consumerism essay!

Sarah-Ella Louise Jones
Representation: Consumerism
MSVC 203
Word count: 3,251
Consider the role of advertising in the media. Critically analyse the kinds of techniques that might be employed to sell a product.
In this essay I am going to consider the role of advertising in the media, how the media manages to advertise to us products we need, products we desire and even products that damage our health. Advertising which is also known as promotion, public relations and marketing is a way of communication that aims to gain potential customers, by persuading consumers to purchase an object, and not only buying a product but buying into the whole ideology which would be the sellers brand, the sellers services’ and other products. It is a non-personal, mass mediated message.Advertising has a role in consumption, within getting the message through to the consumer on the product the advertisement goes through a series of decisions and thoughts within the consumer as to whether they should actually buy the product. There are different stages within consuming a product that advertisement has an important role in. First of all the advertisement has to create a basic awareness level about their product and their services, when the consumer starts to consider the product the consumer then looks passed the actual object and begins to consider the ideology and the message the advertisement is portraying, if the ideology and the message is taken on board there is a connection established between the product and the consumer. Reaffirmation needs to take place so the consumer is aware and agreed on that the connection does exist and that the consumer can see a desire or need for the product within their lives. Even though this process is similar to considering the product and the service in the first place the consumer also has the additional competition of other products with them advertising to the consumer, the consumer also needs to evaluate each advertisement and chose a preference to which product they are going to chose, if they stick to the original product there is confirmation where the product is decided on and then viewed in a positive light as it has beaten all of the competition. Action is then taken where the consumer will buy the product and there is also reinforcement from the advertisement and the company as the consumer still has to maintain a positive association with the product and in doing so the consumer will then have a connection established between themselves and the brand, advertising is reinforced here so that the consumer will now use the brand again and the brand will become part of that consumers life.
‘Advertising is a series of appeals, symbols and statements deliberately designed to influence the receiver of the message toward the point of view desired by the communicator and to act in some specific way as a result of receiving the message, whether it be to purchase, vote, hold positive or negative views, or merely maintain a memory. Also, advertising is not always in the best interest of the receiver of the message,’ (Jowett & O’Donnell 1999: 149)
Advertising is so powerful that even products that harm our health can still be sold to us, advertisements are constructed so we over look the damage it does to our health and we concentrate and focus on the social benefits we gain from them, for example cigarettes.
‘we seek to understand and analyze propaganda by identifying its characteristics and to place it within communication studies to examine the qualities of context, sender, intent, message, channel, audience and response. Furthermore, we want to clarify, as much as possible, the distinction between propaganda and persuasion by examining propaganda as a subcategory of persuasion, as well as information. Our definition of propaganda focuses on the communication process-most specifically, on the purpose of the process: propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.’ (Jowett & O’Donnell 1999: 5)
Throughout history, cigarette companies have employed various techniques in which to sell us tobacco. On targeting men the advertisement would showcase a handsome, wealthy looking man smoking cigarettes thus tapping into the emotions of men and the desire to appear attractive to the opposite sex. The man in the advert would be wearing a suit which would have the connotations of a wealthy lifestyle. In looking at the advertisement men would want to be the same as the man in the advert with the benefit in buying that commodity would then buy them the lifestyle the man in the advert has, a wealthy lifestyle, wearing suits and thus attract the opposite sex. Sponsorship is used to advertise cigarettes, it was used throughout the formula 1 racing which would already have a big male audience and there for the advertisement would be going out to the audience who it was aimed for.
After having male custom, tobacco companies then went on to target females as their new consumers, Along came the term public relations which is seen as a middle person between the public and a product, it was invented by Edward Burnay’s who was Sigmund Freud’s nephew. Edward explored crowd psychology with the help of his uncle’s work of psychoanalytical; he managed to manipulate the public’s opinions using his uncle’s knowledge and work of the psychology of the subconscious. Cigarettes where once only smoked by men and deemed socially unacceptable for women to smoke, due to the actual cigarette unconsciously symbolising the phallus, so Edward Burnay had to create a way and a new direction in to which cigarettes were seen and advertised so they would be consumed by females. The way he went about this was reconstructing the actual subconscious way people viewed the cigarette, he suggested the cigarette was now like the statue of liberty, ‘torches of freedom’ and managed to convince the suffragettes to smoke them whilst doing a protest, the lighting up of a cigarette was to symbolise their liberation, this was filmed which was then televised to mass audience which then changed the shift in smoking being a male dominated activity, and there for gaining a female consumer audience.
Tobacco companies have also targeted women and young girls advertising that smoking makes you slimmer, thus tapping into the need we have to be attractive to the opposite sex.
Children in the past have also been targeted by advertisement to buy cigarettes, despite being younger than the legal age. This was advertised through cartoon advertisements.
Through advertising we are encouraged to consume, Shopping fits into the capitalist system and is encouraged by the capitalist system via advertising, as it creates desire, as we already have our needs.As a society we define ourselves by what we do, we also gain a sense of identity through products. Even though shopping is a mundane activity it is important to us as it is a visual culture, we are constantly consuming visually. Shopping also is vital for the economy, and it showcases social organisation. There is a big significance of shopping within culture. Not only has it changed the way that we consume but the social and physical landscapes have evolved. We are now a society living in a culture which expects a twenty-four hour, seven days a week shopping availability, even when the shops are shut consumers can still consume online.There is also a major shift in desires verses needs, with many tag lines going with our desires which is what advertisement creates, for example a consumer thinking that having a certain suit is going to make them more eligible for a job due to it being advertised in a shop window on a manikin so consumers are able to view it on a physical form. Advertising encourages us to consume, the media is a big way of communicating to us what is trendy at a particular time, and the media also starts trends and is able to showcase these to us as a mass audience. Shopping is represented in the media as not only an individual benefit but also shopping will help the economy bloom and therefore supporting the capitalist ideology. For example, currently people are being encouraged to spend to try and make the economy bloom and over throw the credit crunch. Glamorising shopping is also another way of tapping into people’s desires, for example sex and the city is about four women who love shopping, and in sex and the city the girls are nearly always consuming whether it is having lunch, or actually buying shoes. This is glamorising such a mundane activity bringing a whole new enjoyment through it and also using shopping as a considered hobby. different techniques are employed to sell different products, Public relations are employed to help advertise certain products, there is a cycle between product and consumption. It beings with the product which is then taken on by the P.R who are hired by the people making the product, P.R use the media to make the public aware of their product which then leads to the consumption.Public relations can do many things to sell products, for example by having a celebrity endorse the particular product is going to get the product in the media. For example if a trendy celebrity was to be seen using a certain I-pod and the images of the celebrity were all across the media it gives consumers a way of trying to aspire to be like a certain celebrity. In a sense its using the celebrity as a human billboard, catapulting the object into people’s lives. It also relates to the lifestyle of the celebrity, for example people aspiring for the celebrity lifestyle can have a piece of it if they were to have that I-pod. Across the media, different mediums are used to sell products, The media has several different mediums to broadcast to us products in order for us to consume. Television, which not only has adverts in between programmes, but also showcases celebrities talking about and wearing certain stuff, which is always constructed by P.R and managers.
Product placement is a form of advertising, which use texts already in the media using actual products in texts for promotional advertisement. For example, in ‘fight club’ the film starts with the character talking about his apartment in regards to ‘Ikea’, it is part of the story but not only is it advertising the products that ‘Ikea’ has to offer but also the ideology of ‘Ikea’, and what ‘Ikea’ symbolises within our society. Consumers and audiences are already aware of the connotations of the brand ‘Ikea’ due to its saturation in the media.Adverts are broadcasted on television, most channels have adverts before, in between and after programmes. These can range from advertising other programmes to advertising consumer objects. Particular objects are advertised at particular times so they are reaching the correct audience. For example, toys are advertised in the morning whilst kids are watching their morning cartoons before school in the ploy that then they will then nag their parents to buy the particular toy, this is what is known as ‘pester power’ the adverts would also be televised when the kids come home from school to gain the same potential customer. Kids are an easy target, as they are easier to influence.Shopping fits into the capitalist system.
Different techniques are used to sell different products, advertising attempts to influence consumers buying behaviour by providing a good selling message.Different techniques are employed to sell different products as each product needs a different message, as they are aimed at different audiences so the right message needs to be sent. Audiences belong to pre-existing groups and categorise which define the consumer. Gender, age, family, class, nation and ethnicity are all ways of defining an individual and therefore representing information on them as consumer, for example a middle aged mixed race male is not going to consume in the same way as a young white female, there for there is different ways that advertising would target consumers on their background information there is also additional factors such as education, religion, political allegiance, region and urban versus rural background. On a mass scale, the advertisement has to be sent to audiences’ of all ages and levels of intellect and as audiences become so used to being spoken to in a particular way, a particular mode of address is used which is considered to be ‘dumbing down’ when the media is trying to get across a message which is quite difficult to take on board, the message is dumb downed so it can be understood by everybody.Audiences need to be targeted in specific ways. an audience can be defined by a particular product for example buying a C.D comes with a genre, which is helping define the type of person due to what music they consume. There is also particular specific audiences for types of products, for example having a niche audience for specific computer game magazines, which would not apply to a dominant audience.
Desire is created by the media and shown to us through advertising, it is a medium which tells and shows us what we desire. Advertising is how something we desire is sold to us, it is supplemented by capitalism. After we have our basic needs met, advertising comes into practise when we are then sold commodities which we do not really need, yet we are shown through advertising how better off we would be with that product. Advertising showcases to us what we could have, what we could look like providing we consume the desirable commodity their advertising. The commodities which bring with it idealised lifestyle, promising us a better life if we buy that commodity, that if we have that commodity it will bring us closer to our goal of perfection as consuming is all about striving to be better, better looking to the opposite sex, deeper and greater emotional fulfilment and social acceptance. Advertising taps into our emotional state and tells us we are not good enough, that the products that we have are no longer the latest of that product available hence why we consume. Advertisement tells us that we aren’t good and in striving to be better we consume.
Desire is sold to us through sex, advertising is not advertising sex but the guarantee that we will gain it from consuming, that we will become more attractive to the opposite sex thus consuming. Freud studied the psychological approaches to consumerism and studied how everything we do is to be attractive to the opposite sex and this is promoted to us through advertising of desires.
Problems occur from always striving for our desires, desires that are forever changing. Oliver James coined the term ‘affluenza’ which is the effects of us always striving to be better, to be perfect due to what capitalism is telling us to buy in order to be perfect. It is the illness that is caused through us always striving to be better and in doing so buying certain products which leads the consumer to be happy and content for a period of time before another better product comes out and then making consumers unhappy once again, it causes poor mental health as consumers are always striving for something that is forever changing. It is representing to us our desires but advertising them to us as needs. Society then have the pressure of trying to consume more in order to fulfil the promise of a better life and the benefits with that advertisement and thus creating identity, yet to consume more people need more money and in doing so need to work harder for a dream they can never catch for a long period of time. Depression due to trying to achieve something that is unachievable is also commoditised, capitalism is the reason behind this depression and un-fulfilment and to better our emotion consumers consume drugs in order to cure their depression thus the drug companies making more money which overall is supplementing capitalism, this is evidence of a consumerism circle.
‘Advertising usually involves the cost of production and distribution. The advertiser (communicator), in turn, hopes this cost will be returned eventually in the form of some benefit, such as the purchase of a product, the casting of a vote, or positive or negative feelings. In fact, advertising is the most ubiquitous form of propaganda in our society. It is found everywhere we look and almost everywhere we listen, and its pressure is felt in every commercial we make. The use of advertising as a means of information the public about the choices and availability of goods and services is an integral part of the free enterprise capitalist system’ (Jowett & O’Donnell 1999: 149)
Advertising not only creates and advertises us desires but it also advertises our needs, Despite us needing it and already having our basic needs met, companies can still sell us more of our basic needs, despite us already having it. They exploit our basic human emotions and needs with advertisement on the product that they make us believe we cannot live without. Bottled water is a prime example of this, despite us already having our basic needs through tap water; bottled water is sold to us with tag lines such as health benefits that we need to be hydrated in order to function. Tapping into our emotional needs and exploiting the fact that water is vital in order to stay alive. Such mundane products are easy to advertise due to them being basic commodities within our lives.
‘we must also not overlook the increasing importance of advertising as an integral part of economic development and the emergence of consumerism, for many techniques developed to persuade customers to purchase products were later adopted by other propagandists. One significant aspect of the 20th century propaganda is the symbiotic relationship between advertising and other forms of propaganda, particularly as techniques for reading audiences become more sophisticated and reliable’ (Jowett & O’Donnell 1999: 96)
The media is a visual medium thus being able to visually show consumers and audiences its commodities, and sell its ideology. Without the media advertising would be impossible. Without advertising we would not know what we desire, advertising plays such a vital part within our consumer culture. The media and advertising supplement and work together with the aim of producing a consumer society.


I chose the question I was most interested in and then formed on a plan in how I was going to go about tackling the question. I went to the library and got a book that was relevant and very useful, I managed to read this book enough to know that it would have been perfect in helping me with the essay but came to a hurdle when somebody else had reserved the book so even though I was able to write the information I remembered I was unable to quote it. Overall I think the essay went okay, I struggled with the consistency of the essay despite having a plan to follow and think the essay was weak in some places. I think I put the right amount of time and effort into it but think I needed to read more academic books to support my work and work closely with my plan rather than using it as a rough guide.




















Bibliography
O’Donnell V & Jowett G propaganda and persuasion 1999 sage publications