Blog #3

The mass media plays a major role in regards to the formation of a consumer society. The media has such an enormous influence on society, making whatever they want to be the trend one day and absolutely absurd the next. “Dream Worlds of Consumption” along with “Advertising and the Ideas of Mass Society” correspond to the issues and debates surrounding the “developing rhetoric of ‘mass man’ ” These readings in addition to the magazine advertisement, explained later on, show how the media promises us things but how can we accept these promises from something that isn’t even constant or real?

“Dream of Worlds of Consumption” touches upon the expositions and ever changing culture into a “fantasy.” The view of structures changed drastically from showing a person how it was built and engineered to entertaining them. Science and technology were no longer focal points, instead, lavish decorations and random arrangements were the center of everyone’s attention. The French Exposition explained in the book (170-1) demonstrated how this site and other expositions introduced to the common man the “wonders” of technology and the growing consumer culture of industrial nations (170).

These expositions represent the consumer revolution evolving. Merchandising started to become more appealing to the people because the aim had changed. The consumer was starting to be deceived more because fantasy was being used often, and with fantasy, not everything is true. Many critics, such as Maurice Talmeyr, argue that all advertising was false and people were being exposed to flat out and subtle lies and not even knowing it. People are satisfied by basic needs like food but it is hard for people to satisfy their imagination, and that’s where merchandising comes in. Consumer goods, department stores, art museums such as the Louvre opened a whole new door for people wanting to be entertained. More and more things continued to cost more money and prices were now set, customers could not bargain their way down to a lower price. But the public was still fascinated by all these new ways of life, allowing the merchandising business to thrive (171-3). Electricity was finally invented and used in countless ways such as lighting up the streets of Paris or as marquees. Furthermore the automobile attracted everyone, every sex and color, making it one of the biggest items according to the media from the merchandizing companies (174-5).

The reading “Advertising and the ideas of Mass Society” also talks about the mass media and advertising to the consumer. Just changing the littlest thing can make a product more pleasing to the eye, causing mass amounts of people wanting it. The book gives the example of a hardware store worker leaving his hunter axes in the front window because he cannot move them. By doing this, crowds of people came during midday and bought the hunter’s axes (Lears197). These axes made men feel like men, they were appealing and being in the front window, anyone and everyone who walked by could see them without having to step into the store. Subtle changes, like this one, were what made people notice, making them want it.

In order to know what the public likes, people were asked what drew them to an advertisement. Illustrations are what sell, people don’t like just black type “yelling” at them (197). Childish images or ads with emotional appeal are also what sell to the consumer. People like to look at an ad and understand it almost and feel a connection with it. Having creativity, or not copying from another ad campaign, is hard to do but if achieved, the public will answer with applause and an open wallet. Enthusiasm, exaggeration, and being on the verge on lying are what will convince people to buy the product. If someone believes that this product will give him or her the ability to do something they cannot do, they will want it. It’s all about trust; the consuming trusting the advertisement that what is being shown is true (200-1). The “mass man” allowed advertisers to practically think of the public as a whole and an ad should and will be appealing to all people. The advertising men and women have the upper hand on society and can and will make the trends, almost forcing people what to like or dislike.

The magazine ad I chose is for Paul Mitchell hair salons and products. The ad is himself, Paul Mitchell, his wife, son, and dog all laying in a wheat field looking so ‘family like.” The quote on the bottom, which is very small, says:

Be Kind. Create change and build a better future. Join the Paul Mitchell System family of hairdressers worldwide to fight hunger and poverty, safeguard our planet’s water, and give hope to children in need.

I think this ad is quite deceiving and almost humorous at first. I am not laughing at this company for supporting all these causes, but how they portray it. You barely notice the bottom quote, and at first glance I thought: using his Paul Mitchell products will give me a happy, perfect family? There is nothing about hair at all, other than the hair on their heads, which is nicely groomed. It really does not say anything about them having the best hair styling products; it just appears that Paul Mitchell will make happy families. It is promising this, because there is nothing else in the ad to look into.

            Regarding the bottom quote, it shows that Paul Mitchell supports the fight against hunger and poverty as well as helping children and cleaning our waters. I think with the whole “going green trend,” this will appeal to the people who are really for these causes and maybe they will buy his products over other ones that do not state such things, or maybe not. It will help his name to have this at the bottom, but it really is not noticeable so people just scanning through magazines will most likely skip over this caption. This just shows that having a typical model with wavy hair holding a Paul Mitchell product is not good enough, consumers like to see realness (his family being pictured, not actor or models), happiness and up to date ads- decades ago people were not caring about poverty and the environment as much as they are today, so merchandisers need to advertise with themes that go with the now, not the past.

 

 

Williams, Rosalynd. "Dream Worlds of Communications.” Communication in History. Ed. David Crowley and Paul Heyer. 5th  ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2007. 169-175.

Lears, Jackson. "Advertising and the Idea of Mass Society.” Communication in History. Ed. David Crowley and Paul Heyer. 5th  ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2007. 197-201.