In our society the media has the ability to get us consumers to buy products that we don't need but through advertising they allow us to feel that we must have it, in order for them to make money. They achieve this through advertisements that can be found in magazines, music videos, commercials, billboards, television/ radio and on the internet. A type of advertising that this essay will focus on are commercials. Through some commercials the cultural industry plays with our emotions to convince us we need their product. These commercials can touch people emotionally by making them tear up, laugh, feel sad etc, or can make you feel that a certain product will make you feel a certain way, or help you better your life. This essay will examine the critical theories perspectives mainly focusing on Theodor Adorno by looking at the cultural industry, and analyzing Dove, Proactiv, Ford and Apple commercials that play with our emotions.
To understand media in our society we can examine it through the contemporary theorists point of view. Three major critical theorist are Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse. Together they agreed with the base/ superstructure theory by Karl Marx. This is the theory where the base consists of the economy and the superstructure consists of anything such as; religion, law, society values and culture. For marks the base determines the superstructure(Appelrouth & Edles, 2008). For Marx the dominant economic class are the ones that own the means of production, He refers to them as the bourgeois and they have the ability to control societies means of material production and the production of idea (Appelrouth $ Edles, 2008).
Although the critical theorists agree with Marx’s base/superstructure ...
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... ones life through conveying some type of emotion. Since humans are emotional beings, this aspect in a commercial is important. It allows the commercial to become more relatable to the consumer. This can be seen in several commercials that include dove, proactiv, Ford and Apple. Each company tries to relate their product to the lives of others using emotion. This in turn allows the consumer to feel that they need their product in order to fix something in their life for example confidence or efficiency. This then shows what Adorno believes in that that the cultural industry is cheating its consumers of what it promises, because just because a company says it will do something doesn't mean that it is true. We see this in the dove commercial for example, because they say dove will make you feel beautiful, but in reality a shampoo can't really do that it comes within.
Most advertisements as the ones I mentioned above use at least two or more appeals to persuade their intended audience to buy the product donate money, go see a movie, go to a restaurant, or switch brands. The use of logos seems to be the most effective way to promote something, by giving the facts and logical reasoning people are more likely to want what is being offered. Commercials have a short amount of time to engage the audience in their product. The use of rhetorical appeal helps to keep the audience’s attention to the details of the commercial and to make them think about what is being shown or heard. The presentation of the commercial needs to leave a memory with the audience to make them want to learn more about the product or try it
Products of the culture economy take on the appearance of artwork but are in fact dependant on industry and economy, meaning that they are subjected to the interests of money and power and producing a profit “The whole world is passed through the filter of the culture industry” . To Adorno the production of art and consumerism is driven and shaped by the logic of capitalist rationality, meaning consumer products are created on the basis of whatever will sell best.
Advertising is a form of communication involving selling a product to modify the behavior of the buyer into buying the product. In the essay, “Advertising’s fifteenth appeals”, Fowles explains how advertisers see the readers through the magazines and the appeals they use to influence the readers. Magazines target the audience as meant to satisfy their desires for love, attention, or the feeling to be secured and safe. For example, Cosmopolitan magazine sees the readers as flawed individuals who should change themselves to be accepted by others. Most of the appeals used to influence those audiences are “the need of escape”, “attention” and “the need to satisfy curiosity”.
In everyday life we are bombarded with advertisements, projects, and commercials from companies trying to sell their products. Many of these ads use rhetorical devices to “convey meaning [,] or persuade” their audiences (Purdue OWL) . Projects, such as the Dove Self-Esteem Project uses native advertising in their commercials, which refers to a brand or product being simultaneously and indirectly promoted. In this essay, I will analyze the rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, as well as the fallacies corresponding to each device, that the Dove Company uses in their self-esteem project .
Audi, the maker of elite model cars, designed an advertising campaign for the 2013 Super Bowl that claimed driving an Audi would allow the owner to feel more daring. The advertisement opens up with a high school senior boy wearing a tux, with his mother pinning his boutonniere to his jacket. The boy clearly looks unenthused about going to prom because he does not have a date to the prom, which his mother attempts to sooth him by saying that there are many people who go to the prom without dates. His younger sister antagonizes her older brother about not having a date. As the boy is departing his house, his father throws his son the keys to his Audi S6. The son’s face brightens and he quickly leaves his house. He is driving fast on these wide-open roads, at a stoplight he encounters a group of classmates in a limo and then he speeds past them as the light turns green. As he arrives to prom, he parks in the principal’s parking spot and then struts into prom and kisses the prom queen passionately. The boy then proceeds to get punched by the prom king and the next part of the commercial ...
Nowadays, commercial is becoming a major part of mass media. It does not only try to inform people about the availability and attractiveness of industrial good productions but also contribute to build an awareness of resources and alternatives for customer in daily life. There are thousands of commercials, so to attract customer, advertisers use various kinds on their commercial to make people aware of the firm's products, services or brands. Though they use various kinds on the commercial, the main goal of advertising tries to convince customer to buy their products, or do what they want. An excellent commercial will create a deep impression on their customers, or who want to become their customers by using three classical appeals: pathos, ethos and logos.
For my semiotic analysis I chose to talk about a commercial for ‘Be delicious’ from Donna Karan New York to demonstrate how advertising generates its meanings, constructs the image and behaviors ideology in order to attract customers. ‘Semiology provides the analyst with a conceptual toolkit for approaching sign systems systematically in order to discover how they produce meaning’ (Bawer et al. all, 2000: 227). Advertising is one of the typical elements used for a convincing presentation of a product or service to the buyer or user. Advertising provides the link between products or services and people.
O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. (2009)Media and Society: An introduction. Dominant Ideology and Hegemony. London: Oxford.
Many people believe and argue that the content of mass media is ideological in nature, meaning that it teaches us the norms and values of the dominant features of society. For example, the ruling class concerning Marxism and patriarchy according to Feminists. This is because the media will only portray the ideologies of the dominant group that it is owned by. As ideology is a term most commonly linked to Marxism it is a good starting point, alongside Karl Marx’s ideas of ideologies. This will continue onto the power of the media and the monopoly that the ‘big 6’ have over the mass media.
In my life, I have only witnessed first hand, the effects of media and its development since about 1995, as this is the earliest I can remember. However, my huge interest in the subject has lead me to broaden my knowledge over the way media had developed in the 1980's and even earlier. I believe that what I have witnesses is in fact the most important time period in the media development timeline so far.
It concentrates on the way of philosophy helps us to deconstruct underestimated values. Ideological investigation helps us to uncover whose reality we are being offered in a media content. While Althusserian Marxism undermines the myth of the self-governing individual, other neo-Marxist positions see the mass media as a 'site of battle' for ideological importance, opening up the likelihood of oppositional readings. Marxist hypothesis underscores the significance of social class in connection to both media possession and audience elucidation of media messages: this remaining parts an essential calculate media investigation. While content examination and semiotics may reveal insight into media content, Marxist hypothesis highlights the material states of media generation and gathering. 'Basic political financial specialists' study the proprietorship and control of the media and the impact of media possession on media content cannot be overlooked. It likewise stays essential to consider such issues as differential get to and methods of elucidation which are molded by financial groupings. Marxist media looks into incorporates the examination of representation in the media (e.g. political scope or social gatherings) keeping in mind the end goal to uncover hidden belief systems. Regardless we need such investigations; the oppositional it might now and again
Media is used by dominant powers to spread their ideological beliefs and to help maintain social control. Althusser (1971) explains that, as an ideological state apparatus, media doesn’t use pressure as a way to bind society together under one dominant ideology, but instead uses the will of the people to make them accept the dominant ideology. However, media is also used as a way for people to challenge the dominant ideology. Newspapers, for example, will have articles that openly criticise and oppose the dominant ideology for what it is, whilst at the same time providing perspectives and opinions on different ideologies (such as feminism) that society can believe in. Although these alternate ideological perspectives exist, they are usually overlooked and only ever reach small audiences. Ideology can also help us understand the media because of the way in which it distributes ideology. A lot of different types of media, such as film and TV; reflect different ideologies, though we are not always aware that they are doing so. An example of this would be action/adventure films, which shows that using force or violence to solve problems is acceptable and reflects upon certain ideologies. This helps us to understand the media because the ideology that is reflected in these films is capable of reaching big audiences through the use of TV and film, thus allowing for it to become a more common belief within
Media is the most powerful sector of an economy. It is a tool to maintain a balanced society which is characterized by well informed people, effective democracy and social justice. In fact, media has unparallel influence on all aspects of human life in modern times.
Commercials works through the human emotions and vanity and it appeals toward the psychologically domain turning into a temptation for weak mind people. For instance, if a person is at home watching T.V., very comfortable and suddenly, a commercial promoting any kind of food and drink comes up, that person will be hungry and thirsty in a couple of minutes. The advertising influenced his mind, provoking an involuntary reaction to do what the commercial induced him to do.
Advertisements is a part of today’s culture because they cause and influence our thoughts, ideas, and actions through multiple techniques and persuasion. As a reminder Geertz interpretation of culture stated something that can alter people’s views are considered as a part culture. The brand loyalty that some people have is similar to the loyalty that some groups had towards their culture. For example, the Hmong denied the doctor’s views about diseases because they based illness on social and cultural dimensions. In addition, these advertisements causes an individual’s to gain a sense of reality or realness because it challenges the person to know what is actually true and