ESSAY

 'Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel' (Jeremy Bullmore). Evaluate this statement with reference to selected critical theories (past and present).

Within this essay I intend to explore the statement by Jeremy Bullmore that, ‘Advertising doesn’t sell things: all advertising does is change the way people think or feel’, with reference to past and present advertisements I will be able to look at the persuasive power of advertisement, whilst applying the critical theory Marxism to help give reference to my ideas.

     Marxism takes into account the commodity culture where by what we buy and invest our money  in such as goods and products are what shape our characteristics. This is what Stewart Ewen calls ‘the commodity self’ and is typified by Judith Williamson, ‘instead of being identified by what they produce, people identify themselves through what they consume’ (Williamson, 2005; 13). Commodity culture spreads false needs, such as aesthetic innovation where you might buy a toaster that looks extremely high tech and has many new gadgets that may not be useful, but for a cheaper price and half as much you can buy one that does exactly the same job and just as well. Advertising makes us think that by buying this item our lives will improve and become better for it. We are introduced to novelty products everyday that are considered to be striking, original or unusual, therefore making us want to buy them. For example the IPhone introduces a new handset every couple of years that is perceived to be hundreds of times better than the previous model and because ‘everybody else has one’ many people are enticed into buying this new evolutionary item. We as a consumer are also enveloped in the ever-winding circle of planned obsolescence, whereby a product is designed to break, so we are always forced into spending money on new products.  

        Advertising is all around us, it is used to try and encourage and persuade an audience into trying something new. They are created to be memorable and so when a brand is viewed it becomes instantly recognisable, for example

‘the predominate colour red used by Coke and the predominant colour blue used by Pepsi on there retrospective cans are ‘messages’ which increase are learning about these brands’, (Heath, 2001; 41) this therefore shows how recognisable a brand can be through the simple symbolical messages that then refer us to there brand, ‘the more likely situation, surely, is that consumers absorb something from the advertisement, perhaps without consciously thinking much, if at all, about it at the time’, (Plessis, 2005; 7). An advert will use symbols and signs that associate the buyer to their product, ‘another function of many symbols is to convey information that cant be expressed in words’ (Pricken, 2002; 94), people will then see that shape or symbol in everyday life and subconsciously will think about a product, for example McDonalds, their M will be viewed everywhere, when writing, road signs ect. Another example is reification where a product is given human features and becomes personalised, they are developed into a perceived form as sexy, romantic, cool. Such as the Calvin Klein advertisements for perfume where their products are placed next to sexual, half naked extremely good looking figures, they are there to try make it look like those characteristics of the models are somehow transferred across to the product. This then makes the audience think that by purchasing this product they will become those characteristics of the female model showcased, they think somehow they will become more sexually attractive and better looking  (Figure: 1). Each product also has a sensual, seductive name, making it seem like this is the effect the perfume will give upon the person. All of this and the most important thing about the product isn’t even mentioned, the smell.

    These adverts are very female orientated, but the same can be applied to the male market. This method is epitomised with the aftershave by Diesel, just like the perfume adverts they use very sensual and seductive male models. They also use slogans and words to try and get across a meaning of manliness, the Diesel aftershave bares the slogan ‘only the brave’, giving people the impression that to buy this product they have to be ‘brave’. If they do purchase the aftershave then they subconsciously feel better about themselves, along with the factor that the aftershave makes you more attractive and sensual due to the model that supposedly shows characteristics of the aftershave. Also like the woman believing they could attract the perfect man the men believe the aftershave will allow them to attract the perfect female. (Figure 2) These types of adverts prey upon the average teenager who feels self conscious and will be easily susceptible to the fake messages that are given by the aftershave. Perfume and aftershave focus a lot on the sexual, romantic aspects of their products but only indirectly mention the smell, due to the fact that it has a bigger selling point when using all the seductive language and imagery because they all make the audience feel better about themselves.  

         We come into contact with advertisement everyday, it shapes the way we think about a product, making us believe it’s the must have item and with it you become the ‘best’ person possible with the greatest product possible and without this must have item you become a lesser person. As described by John Berger, ‘The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. Not with the way of life of society, but with his own within it. It suggests that if he buys what it is offering, his life will become better. It offers him an improved alternative to what he is.’  (Berger, 1972; 142) This way of advertising has been shaping the way we think about products and goods for hundreds of years, although advertising has changed considerably via the means of new technology such as the internet and mobile phones, there incentive is still the same.     

    Before 18^th century there was little means to advertise because of the lack of new technology, though in the late 18^th century there was a printing boom allowing advertisement to be reproduced on a large scale. One of the first people to take advantage of this was the lever brothers who were one of the first multinationals. ‘I was the first to advertise extensively (and pre package) a tablet of soap… the result was I lifted sunlight soap to a class by itself’ (Lever in Lewis, 2008; 62) They were founded in 1851 and today they own over 900 hundred brands worldwide. Lever brothers always had the audience in mind, even their factory was opened up to the public, so they could have an insight to how the soap is made and packaged, they then become more involved and interested in the product and are then more likely to purchase it. They added brand value through advertising, their achievement was ‘to convince people all over the world that they did not just want this product, they needed it’ (Port Sunlight Museum, 2009). Another strategy the Lever brothers used was putting contemporary art paintings on their products and in adverts, this became easy to do because of technology, which allowed them to have paintings reproduced. One way in which they did this was to put contemporary paintings on soap boxes, this then got the paintings into homes that that family wouldn’t of ever been able to afford in the first place, therefore giving them more of an incentive to buy more soap boxes because it made them feel ‘special’ and ‘better off’, this a strong example of the statement by Jeremy Bullmore. The Lever brothers also made each box have a different image and so people could collect a number of different paintings, this again would reinforce the audience’s belief that having them would make them more important, ‘the more the better’, plus encouraging them to purchase even more boxes. They also convinced the audience to buy vouchers and save for print outs of the ads. This all just from selling soap.

                 An example of how the Lever brothers used contemporary paintings was  ‘The New Frock’  (1889) (Figure 3). In this advertisement Lever uses a cute little girl holding her extremely clean white apron, this image would appeal to a housewife and mother due to the strong bond between them and there children. The advert also speaks directly to working class housewives, because there is a much larger audience there, especially as they would have more children and a bigger connected family. The cleanliness within the advert is also clear to see, thus making connections between the cleanliness of the frock and the main attribute of soap, to clean. The child also has a very clear look of pride, showing the world her clean apron that people may think was cleaned by the soap. This advertisement though holds a lot of irony; the original artist used the image to comment on the short-lived and uselessness of ‘worldly things’, whereas Lever has used it to sell such an object.  This could in a way could be termed commodity fetishism, hiding the actual meaning of the painting. This like the previous advertisements I talked about plays on the emotions of the audience, even more so here because of the emotional attachment people already have with small children. Using children helps to convey a product that is innocent and because it has been the hands of children, it must be okay. This same type of approach whereby a cute innocent person/animal is displayed next to a product, to maybe distract the audience from what may be a boring or not so appealing item is used in the Andrex advertisements. The dog is very cute and so grabs the audiences attention and takes it away from what is a not so attractive item, ‘Andrex ads are well produced and the puppy is invariably very cute. The chances are that the first time consumers see an Andrex ad they will pay explicit attention, certainly to the puppy.’  (Heath, 2001; pg100) As described by Robert Heath, although using a dog these same aspects can be applied to children and babies, both are extremely cute and give off feelings of love and a ‘growing’ family.

     Looking again at the Lever brothers and their advertisements they used the same method explained above in many of their works. They often used children to advertise their soap, these methods provided a message that was displayed in a innovative and interesting way. Along with this they used a slogan on their adverts, these simple end lines changed the meaning of an image to Levers advantage, similar to the lines used on the Diesel adverts. An example of this is shown on (Figure 4), as well as having the child in the image that gives the impression of joy, purity, blessings, innocence and life, as does every advertisement that includes a child, it also has across the bottom ‘Does work-Does play:- “That’s Sunlight”’, insinuating that the product is multifunctional, keeping the child quiet as she paints the Soap box, this again would appeal to the mother who’d feel that just by looking at the image she could get some peace and quite and keep her child entertained with such a simple item, a bar of soap, this therefore making her believe that this item is so much more than what it really is.

          Despite all the extremely clever and thought provoking advertisements of the Lever brothers, their use of soap and especially after they formed alliances with Margarine Unie and created the company Dove, there use of palm oil has cause for concern because in the process of getting the palm oil it causes a lot of damage to the environment, Dove are the single biggest users of palm oil in the world. This is an example of how advertisement can bring so much in that it encourages unnecessary production and consumption, therefore exhausting the world’s resources and spoiling the environment.

     Touching back on something that was mentioned earlier, commodity fetishism, the example given was although not the best example and a extremely minor case it is in a lot of advertisement and is a huge issue. Commodity fetishism is where the history of a product is kept quite and hidden, the method and production is concealed due to the fact it may be illegal or an extreme exploitation of something or someone. This is all unknown and unseen within an advert, we as a market are fabricated into believing that the all shining, glittering product has been produced in a acceptable method and little attention is ever paid, something summed up by Karl Marx,  ‘From the taste of wheat it is not possible to tell who produced it, a Russian serf, a French peasant or an English capitalist.’ (Wikipedia, Jan 2013), here he is giving a perfect example of how a consumer may think, not intentionally but that thought process has become instinct in todays culture, with it being so easy to source different goods from around the world, minute thought goes into the production. This is a perfect example of how companies cover up what’s really going on behind there advertisements.  The clothing industry is a perfect example of this, because of their mass market, huge amount of consumers and the need for new products on a regular basis they rely on a huge workforce.

         A very public example is Nike, where they used child labor in poor countries where they could be exploited due to the lack of money, at a very small price a child will work for hours and the product they make is then sold for a vast amount more than what it was made for, all of this creates a lot of unnecessary production that in this case is harmful and unhealthy to people. This is all overshadowed and overlooked by the consumer who just assume because its Nike, with there history and tradition of being such a big company it blinds people from the truth. This type of advertisement is used everywhere today and this distortion of a product through advertisement can be applied to the food industry as well. Many products are showcased to be a extremely healthy and posses never heard of items in their food that a consumer believe to be good for them, they also make a customer invest in food that is unhealthy by using many symbolical messages, ‘Corporations and governments are obsessed with subliminal messages because they are effective at controlling our thought patterns without our knowledge’ (USAHitman, Jan 2013). Adverts also try and give a health benefit the food has, such as ‘nutritious wheat puffs’ to try and gloss over the parts of that product that are not healthy, for example where Sugar Puffs use the fact that they have wheat that it makes it a healthy product, but they fail to mention the extremely high sugar intake. Also the fact that this product is advertised towards children through the use of a big cuddly soft creature it becomes very attractive to children who will then pester their mums and dads to buy this product. This along with my earlier points about children show how a child is targeted by advertisement and how the use of images encourages the audience to buy products and brands that are unhealthy.   

           Advertisement is extremely powerful, it manipulates the consumer into thinking a number of things about ones self, making them believe they are not good enough or don’t have enough to fulfill their everyday needs. That manipulation is aimed at us in an extremely obvious way or subconsciously; they can hold strong messages that hide the truth about a product yet we still are enticed to buy it. This manipulation is sometimes taken to extremes and when forced upon children it becomes even more powerful, twisting and turning young minds that are easily beset into trying something new, captivated by images and symbols. This is also applied to the older generation, especially teenagers who will see a sexy male or female model and because of being at that tender age they see them and want to be them, therefore advertisement is aimed at them profoundly. Although advertisement is extremely controlling, though we may not see it, they are extremely powerful, nonetheless in the end they are just trying to sell a product and ‘Advertising, from the moment it was born, was trying to entertain us’ (Hegarty, 2011, p9) and we are however the controllers of our own mind. But through the use of commodity culture, commodity fetishism and reification they perpetuate false needs that do indeed change the way we think and feel.     

       

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berger, J. (1972) ‘Ways Of Seeing’, London, BBC & Penguin Books.

Heath, R. (2001) ‘The Hidden Power of Advertising’, Oxfordshire, Admap Publications.

Hegarty, J. (2011) ‘Hegarty on Advertising’ London: Thames & Hudson.

Lewis, B. (2008) ‘So Clean’, Manchester, Manchester Press.

Media Hitman . (2012) ‘The Hidden Truth of Subliminal Messages. Available: http://usahitman.com/thtosm/.  [Last accessed 26th Jan 2013].

Pricken, M. (2002) ‘Creative Advertising, Ideas Techniques From The Worlds Best Campaigns’, New York, Thames & Hudson Inc. 

Plessis, E. (2005) ‘The Advertised mind Ground Breaking Insights Into How Our Brains Respond To Advertising’, London, Millward Brown and Kogan Page Limited.

Port Sunlight Museum. (2008). Available: http://www.portsunlightvillage.com/page.asp?pageid=MUSVIL. [Last accessed 21st Jan 2013]

Wikipedia contributors. (2013). ‘Commodity’. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity. [Last accessed 26th Jan 2013].

Williamson J. (2005) ‘Decoding Advertisements’ London, Marion Boyars Publishers.