Advertising is a social force; it is constantly surrounding us, twenty five million new print advertisements are produced a year in Britain alone. Consumers are continually subjected to promises of ideals and glamour thorough advertisements, making them believe they are missing out in life because they don’t own certain products. Advertising changes the way we think about ourselves, the ideal of ones self seems to have become you are what you own, as Berger says, ‘the envy of others’ fuels consumers to think they need products to improve themselves to be socially accepted. Consumers are made to think they need products to obtain the attributes associated with the product, but this is just a fake desire that changes and manipulates how people feel towards life. Advertisements, states Berger, fill our heads ‘with glamorous day dreams.’
Berger writes, ‘the anxiety on which publicity plays is the fear that having nothing you will be nothing’, this is the advertising world giving people false thoughts and making them crave the glamour that is being portrayed in adverts, and if this isn’t obtained they are insignificant. This idea of a glamorous lifestyle can be seen in many adverts but perfume adverts in particular use this ideal glamour to sell their products. This can be seen in the Dior advert for their ‘J’adore’ perfume with the famous actress Charlize Theron as the model. The way the advert is showing the perfume is that it is the only thing you need, as the model strips herself of all her jewelry and clothing, and quoting ‘a limousine is a car’, ‘gold is cold’, creating the feeling that all she wants and needs is the perfume. If the glamorous model has the perfume then the consumer will think that if they have it they could have the lifestyle to go with it. As Berger says, ‘with this you will become desirable’, people will want you and envy you, like people want and envy the model in adverts.
‘J’adore Dior’ advertising campaign, 2007
The model in advertisements is often put in the position of a goddess usually portraying this idea of glamorous lifestyle. Again in the Dior advert the way the model is filmed is from a low angle looking up at her to create a sense of authority and power over the viewer. The viewer sees the model as this goddess like creature and makes the consumer feel that this status can be achieved if they own the product, ‘it offers him an image of himself made glamorous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell’, Berger. The model as a goddess can also be seen in the Jean Paul Gautier adverts, there is a male and female version of the advert, appealing to both genders and therefore a wider market. "One of the signature strengths of the advertising industry lies in its ability to transform seemingly mundane objects into highly desirable products," as was suggested by author Debra (Trampe University of Groningen). This is how using the model as the goddess helps sell everyday products and makes the consumer think all they are missing to be like these models is this product.
‘Classique’, Jean Paul Gaultier advertising campaign, Jean Baptiste Mondino, 2009
‘The power of any object to attract our attention depends on the intensity of the sensation aroused’, claims Walter Dill Scott in ‘The Theory of Advertising: A Simple Exposition of the Principles of Psychology’, the Jean Paul Gaultier adverts conform to this theory. The models in the adverts are shown in and idealised, sexualised way, representing the idea of perfection making the consumer desire to want the model and to become the model themselves, projecting the feeling and need of glamour. Burger states that ‘to be able to buy something is the same thing as being sexually desirable’, highlighting the connection with the sexualised images and glamour that is present in perfume adverts.
The commodity self is the idea that we become the products that we buy, Floyd Allport quotes, "Our consciousness of ourselves is largely a reflection of the consciousness which others have of us... my idea of myself is rather my own idea of my neighbor's view of me." The advertising industry uses the idea of the commodity self to make the consumers believe that if they have these products they will become better, happier people, they sell the products on the virtues it will supposedly bring. Karl Marx writes, ‘the product becomes a commodity…it is exchanged for a symbol which represents it as exchange value.’ The consumer is made to feel like they are incomplete, like their life is lacking, it has gone so far that owning a certain product doesn’t just improve ones self it becomes ones self, you are what you own and the adverts ‘offer him an improved alternative to what he is’ states Berger.
Another advert that evokes the feelings of envy through the use of glamour is Calvin Klein ‘Escape’ advertisement. The name itself has connotations with a better life, the escapism form the consumer’s current life into a new alluring life that they are made to think that they want and that they believe they will become. These adverts alters peoples values, wants, beliefs and actions to make them think in a different way, make them think that they need something they don’t to improve their lives. Along with the consumers idea of themselves there is the social aspect, how we feel in social surroundings around others and how we think others see us. The consumer wants to project a certain self-image to others; Burger states ‘the anxiety on which publicity plays is the fear that having nothing you will be nothing’. The commodity self becomes important, it becomes a ‘harmful social force’ says Berger, becoming about popularity between people, ‘the state of being envied is what constitutes glamour’. Advertisements make the consumer believe if they own these products their self esteem and confidence will increase, however a product itself cannot produce this it is the fabricated ideal that the adverts evoke onto the consumer making them believe they can gain something from the products, Karl Marx calls this commodity fetishism.
‘Escape’, Calvin Klein, 1993
Karl Marx talks about commodity fetishism, he claims that in the capitalist society we only approach products "through the relations which the act of exchange establishes between the products", not to the values that it is used for, which is what Marx states is the simple commodity, not what you supposedly gain from it. He believes that people in a capitalist society treat commodities as if there are values attached to the product that is gained from purchasing it, like the glamour that is evoked in the perfume adverts. People in a capitalist society use the commodities that they have to create a material lifestyle, using their labor to make money which they then use to buy commodities that they think will elevate themselves, that they think have certain values attached to them, which is a fabricated idea. He believes that people think the material objects they own define them, he says people forget ‘secret hidden under the apparent movements in the relative values of commodities that is labor’, its not the supposed values that the products have it’s what they can be used for which makes them what they are.
In conclusion the way the advertising world manipulates us into thinking that our lives are incomplete, ‘it proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, our lives by buying something more. This more, it proposes, will make us in some way richer-even though we will be poorer by having spent our money’, states Berger. This is how they change the way the consumer thinks, it makes us feel something that is not true, a fabricated ideal which isn’t obtained. As Burger says ‘the entire world becomes a setting for the fulfillment of publicity’s promise of the good life’, and we cannot escape it, our thoughts and ideas will constantly be challenged and manipulated by advertisements.
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