Katherine T. Frith writes in her essay, “Undressing the Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising, that “most people think that there is too much advertising, that it makes us materialistic…exploits children, and generally corrupts society” and that while these things are not completely true, “there is some truth to them” (Frith, 1).
In the essay “Every Nook and Cranny: The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture” by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor, it describes advertising in a negative manner. Advertisements appear in places that are unexpected and creep up on society. The title of this essay basically describes how advertisements have “oozed into every ‘nook and cranny’ (410). The increase of advertisements reflects how much corporate power has rocketed. Advertisements had entered schools using soda, candy and other things to target children. This was a problem because it increased the rates of obesity in the U.S. “The average child was exposed to 40,000 TV ads annually” (412). Many countries have banned advertising to children under the age of 12 and before and after certain times of the day. Advertisements have become so prevalent that many call it “ad creep”. This is “the spread of ads throughout social space and cultural institutions” (412). These advertisements appear before movies, on buses, and on trains in cities forcing people to watch them subconsciously. Cities have actually bought merchandise from advertising to support these products for example, in New York, they allowed Snapple to be there drink and “some critics dubbed it the ‘Big Snapple’” rather than the “Big Apple” (413). More advertisement is causing this society to become more materialistic.
The advertisement that I have chosen is an advertisement selling brand-name cologne: Emporio Armani Diamonds For Men. In this advertisement, Josh Hartnett is surrounded by girls and other men who appear to be his bodyguards. Josh Hartnett looks as if he is content and satisfied because he put on this cologne and girls want him. Although not more than one girl, fully shown, is shown in the picture, you can see the other girls’ hands trying to touch him and the bodyguard looks as if he is trying to hold these girls back. This picture for this advertisement makes it seem like if a man were to buy this product, he would have girls wanting him left and right as Josh Hartnett does. The girl that is fully shown is staring at Josh Hartnett like he is a piece of meat she just wants to eat. This desire shown is appealing to other men because they might also want girls to feel this way about him. This picture the advertisers used for their product shows nothing of their product being used, which should be the ultimate goal. Instead they use someone famous with girls swarming him to sell their product. This advertisement is parallel to U.S. society’s cultural views: sex sells. While in other cultures this might not be true and the most appealing, it is in the U.S.
Advertising has had a large impact, both negative and positive, on the U.S. society: whether it was making the society more materialistic or advancing the country’s economy with the money made by advertising. In Frith’s essay, he analyzes advertisements and discusses the “surface meaning”, “the advertisers intended meaning”, and “the cultural or idealogical meaning.” In doing this, he has shown a way to explain and look at advertisements in depth.
No comments:
Post a Comment