2 options
Ads, fads, and consumer culture : advertising's impact on American character and society / Arthur Asa Berger ; with illustrations by the author.
LIBRA HF5823 .B438 2007
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Berger, Arthur Asa, 1933-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Advertising--United States.
- Advertising.
- United States.
- Popular culture--United States.
- Popular culture.
- Consumer education--United States.
- Consumer education.
- Physical Description:
- xxv, 217 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Edition:
- Third edition.
- Other Title:
- Ads, fads, & consumer culture
- Place of Publication:
- Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, [2007]
- Summary:
- Now in its third edition, the popular Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture is an engaging cultural studies critique of contemporary advertising and its impacts on American society. Arthur Asa Berger looks at marketing strategies, sex and advertising, consumer culture, political advertising, and communication theory and process to give an accessible overview of advertising in America. The new edition features up-to-date examples and new theoretical material, including expanded discussions on critical analysis methods, sexuality in advertising, global advertising, and neuromarketing-and comes complete with updated ads and Berger's signature drawings. Whether they are new to Berger's lively style of teaching and writing or loyal adopters, advertising and media professors will want to check out the latest edition of this text.
- Contents:
- 1 Advertising in American Society 1
- Advertising as a Puzzlement 1
- Defining Advertising 4
- Advertising Agencies 11
- A Psycho-Cultural Perspective on Advertising 13
- Running It Up a Flagpole to See If Anyone Salutes 14
- Commercials as Mini-Dramas and Works of Art 16
- Teleculture 21
- The Super Bowl 24
- 2 Consumer Cultures 29
- A Cultural Critique of Advertising 29
- Consumer Cultures Defined 31
- Taste Cultures and Advertising 33
- The Postmodern Perspective 34
- Consumer Culture and Privatism 37
- Neiman Marcus and "Couthification" 37
- Needs Are Finite, Desires Are Infinite 39
- Mimetic Desire 41
- Are There Four Consumer Cultures, Not Just One? 42
- Classified Advertising 47
- 3 Advertising and the Communication Process 51
- The Lasswell Formula 51
- Focal Points and the Study of Media 52
- The Lasswell Formula and Focal Points 54
- A Problem with the Lasswell Formula 54
- Metaphor and Metonymy 57
- 4 Running It Up a Flagpole to See If Anyone Salutes 61
- Lisa's Morning: A Fiction 61
- Lisa Greatgal's and Johnny Q. Public's Daily Media Diet 62
- Television Viewing and Exposure to Commercials 63
- Our All-Consuming Passion for Consuming 66
- The Price We Pay for "Free" Television 66
- The Illusion of Control 66
- Being a "Branded Individual" 70
- Selling Oneself 74
- The Problem of Self-Alienation 75
- We Can Choose as We Please, but Can We Please as We Please? 77
- The Agony of Choice 79
- Non-Advertising Forms of Advertising 80
- 5 Sexuality and Advertising 83
- Sex in Advertising 84
- Sexploitation and Anxiety 86
- The Peach That Became a Prune: A Cautionary Fable 89
- The Pseudo-Poetic Appeal to the Illiterati 91
- Sex Sells Cigarettes 93
- The Case of Joe Camel 93
- Sex and the Problem of Clutter 95
- 6 Political Advertising 99
- Kinds of Political Advertisements 101
- The 1998 California Primary: A "Virtual" Campaign for Governor 103
- Questions Raised by the "Virtual" Campaign 104
- The 2002 California Campaign for Governor 106
- The Code of the Commercial (and Other Political Advertising) 107
- The Emotional Basis of Partisan Politics 109
- The Death of the Tobacco Bill 110
- 7 The Marketing Society 113
- Statistics on Advertising 113
- More Comments on the Illusion of Freedom 114
- The Marketing View 116
- The VALS 1 Typology 117
- Using the VALS 1 Typology: A Case Study 120
- VALS 2: A Revision of the VALS 1 Typology 120
- Zip Codes and Kinds of Consumers 122
- The Claritas Typology 125
- Magazine Choice as an Indicator of Consumer Taste 127
- Types of Teenage Consumers 128
- Blogs and Marketing 131
- A Typology for Everyone in the World 132
- A Comparison of the Different Typologies 134
- A Conclusion in the Form of a Question 135
- 8 Analyzing Print Advertisements or: Six Ways of Looking at a Fidji Perfume Advertisement 137
- Lotman's Contributions to Understanding Texts 137
- What's There to Analyze in an Advertisement? 138
- Analyzing the Fidji Ad 140
- A Semiotic Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 141
- A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 144
- A Sociological Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 146
- A Marxist Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 147
- The Myth Model and the Fidji Advertisement 148
- A Feminist Interpretation of the Fidji Advertisement 150
- 9 Analyzing Television Commercials: The Macintosh "1984" Commercial 153
- A Synopsis of the Text 155
- George Orwell's 1984 and Ridley Scott's "1984" 158
- The Image of the Total Institution 159
- The Prisoners' Boots 160
- The Blond as Symbol 160
- The Brainwashing Scenario 161
- The Big Brother Figure 161
- The Brainwasher's Message 162
- The Big Explosion 163
- The Inmates' Response 164
- The Macintosh Announcement 164
- The Heroine as Mythic Figure 165
- Psychoanalytic Aspects of the Commercial 166
- The Blond as Mediator 161
- Alienated Proles 168
- The Big Blue 169
- A Clever Marketing Strategy 170
- The "1984" Commercial and a Bit of Scholarly Research 171
- 10 Where Next? 175
- Drug Advertising 175
- Children and Advertising 178
- Battling for People's Attention 180
- Appendix Useful Web Sites 181.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-210) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780742554436
- 0742554430
- 9780742554443
- 0742554449
- OCLC:
- 76925253
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.