Advertising And Consumer Society

Question 1

Who said advertising can tie ethical attachments to products making consumption an ethical manifestation?

Answer 1

Gobe

Question 2

What is Gobe’s emotional branding?

Answer 2

How branding engages consumers by emotions, how a brand comes to life for people and forges a deep and lasting connection

Question 3

Why does gobe say that brands need to engage with consumers emotions?

Answer 3

To show commitment to them

Question 4

What does Williams say?

Answer 4

Products themselves are not enough in competitive markets, they need added symbolic values

Question 5

There has been a transition from..

Answer 5

A needs based society to a desire based society

Question 6

In a desire based society, the product takes on qualities beyond its function. What does Raymond Williams call this and what is it?

Answer 6

Magic - what we are buying is fiction, we buy the meanings and symbolic properties of the product. All consumer products become tied to identity positions e.g. Race and class

Question 7

Why does capitalism develop and how does it expand?

Answer 7

The market has to keep growing otherwise people will have bought everything the my need, capitalism generates desires in people after needs are covered in order for it to expand.

Question 8

What takes place in primitive capitalism and what does Marx say about capitalism?

Answer 8

The producer comes and looks for a market, people who don’t have a certain product and so sees them as needing it. Eventually everyone will have the product but capitalism cannot abide, Marx said it must always grow and transcend.

Question 9

What is a manifest function in consumer society?

Answer 9

An intended or material outcome, the intended purpose

Question 10

What is a latent function in consumer society?

Answer 10

An unintended or unexpressed outcome, the latent function of goods is one that gains meaning only in social context - a symbolic meaning

Question 11

Explain differentiation and how adverts can use it to sell products

Answer 11

They can use it to distinguish one product from another, 2 cars for example, when the production costs and processes are very similar

Question 12

Explain adorno’s individualisation

Answer 12

Where a product looks like it represents the individual but it is no different to the other product really

Question 13

Different representations carry negative connotations - this is a stereotype…

Answer 13

.. People wouldn’t buy products if they didn’t fit into their identity, products have to appeal to a certain group or type of person - they are tying to attract people who identify with the advert

Question 14

What does Hall say about stereotyping?

Answer 14

That it reduces people to a few essential characteristics - stereotyping classifies people according to the norm and constructs the excluded as ‘other’

Question 15

Advertising is not about what they sell but…

Answer 15

..the meanings they tie through advertising their products

Question 16

Give an example of how representation matters

Answer 16

Studies show that women spend less on beauty products they only use at home and more on the branded beauty products that are socially visible - Chanel lipstick used in public

Question 17

Who says that advertising is about equating products to positive social experiences and that someone is seen in a certain way due to want they own, wear, drive etc. Branding becomes culture
?

Answer 17

Klein

Question 18

Explain Marx’s use-value and exchange-value

Answer 18

People are naturally creative, through consumerism we exchange use value - the material needs the goods satisfy for the consumer for exchange value - what it can be sold for on the market

Question 19

Marx believed commodities take on a life of their own and ..

Answer 19

Value is given to objects outside of their material properties or direct usefulness (manifest/ use value)

Question 20

According to Marx, in consumer societies, consumers only see…

Answer 20

The commodities, not the labour that goes into making things

Question 21

What is the fetishism of commodities?

Answer 21

Commodities take on a life of their own and inherit their own added value and they magically appear for people to purchase

Question 22

Marx thought that the central problem with commodities is that the labour expended on production is hidden, so…

Answer 22

..the consumer sees an object they want and not a product of someone else’s labour
E.g. People see Nike trainers as desirable shoes that athletes wear not as products made in sweatshops
so these is a disassociation between producers and consumers

Question 23

the labour exploitation of the product being sold, according to marx is no longer visible, instead…

Answer 23

.. the consumer fetishes its symbolic, latent value.

Question 24

when did the emotional and symbolic psychology of advertising emerge?

Answer 24

1960’s

Question 25

digital media allows for more targeted advertising..

Answer 25

viral advertising such as sponsored bloggers. people on companies behalf create intimacy to sell products e.g. telling people what they are wearing in videos

Question 26

what does Haug say capitalism objects are carriers of?

Answer 26

social meanings and symbolic codes

Question 27

according to Haug what does advertising do?

Answer 27

manipulates human needs and emotions

Question 28

according to Haug, through advertising, exchange value is gained as commodities draw cultural associations and meanings of individuality and status that consumers desire. also, digital media….

Answer 28

.. speeds up the process of buying and leads to spontaneous buying such as online shopping

Question 29

williams says people are disassociated from the product origins due to emotional advertising since..

Answer 29

.. commodities conceal the product origins of exploited labour through an appeal to emotions tied to national identity, the family etc. it invests them with magical qualities

Question 30

who says that objects themselves are not enough in competitive markets and that they need added symbolic properties to add value?

Answer 30

Williams

Question 31

what does Baudrillard say about how we consume objects?

Answer 31

that you never consume an object by its use-value, you always have to manipulate it as signs which distinguish you as something you affiliate your own group with or by marking you off from your group by reference to a group of higher status

Question 32

who says that we live off signs which no longer refer to anything real they just represent other signs?

Answer 32

Baudrillard

Question 33

who says that advertising has always been about using imagery to equate products with positive social or cultural experiences.
culture is so enmeshed with consumerism that it is indistinguishable from it
give a quote

Answer 33

klien

“it is not to sponsor the culture but to be the culture”

Question 34

outline what gobe says about how companies sell products

Answer 34

companies observe peoples desires and then produce appropriate products/services according to peoples culture, lifestyle, aspirations etc. rather than opposing wants on the public they respond to public wants. the emotional content is what differentiates and sells products

Question 35

what does Gobe say about brands? and give an example from the frankfurt school

Answer 35

they speak emotionally to social identities and group specific values
the Frankfurt school - modern man’s soul is reflected in what he owns e.g. his car.

Question 36

what is pseudo-individualism and who says it?

Answer 36

adorno

the illusion of freedom and individuality

Question 37

Gobe says that consumerism is not just about selling products but about…

Answer 37

selling experiences which make branding an emotional experience
there are intimations that when you do something like buy coffee you are involved in something more than the product

Question 38

who says that expressing social identity becomes reliant on people’s ability to buy consumer products?

Answer 38

Gobe

Question 39

what does Gramsci say about hegemony and stereotypes?

Answer 39

with regard to hegemony, stereotypes allow for current inequalities to be excerised through reference to the meanings which emanate from those negative representations

Question 40

advertising is a key domain in which representation of social identities happen and because of the immediate visual effect of advertising, it often trades in very simplistic hegemonic representations
give an example

Answer 40

adverts often represent social groups in gendered and racial ways to appeal to certain markets

Question 41

what does Sue Palmer say?

Answer 41

pink is a way of grooming girls into a lifetime of consumption

Question 42

what is culture jamming?

Answer 42

making new associations about a brand and subverting their brand message

Question 43

what happens when a brand suffers from an unintended negative association?
and give an example

Answer 43

a non-target, low-status audience becomes associated with their otherwise exclusive product.
e.g. burberry - the lower classes bought it and as soon as it was seen as being poor its sales collapsed and the upper classes wouldn’t buy.
there should be no relevance of who buys something if we bought it for its use value, e.g. warm scarf - we buy concerning meanings attached to brands