Essay Question:
5. "Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does i s change the way people think or feel" Jeremy Bullmore. Evaluate this statement with reference to selected critical theories and advertisements (past and present).
- Dyer, G. (1982) Advertising As Communication, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, (not sure of Publisher)
Page 7
“One of the major criticisms of advertising is that it makes us too materialistic by persuading us, for instance, that we can achieve certain desirable goals in life through possessing things in cycle of continuous and conspicuous consumption. But, paradoxically, modern advertising shows that we are not materialistic enough. If we were, presentation of the objects being sold would be enough in itself. But consumer advertising presents its good along with other personal and social aspirations, and as Raymond Williams argues:
We have a cultural pattern in which the objects are not enough but must be validated in fantasy by association with social and personal meanings which in a different cultural pattern might be more directly available. (1980, p.185)”
- Weill, A. (2004) Graphics: A Century of Poster and Advertising Design, London, Thames & Hudson
Page 134
“Advertising is the tool of capitalism, a con that persuades an unwitting public to consume and consume again…Advertising is cultural exploitation that transforms creative expression into crass propaganda…It [Advertising] is hypnotically invasive.
- Chapman, S. (2000) Revise AS Sociology, Italy, Letts Educational
There aren't any specific quotes, however, there is a section on Klapper, who talks about how the audience interpret and use the media in different ways, this is an evaluative point of how advertising works.
- Salvemini, L. (2002) United Colors: The Benetton Campaigns, UK, Scriptum Editors
I feel Benetton is quite a classic example of the advertising not selling the actual product but changing opinions as a lot of their advertising could be mistaken for a social awareness campaign.
- Barry, P (2008) The Advertising Concept Book, London, Thames & Hudson
This book strips down how advertising works, and how it is created, with sections on ineffective advertising describing how people may remember high impact adverts, but not remember the product being advertised, thus being a waste of money.
