An overview of the main lines of criticism directed at advertising as an instruction and as a major producer of social messages and values. Critiques of advertising examined include the liberal rationalist, (neo) marxist, structuralist and cultural. The representation of women in advertisements is examined.
The central dilemma of radical critiques is found to be the difficulty in substantiating the mostly harmful consequences and social and behavioural effects of advertising.
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References
1.
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2.
A content analytical study of American advertising. Thorough discussion of content analysis as a method and then applied to two aspects of ads — rhetoric and ideobgy. Attempts to study the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’ of ads, although as with most content analysis studies is somewhat positivistic.
3.
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A tongue in cheek account of the making of a thirty-second TV commercial in America, which took two years to produce and a massive budget.
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An investigation into role of advertising in American TV which has effect of producing content not in the public interest but in the interests of the advertiser. Stress on ‘lowest common denominator’ program in search of large audiences.
A collection of essays — searching, provocative, path-breaking. Includes the famous ‘Rhetoric of the image’ one of first semiotic accounts of meaning in advertisements.
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Collection of short essays on the way that newspapers, art and common sense dress-up/mystify reality. Also contains theoretical essay ‘Myth Today’, which sets out the semiotic approach to analysis of mass culture. Everyday life will never be the same.
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An illuminating collection of essays on the language of art and images including one on publicity.
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The most recent basically positivistic summary.
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This issue of MC & S contains some useful articles. Curran's essay examines the ways in which allocation of advertising and media competition influences the media in the UK.
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A wide-ranging critique of advertising, its history, economics and ideology.
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Useful essay on the discourse economy as found in the media. Also contains essays specifically on advertising.
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Examines early examples of the creation of the American consumer. A good blend of theory and analysis of social and economic change.
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An elegant attack on ‘the dependence effect’ — the creation of wants by the modern economic production system. Somewhat dated and flawed by a certain puritanism.
The ritual displays of women (and men) in commercial photography which show the unequal patriarchal relations between the genders. Preceded by useful essays on public pictures, ads as ‘commercial realism’, and the inferences we draw from them.
27.
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Application of a quasi Levi-Straussian structuralism to the analysis of ads. Disappointing, ‘so what’ conclusions.
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A critique of modern consciousness industries, their philosophical and psychic effects from a leading figure of the Frankfurt School.
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Comprehensive study of iconography and arrangements of ads featuring women, although now somewhat dated as to theory.
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Originally written for The Long Revolution (1961), turned up in New Left Review (1960) and has been reworked for this collection. Remains an important and eloquent essay on the social and symbolic significance confirmed on goods by advertising.
38.
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Interesting, if sometimes complex, analysis of ads using structuralist, marxist and psychoanalytic techniques. Fails often to explain theories on which procedures based.
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An essay on the political economy of the advertising photograph. Thought provoking.
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