Do you believe tht the incresing power of dvertising tht these uthors Essay

Do you believe tht the incresing power of dvertising tht these uthors points to is hrmful to mericn culture - Essay Example widely red nd generlly pprecited nlysis of mening in dvertisements is discussed by Glori Steinem where she wlks the reder through gllery of dvertisements nd discusses their ideologicl content. Her own criticl perspective is informed by vriety of theorists, including Ferdinnd de Sussure, Krl Mrx, Louis lthusser, Rymond Willims, Sigmund Freud, nd Jcques Lcn. Steinem's pedgogic objective is to tech the nive reder how to interpret dvertisements long the lines of these theorists, nd mny reders do find tht their criticl bilities re gretly developed by pplying Steinem's theories: dvertisements lose whtever simple qulities they my hve hd nd become insted texts bout production nd consumption in the consumer society, bout the plce of commodities in socil life, nd bout the cretion of needs to service n economic system tht must sell wht hs been produced. In ddition to teching the interprettion of dvertisements, Steinem explins how dvertising constructs the ideologicl principles tht re embedded in it. For exmple, mny dvertisements borrow ides from externl sources ("referent systems") such s culturl history or concepts of nture. In the process of ppropriting, reworking, nd using them, dvertising trnsforms the borrowed ides. The dvertisements for Virgini Slims cigrettes, which frequently refer to the history of women's, struggle for socil nd economic equlity in meric, illustrte this process. Selected events from this struggle re retold nd edited in selected wys, nd progress is depicted s contemporry women's hving gined the right to smoke. Similrly, hundreds of products tht proclim their "nturl" qulities re in relity highly ltered through complex mnufcturing processes. Instnces like these, Steinem clims, illustrte the construction of ideology through dvertisements. The resulting distortions over the long run lter our understndings of th e originl ides tht were borrowed nd (mis)used within dvertising. Steinem's pproch to the interprettion of dvertisements is founded on her gol of trnsforming the reder's skills. She does not tret s problemtic tht uninstructed reders mke whtever sense they do of the thousnds of dvertisements populting their dily lives. Neither does she tke ny gret interest in how the copywriters who produced the dvertisements thought bout their work. Insted, she ssumes tht nive reder's filure to see the issues she uncovers is flse consciousness of their mening, flseness on which dvertising depends to do its work. The pproch hinges fundmentlly on Steinem's own skill in pplying the vrious theoreticl perspectives to the dvertisements. From the outset she bedzzles the reder by observing detils nd ptterns in dvertisements tht ordinrily slip by n udience. She repetedly points out the contrdictions between wht dvertisements seem to sy nd wht they relly men ccording to the vrious perspectives. lthough Steinem considers dvertising's udience nive, she does not ssume tht its members re merely receivers of pckged messges tht emnte from dvertisers. Rther, she rgues, the udience is implicted in the production of mening, collbortion tht dvertising continully invites: [] crucil feture of these odds nd ends of thought used by ds is tht they do not exist "independently" but in our thought: it is we, s subjects, who re ppeled to s providers of these