Advertising Has Potent Cultural Association And Is Inflected By Meanings And Forces Ascribed To Contemporary Capitalism: Marketing Communications Report, TCD, Ireland

Currencies of Commercial Exchange

Advertising has potent cultural association and is inflected by meanings and forces ascribed to contemporary capitalism. Often conceived as a predicate to the expansion of consumer demand and hence capitalism’s ideological thrall, advertising occupies a central place in analyses of contemporary society.

The Social Uses of Advertising: An Ethnographic Study of Adolescent Advertising Audiences

I n the film Witness (Weir 1985) Harrison Ford plays John Book, a Philadelphia detective who has to go undercover in a local Amish community. On spending his first morning with the Amish family he is there to protect, Book is asked to join them at the table for breakfast. An embarrassed silence falls on the group as they begin their meal. Book, sensing the unease his presence has created, takes a long audible swig from his mug of coffee and exclaims, “Honey, that’s great coffee!” The three members of the Amish family who have never seen television advertising before, and who are therefore unfamiliar with this catchphrase, look up in surprise and then confusion. Book is suddenly embarrassed by his attempt at humor and tries to explain his outburst: “It’s a joke… It’s a commercial … on television.” He looks down at his plate still embarrassed and suddenly aware of the very different culture in which he is now immersed.

Beyond sophistication: dimensions of advertising literacy

Judie Lannon’s participation in the recent bridge-building event organized by the IPA and the International Journal of Advertising suggests that she is willing to reconsider the view expressed in her 1985 paper. That view is understandable, however, especially since those at the leading edge of the advertising industry tend to change their practice long before critics change their theories (Myers, 1994). This has certainly happened in the case of advertising literacy. Meadows (1983) described consumers as ‘advertising literate’, understanding the vocabulary, elements and styles of advertising, while Lannon (1985) discussed consumers’ ability to decode complex visual imagery and make brand inferences from minimal cues. The term ‘advertising literacy’ resonated with many practitioners and inspired other articles (Drake, 1984; Iddiols, 1989; Goodyear, 1991). Insightful and provocative as these papers were, they were based on experience and overviews of proprietary research, and ‘literacy’ was used primarily as a label for consumer sophistication.