of Digital Advertising 2
Defining Advertising 6
Advertising Agencies 8
Max Weber on Religion and Consumer Cultures 10
Advertising and Politics 11
A Psycho-Cultural Perspective on Advertising 14
A Brief Primer on Semiotics 15
Running It Up a Flagpole to See If Anyone Salutes 17
Commercials as Mini-Dramas and Works ot Art 18
Teleculture and the Internet 26
The Super Bowl 30
The Global Nature of Advertising Agencies 32
Conclusion 33
2 Consumer Cultures 37
A Cultural Critique of Advertising 37
Consumer Cultures Defined 38
Taste Cultures and Advertising 41
The Postmodern Perspective 42
The Problem of Emotions Overcoming Rationality 47
Consumer Culture and Privatism 48
Neiman Marcus and "Couthification" 49
Needs Are Finite, Desires Are infinite 51
Are There Four Consumer Cultures, Not Just One? 53
National Character and Consumer Cultures 59
3 Advertising and the Communication Process 63
The Lasswell Formula 63
Focal Points and the Study of Media 65
Roman Jakobson's Model of the Communication Process 67
Run It Up a Flagpole 69
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and Its Implications for Analyzing Advertisements 69
Metaphor and Metonymy 70
Myth and Marketing 73
Integrated Marketing Communication 75
4 Running It Up a Flagpole to See If Anyone Salutes 79
Lisa's Morning: A Fiction 79
Lisa Greatgal's and Johnny Q. Public's Daily Media Diet 80
Television Viewing and Exposure to Commercials 81
A Note on "Hauls" 83
The Price We Pay for "Free" Television 83
The Illusion of Control 84
Being a "Branded" Individual 88
Selling Oneself 93
Selling One's Body for Brands 95
The Problem of Self-Alienation 96
We Can Choose as We Please, but Can We Please as We Please? 97
The Agony of Choice 99
Nonadvertising Forms of Advertising 100
5 Sexuality and Gender in Advertising 105
Sex and Gender in Advertising 106
Sex in Advertising 107
Sexploitation and Anxiety 113
The Pseudopoetic Appeal to the Illiterati 118
Sex Appeal and Gender Appeal 120
Nonbinary Gender Consciousness 121
Sex and the Problem, of Clutter 123
6 Political Advertising 129
The Cost of Presidential Campaigns 133
The Cost of the 2012 Presidential Election 134
Questions Raised by the Election Campaigns 135
A Note on the California Campaign for Governor in 2010 137
The 2016 Presidential Election 137
The Code of the Commercial (and Other Political Advertising) 139
The Emotional Basis of Partisan Politics 140
7 The Marketing Society 145
Statistics on Advertising 145
More Comments on the Illusion of Freedom 147
The Marketing View 148
The VALS 1 Typology 150
Using the VALS 1 Typology: A Case Study 153
VALS 2: A Revision of the VALS 1 Typology 153
ZIP Codes and Kinds of Consumers 155
The Claritas Typology 157
Magazine Choice as an Indicator of Consumer Taste 159
Types of Teenage Consumers 161
Blogs and Marketing 164
A Typology for Everyone in the World 165
A Comparison of the Different Typologies 168
A Conclusion to This Discussion in the Form of a Question 169
8 Social Media, the Psyche, and Advertising 173
Timeline on the Development of the Internet 173
Opposing Views on the Role of the Internet in Our Lives 175
The Impact of Social Media on Advertising 178
Social Media Advertising: A Case History 179
Offensive Content Problem on Social Media 180
Media Diet of Average Americans 181
On the Existential Significance of Social Media 185
9 Analyzing Print Advertisements 187
Lotman's Contributions to Understanding Texts 187
What's There to Analyze in an Advertisement? 188
Analyzing the Fidji Ad 189
A Semiotic Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 191
A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 193
A Sociological Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 196
A Marxist Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 197
The Myth Model and the Fidji Advertisement 198
A Feminist Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 199
Conclusion 200
10 Analyzing Television Commercials 203
The Macintosh "1984" Commercial 203
A Synopsis of the Text 205
The Background 206
Testing the "1984" Macintosh Commercial 206
George Orwell's 1984 and Ridley Scott's "1984" 208
The Image of the Total Institution 209
The Prisoners' Boots 209
The Blonde as a Symbol 210
The Brainwashing Scenario 210
The Big Brother Figure 211
The Brainwasher's Message 211
The Big Explosion 212
The Inmates' Response 213
The Macintosh Announcement 213
The Heroine as Mythic Figure 214
Psychoanalytic Aspects of the Commercial 215
The Blonde as Mediator 216
Alienated Proles 217
The Big Blue 218
A Clever Marketing Strategy 219
The "1984" Commercial and a Bit of Scholarly Research 220
11 A Discourse Analysis of an Advertisement 225
Defining Discourse Analysis 225
Levels of Analysis of Advertisements 228
A Discourse Analysis of the Cream Hydracel Advertisement 229
12 Where Next? 235
Drug Advertising 236
Children and Advertising 240
Battling for People's Attention 242
SmartPhones, Social Media, and Advertising 243
Glossary 247
Annotated Bibliography 267
Bibliography 271
Index 279
About the Author 287
What People are Saying About This
Succeeds in introducing a way to study advertising in an interesting, lively, and thought-provoking package. An excellent, accessible textbook for students who are interested in advertising, as well as students in communication, business, and sociology.... I would feel comfortable using this text in courses with freshmen through seniors. (Jonathan Schroeder, University of Rhode Island)
It was pure pleasure reading Arthur Asa Berger's esoteric deconstruction of the Macintosh '1984' commercial. I was part of this commercial's development and had no idea we were making semiotic history. Only a person of Berger's intellect and insight could have figured it all out as he has. (Fred Goldberg, Chairman & CEO, Goldberg Moser O'Neill)
Arthur Asa Berger's Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture provides a multifaceted study of advertising that demonstrates its importance for the economy, politics, social life, and individual identities. Skillfully employing cultural, communications, and social theory, Berger brilliantly illuminates the multiple functions of advertising in today's consumer culture. (Douglas Kellner, UCLA, author of Media Culture)
Arthur Asa Berger is that rare combination of astute, deep, and fun. His insights into the psychology, sociology, economics, and political implications of advertising and pop culture, in a lively, readable form, are a must for any student of popular culture. (Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community)
In Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture, Arthur Asa Berger strikes the raw nerve of American advertising. As in his many other cultural commentaries, Berger drives his point home with wit, wisdom, and wide-ranging examples, offering powerful inoculation against the worst excesses of today's climate of greed and commodification. (Carol Wilder, Associate Dean, The New School)