We recapped on Bernay's Freud -
- False need
- Fordist mass production
- Disposable
- Increased consumption
- Brand culture Emerges (1920's)
We were given a small booklet of some photocopied pages from John Berger's ways of seeing book. The class was then divided in to groups of 4 or 5 people and we were all given 4 pages to work with in our group. We had to pick points from the text and find some appropriate advertisements then would fit with the quotes and give a small explanation.
The points we found in our section of the John Berger text-
- Not to confuse publicity with the pleasure or benefits to be enjoyed from the things it advertises.
- Publicity is effective precisely because it feeds upon the real clothes, food , cars , cosmetics , baths , sunshine working on a natural appetite for pleasure, but it cannot offer the real object of pleasure and there is no convincing substitute for a pleasure in that pleasures own terms.
- The more convincing publicity conveys the pleasure of bathing in a warm , distant sea ; the more the spectator - buyer will become aware that he is hundreds of miles away from that sea and the more remote the chance of bathing in it will seem to him.
- Publicity is never a celebration of a pleasure - in - itself . Publicity is always about the future buyer. It offers him an image of himself made glamourous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell.
- Publicity is about social relations not objects its promise is not of pleasure but happiness: happiness as judged from the outside by others. The happiness of being envied is glamour.
- The power of the glamorous resides in their supposed happiness the power of the bureaucrat is his supposed authority . It is this which explains the absent , unfocused look of so many glamour images.
- The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she's buys the product. she is meant to imaging herself transformed by he product into an object of envy for others and envy which will then justify her loving herself.
The points we made we chose to find advertisements that were appropriate :
'Publicity begins by working on a natural appetites for pleasure - But it cannot offer the real object of pleasure and there is no convincing substitute for pleasure in that pleasures own terms'
- Feed upon real pleasure
- Every day thing
- Stimulates desire
'Publicity is never a celebration of a pleasure - in - itself. Publicity is always about the future buyer . It offers him an image of himself as he might be.public about social relations not object'
'Publicity is always about the future buyer. It offers him an image of himself made glamours by the product of opportunity it is trying to sell. is always about the future buyer'
- 'The more convincing publicity conveys the pleasure of bathing in a warm sea and the more remote the chance of bathing in it will seem to him.' we agreed that this point is stating that you wont turn in to this man once you use this fragrance , but like the lynx advert its not impossible else publicity and advertising would fail.
I really enjoyed this task it was interesting so see what advertisements other groups had chosen for there quotes and i liked discussing in our small groups what we thought our chosen quotes meant and how they worked with advertising.
The last section on page 154 -
- Telling people what they have to do , rather then free thinking
- Government not letting you have things and makes things more desirable capitalism
- We are made to define our interests - its about desires ' i want this' act we think selfishly
- We are tricked to think in a non collective manner
- We are tricked to think
For next session -
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.
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