Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb ii 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb iiii 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture Advertising’s Impact on American Character and Society FIFTH EDITION Arthur Asa Berger With illustrations by the author ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb iiiiii 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM Published by Rowman & Littlefi eld A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB, United Kingdom Copyright © 2015 by Rowman & Littlefi eld First edition 2000. Second edition 2004. Third edition 2007. Fourth edition 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Berger, Arthur Asa, 1933– Ads, fads, and consumer culture : advertising’s impact on American character and society / Arthur Asa Berger. — Fifth edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4422-4124-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-4125-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-4126-8 (electronic) 1. Advertising—United States. 2. Popular culture—United States. 3. Consumer education—United States. I. Title. HF5823.B438 2015 659.1'0420973—dc23 2014030143 ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb iivv 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM Some measure of greed exists unconsciously in everyone. It represents an aspect of the desire to live, one which is mingled and fused at the outset of life with the impulse to turn aggression and destructiveness outside ourselves against others, and as such it persists unconsciously throughout life. By its very nature it is endless and never assuaged; and being a form of the impulse to live, it ceases only with death. The longing or greed for good things can relate to any and every imagin- able kind of good—material possessions, bodily or mental gifts, advantages and privileges; but, beside the actual gratifi cations they may bring, in the depths of our minds they ultimately signify one thing. They stand as proofs to us, if we get them, that we are ourselves good, and full of good, and so are worthy of love, or respect and honour, in return. Thus they serve as proofs and insurances against our fears of emptiness inside ourselves, or of our evil impulses which make us feel bad and full of badness to ourselves and others. —Joan Riviere, “Hate, Greed and Aggression” 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb vv 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb vvii 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM CONTENTS Foreword by Fred S. Goldberg xi Preface to the Fifth Edition xv Acknowledgments xxiii 1 Advertising in American Society 1 Advertising as a Puzzlement 1 Defi ning Advertising 5 Advertising Agencies 7 Max Weber on Religion and Consumer Cultures 9 Advertising and Politics 10 A Psycho-Cultural Perspective on Advertising 12 Running It Up a Flagpole to See If Anyone Salutes 13 Commercials as Mini-Dramas and Works of Art 15 Teleculture and the Internet 23 The Super Bowl 27 The Global Nature of Advertising Agencies 28 Conclusion 29 2 Consumer Cultures 33 A Cultural Critique of Advertising 33 Consumer Cultures Defi ned 34 Taste Cultures and Advertising 37 The Postmodern Perspective 38 The Problem of Emotions Overcoming Rationality 43 Consumer Culture and Privatism 44 Neiman Marcus and “Couthifi cation” 45 Needs Are Finite, Desires Are Infi nite 47 Are There Four Consumer Cultures, Not Just One? 49 National Character and Consumer Cultures 55 vii 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb vviiii 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM viii Contents 3 Advertising and the Communication Process 59 The Lasswell Formula 59 Focal Points and the Study of Media 61 Roman Jakobson’s Model of the Communication Process 62 Run It Up a Flagpole 64 Metaphor and Metonymy 65 Myth and Marketing 67 Integrated Marketing Communication 69 4 Running It Up a Flagpole to See If Anyone Salutes 73 Lisa’s Morning: A Fiction 73 Lisa Greatgal’s and Johnny Q. Public’s Daily Media Diet 74 Television Viewing and Exposure to Commercials 75 A Note on “Hauls” 77 The Price We Pay for “Free” Television 77 The Illusion of Control 78 Being a “Branded” Individual 82 Selling Oneself 87 Selling One’s Body for Brands 89 The Problem of Self-Alienation 90 We Can Choose as We Please, but Can We Please as We Please? 91 The Agony of Choice 93 Nonadvertising Forms of Advertising 94 5 Sexuality and Gender in Advertising 99 Sex and Gender in Advertising 100 Sex in Advertising 101 Sexploitation and Anxiety 107 The Peach That Became a Prune: A Cautionary Fable 111 The Pseudopoetic Appeal to the Illiterati 114 Sex Appeal and Gender Appeal 116 Sex and the Problem of Clutter 118 6 Political Advertising 125 The Cost of Presidential Campaigns 129 The Cost of the 2012 Presidential Election 130 Questions Raised by the Election Campaigns 131 A Note on the California Campaign for Governor in 2010 132 The Code of the Commercial (and Other Political Advertising) 133 The Emotional Basis of Partisan Politics 134 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb vviiiiii 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM Contents ix 7 The Marketing Society 139 Statistics on Advertising 139 More Comments on the Illusion of Freedom 140 The Marketing View 142 The VALS 1 Typology 144 Using the VALS 1 Typology: A Case Study 147 VALS 2: A Revision of the VALS 1 Typology 147 ZIP Codes and Kinds of Consumers 149 The Claritas Typology 151 Magazine Choice as an Indicator of Consumer Taste 153 Types of Teenage Consumers 155 Blogs and Marketing 158 A Typology for Everyone in the World 159 A Comparison of the Different Typologies 161 A Conclusion to This Discussion in the Form of a Question 163 8 Analyzing Print Advertisements or: Six Ways of Looking at a Fidji Perfume Advertisement 167 Lotman’s Contributions to Understanding Texts 167 What’s There to Analyze in an Advertisement? 168 Analyzing the Fidji Ad 169 A Semiotic Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 171 A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 173 A Sociological Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 176 A Marxist Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 177 The Myth Model and the Fidji Advertisement 178 A Feminist Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 179 Conclusion 180 9 Analyzing Television Commercials 183 The Macintosh “1984” Commercial 183 A Synopsis of the Text 185 The Background 186 Testing the “1984” Macintosh Commercial 186 George Orwell’s 1984 and Ridley Scott’s “1984” 188 The Image of the Total Institution 189 The Prisoners’ Boots 189 The Blond as a Symbol 190 The Brainwashing Scenario 190 The Big Brother Figure 191 1144__442244--BBeerrggeerr..iinnddbb iixx 1122//88//1144 77::1111 AAMM