Key parts from the lecture
Desire - Fake needs for commodities - Stratification - inequality - Disguised
Greed - Social Control + Freedom - Disguised
Palliative - think there free because of the notion that they can afford a fancy car or bike ect
People at the bottom class feel better, say if they owned a big tv, it disguises there actual inequality
Mass Production
Advertising + Branding
Freud - Pleasure Principle - Desires have been met so we become docile/happy
We are irrational beings and have animal instincts
Bernays - PR, Worked with CIA, Spread Western Culture across the world
After going through the main parts of the lecture we were set the task of going through selected bits of a article that Richard had given us and relating back to the main parts of the lecture pick out quotes and references.
As a group we were given pages 142 to 146 of 'Ways Of Seeing' by John Berger
Our notes on the section
A few things we picked out were on the first paragraph how oil paintings were used to make people feel like they were of upper class and of importants because they owned these prestigious pieces of art. It became a symbol of wealth and power for many people. It is similar to when the unibar of Soaps were made, whereby they put oil paintings on there packets so lower class people would buy these products and then feel more upper class, the paintings would also change so they would keep buying them to gain a collection, despite not having the money to do so. Showcasing desire, envy and greed.
In the 5th paragraph it shows stratification and inequality that is disguised. 'The power to spend money is the power to live'. 'Those who lack the power to spend money become literally faceless'
'To be able to buy is the same as being sexually desirable' : Pleasure principle
TASK
Using the text Berger, J. (1972) 'Ways of Seeing', write one critical analysis of an advert which, in your opinion, reflects the logic of consumerism, or the social conditions of consumerism, discussed in the lecture 'Consumerism' (17/10/13). Use at least five quotes, referenced according to the Harvard system, in support of your argument.
This example is perfect for what Berger, J is talking about, it is seen through many different types of adverts especially with underwear and perfume/aftershave. These adverts offer the chance to enforce a image of being sexually desirable for the audience. Withing my chosen advert it is extremely noticeable, if a man was to buy the underwear they would become desirable to beautiful women, as described by Berger, 'to be able to buy something is the same thing as being sexually desirable', this enforces his view of the pleasure principle, a view from a man buying this expensive product will that his desire would then of been met and so he will become docile or happy, 'the power to spend money is the power to live'. This desire gives a fake need for commodities and it starts to create stratification where by a persons inequality and freedom is disguised, 'publicity principally addressed to the working class tends to promise a personal transformation through the function of the particular product it is selling' buying this product doesn't improve your life, within the Calvin Klein advert this fake transformation they are offering is the beautiful woman who is thrust upon the man, ready and willing all because of the boxers on his hips.
The advert is a great example of how we feel we are in control of ourselves but realistically this idealised freedom is all social control, ' the pursuit of individual happiness has been acknowledged as a universal right. Yet the existing social conditions make the individual feel powerless'. Berger saying that no matter what the average man tries to do he wont ever become what society represents us to be ( the strong good looking man in the Calvin Klein advert ) again something he describes again in his text, ' The gap between what publicity actually offers and the future it promises, corresponds with the gap between what the spectator/buyer feels himself to be and what he would like to be'. Instead of changing the way this advert makes you feel it changes how we think in, we will never feel that we are up to the standards that this advert sets and so we think we aren't yet that enviable 'publicity doesn't manufacture the dream', it just makes us feel lesser than what we are. 'Publicity helps to mask and compensate for all that is undemocratic within society. And it also masks what is happening in the rest of the world', as well as publicity masking world problems on a much smaller scale it is shown within this advert, whereby all the charades that are seen with the beautiful man and beautiful women just mask the fact that they are advertising boxers, a very small minute aspect of society which has been been blown out of proportion.
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