Anti-blog

CAP ANDY NOW

ADwARS I, which accompanied the university advertising class which I ran at Sciences-Po (Paris) until 2009, has come to an end. This one-year-plus experiment showed that the internet can be, at the very least, a highly useful pedagogical tool for university students and teacher.

However, serious reflection on the medium of the blog "ex-faculty" is required, due to the virtual nullification it engenders by its massive usage, in terms of the production of meaning. The unfortunate truth is that the blog, Facebook and Twitter have become a 'must' for any self-respecting young person using the Internet. And that the resulting low quality and interest value of many blog posts is manifest. Not information, just attempted communication. We must therefore reflect as to the next step for ADWARS.

To sum up, it is ever more strongly my belief, especially in the light of the severe ongoing global financial and economic crisis, that the advertising industry must equally be regulated and made more responsible, at the European level for a start. It must be regulated in the same way as banks require quite strict controls on their activity, for Man, though a creative animal, is also first irrational, individualistic and destructive in the absence of clear rules. You have only to experience crowd behaviour first-hand or observe driving attitudes on French roads to know what I am talking about...

Advertising's tendency will always be to cross that double yellow line at some point, so in the absence of speed cameras, we need legislation. And certainly not self-regulation, which is like asking the fox to run the chicken-coop.

Regulation is mandatory due to the fact that this particular industry remains :

- highly influential within the (capitalist) system
- intertwined incestuously with modern media, themselves powerful tools of opinion-making
- fundamentally morally and socially irresponsible if left unregulated

Of course, although advertising does provide certain direct (information) and indirect benefits (see Part 1 of this blog) to our societies, it remains a powerful moral, political and societal force, which if not questioned and controlled by an independent authority, could come to exert a totalitarian influence over any society, a 'Big Brother' with a fat wallet and a heavy hand.

The image that I have chosen above (a French ad for 'Handicap International') symbolises my view of the current situation in most Western societies, i.e. the dependence felt and the handicap undergone by whole populations under the sway of this massively influential industry, with little intellectual or moral opposition, driven by uncontrolled mass consumerism.

Let us all remain vigilant.

WATCH THIS (MIND)SPACE

Photo supplied by Pedro


Sell that available grey matter now !!






STUDENT critiques of advertising

- misleads consumers with the tactic of "individualisation" or of "developing personal identity", while actually selling the same stuff to everyone. In the end, we are all alike (Mariana)

- can damage consumers' brains with repetition (we are already lacking storage space for important information/memory... why bother with jingles or slogans ? (Mariana)

- can fool the audience through deceptive, commercial tricks...(Alexandre, Gabriella, Pierre)

- consistently increases people's needs, making the society increasingly materialistic (Alexandre, Maëva, Sophie, Etienne, Gabriella)

- leads to clichés: they reinforce stereotypes or even create new ones which
are quickly imprinted onto the minds of consumers and the general public. These are highly difficult to suppress again (Stefan)

- creates new 'must-buys': people desire to possess what they see on the screen. Viewers emulate the role models of TV, leading to pressure, for instance on women with respect to cosmetics (Stefan)

- annoys: the spot for a new chocolate bar interrupts the exciting crime thriller right before the brave Inspector arrests the murderer ! (Stefan, Pedro)

- can lead to mass alienation as it drives us to want/like the same things (Romain, Mariana)

- appeals deliberately to our subconscious and not our conscious mind, so it may make us consume more than economically reasonable. Homo economicus loses his rationality, which is dangerous for our all-capitalist model (cf. sub-prime crisis)(Romain, Sophie)

- informs us, but it gives us biased information on products (Romain)

- admittedly not an exclusive effect of advertising (TV, in general, has this effect on people), but it is particularly explicit in ads: advertising integrates/assimilates any subversive behavior within society. Products stop being subversive and become merely goods to be consumed (Tamia)

- follows the mainstream, rarely challenging one's views and opinions (except Benetton ads). In our non-religious societies (NB. ah !), have you EVER seen an ad remotely sympathetic to religion ? Apart from French monks always presented as big eaters, you never see ads about Judaïsm or Islam (hot themes, one guesses) (Farida)

- provides quite a precise model of what is "good taste", according to the advertiser and mainstream society, so if you don't have the same sense of beauty, you're "out" ! (Farida)

- makes one feel like one absolutely needs such and such a product to be "in", which is especially harmful for children, for whom it is very hard to be seen to be different. Most adults too (Farida)

- if advertising creates in society a sense of unity (references, language...), it by definition expels/marginalises other people from this "community" (Farida)

- contributes to losing the very richness of human existence (arts, literature, music...), due to its inherent simplification process. Proust wrote seven amazing books ("In Search of Time Lost") in the hope that he could restore and reproduce just a small part of Life's lost moments. Ads are mere non-ambitious products from non-ambitious people who think they can reproduce the richness of life. What a joke! (Farida)

- is intrinsically intrusive: it affects everybody, even those who wish to avoid
it (Pedro)

- encourages a monopolistic/oligarchic view of society by creating a vicious circle: those with more money are able to produce more ads and therefore make more money (Pedro)

- the citizen may possibly be affected and misled by unreliable information in ads (Pedro, Aurore)

- may encourage people to adopt lifestyles which are not recommendable from a health perspective (Pedro olé !)

(Minor elements):
- frequently imprints an extremely irritating song or catchphrase in your head for weeks (even months some times)(Pedro)
- it is the reason why watching a 2-hour movie on TV normally ends up taking 3 hours (Pedro)

- in economics, the 'public choice' school explains that public regulation is bad, to the extent that it encourages the development of lobbying, which is a financial waste for the society ; one can make a parallel between public regulation and capitalism, and thus, between
lobbying and advertising: advertising can equally be seen as a waste of money, money which could be used to encourage innovation for example, or to lower the price of products (Emilie)

- as advertisements have to swiftly get to the point, they generally convey a traditional, not to say conservative and non-diverse image of people, according to their age, their gender, their ethnic origin, their role within the family (washing powder commercials always show mothers, why ? In terms of gender, are we still in the '60s ?)(Emilie)

- when there is nothing interesting on TV, commercials incite students to keep watching instead of going to bed ("Gosh, 3 A.M. already ?") or doing their English homework (for instance...). Commercials lead to procrastination, and that's baaaaaaaaaad; the truth is, advertising is evil (Emiliiiiiiie !)

- conveys prejudices, particularly concerning women who are reduced to their role of mothers, housewives or to their attributes. They are shown/exhibited as sexual objects (Aurore)

- ads' excesses hold up an image of a consumer-crazy society. "I consume, therefore I am" would be our slogan (Aurore)

- promotes superficiality and materialism in individuals, since it tends to create new desires. Furthermore, these desires cannot be met or satisfied as easily as needs, demonstrating that advertising plays on this human weakness (Maëva, Aurore)

- widens the gap between rich and poor: not everybody can afford to buy all the products promoted by advertising, creating envy, jealousy, resentment. And materialistic values (Maëva, Sophie)

- relies on an unsustainable model of economic development insofar as its purpose is to keep on selling more and more products. If emerging and developed countries continue in this direction in food management, crises and starvation riots might result (Maëva)

- tends to encourage deviant behavior (obesity in children and teens who watch television while consuming products promoted by TV advertising (Maëva)

- promotes an ideal world that does not reflect reality (perfect young women/men, wealth, cars, houses etc.) and is based on lies (anti-wrinkle creams, slimming products etc.)(Maëva)

- relies on a short-term strategy, equivalent to a time-bomb, as advertising needs to multiply in different media (TV, radio, street) in order to sell: who has never been bored by an advertisement that 'pollutes' our daily life ? (Maëva)

- tends to speak down to consumers ("'Panier de Yoplait' is MORE than a yoghurt'!)(Maëva)

- elicits choices based on an "emotional need", rather than a rational one (Sophie)

- is a very expensive and ineffective form of communication, esp. if the target group has been improperly identified (Sophie, Pierre) or can be a poor return on investment in some media (Pierre)

- imposes a model of society based on consumption, even though people may be happier being with their friends and their families at home than shopping in malls. It imposes the concept of "work more, get more" (as Sarkozy said) to be able to afford a Rolex by age 50 (dixit Séguela)(Etienne)
  
- has changed Descartes' axiom, which is no longer "I think, therefore I am", but "I HAVE, therefore I am", which is a big step backward for society, whose primary aim should probably be to have citizens able to think by themselves (Etienne)
 
- contributes, by the plethora of products consumed, to the destruction of our environment (Etienne, Gabriella)
 
- confuses the hierarchy on TV between "film", "documentary" and "advertising", which could be problematical (Etienne)

- due to its short format, presents only shallow feelings, oversimplifying life and influencing our views because of the volume we are exposed to every day. It suppresses the reality of deeper meanings and emotions (Lola, Gabriella)

- takes advantage of our natural weaknesses and basic instincts (the desire to be popular, pretty, rich…), because these are the easiest to exploit (Lola)

- imposes a vision of happiness attainable only through the satisfaction of an endless line of immediate desires and gets in the way of real personal achievement (Lola)

- creates inferiority complexes and ultimately unhappiness for the person unable to attain the obligation of resemblance to the standards imposed by advertising (i.e. because of financial or physical divergence from the norm) (Lola)

- promotes capitalist and consumerist values ; emphasizes ephemeral values in general (Gabriella)

- can exert a negative influence on vulnerable, immature audiences, like children and teenagers (Gabriella)

- visually pollutes the environment (Gabriella, Etienne)

- can transmit excessively violent and sexual messages (Gabriella)

- tends to immediately increase the consumption of substances like alcohol and tobacco (Pierre)

END

Thanks to all for your individual brilliance !

VAMPIRE QUE TOUT ?

Where teacher and students list the demerits of advertising






TEACHER'S LIST

Major drawbacks of advertising

- as the main locomotive of growth in capitalist economies, constitutes a threat to the ecology of the planet due to the wasteful practices it induces

- constructs, especially via TV/video/film advertising, an illusory world for millions of poorer viewers worldwide (but so do Bollywood, Hollywood, video games...)

- constructs a false paradigm of normative happiness/contentment/security/physical appearance etc. in the nations where it thrives (societal formatting)

- using simplistic (national)stereotypes or caricature based on ignorance, reduces the potential understanding between neighbouring peoples (say) of Europe and increases the future risk of misunderstanding or conflict between such nations

- by recourse to persistent repetition of messages in every media (esp. in the West), constitutes an attempted form of brainwashing of the population

- despite controls over the years, has tended to use questionable psychological and ethical techniques in order to persuade public opinion (psychoanalysis (E. Bernays), subliminal messages, hidden cameras in Paris street billboards...)

- addresses itself to children first when pertinent, playing on their doubts, fears and deep psychological needs (need for love, protection (Ronald McDonald ?), social acceptance (Barbie ?)

- by its very omnipresence, obliterates other forms of socially useful communication and information, creating a non-choice situation (say for food) for U.S citizens ('oh well, let's just go to Burger King' (sigh, what else is there ?)


Minor drawbacks

- tends with its billboards, to uglify and clutter the urban environment

- risks causing road accidents due to driver inattention because of its large hoardings along local and national roads

- in some countries, damages the film experience on TV or at the cinema with its advertising breaks or its heavy pre-film barrage of spots

- rather than inform the reader/viewer on the product's qualities, speaks more of brand image or post-purchase brand experience

- often tends to twist/omit/ignore the facts in its messages, favorising emotion, manipulative humour and the instrumentalisation of human foibles (fear, social envy, greed...); 'touches up' photos and images to glamourise reality

- according to the product or service, frequently aims for the lowest common denominator of PR (using kids' voices on radio, testimonials...)


STUDENTS' LIST COMING SOON

* See next post please

JUST PUT THE CROC DOWN THE TOILET !

But it's grown too big, Daddy !


* As we continue our bold, perspicacious journey through ADLAND, we have charted some of the territory of what once was a cute, lizard-like little creature and has now become a giant, dangerous man-eater (sorry about the metaphor, Romain)

* This is perhaps why it was possible to identify in our previous post several meritorious aspects to advertising; the more they are traditional, the more they seem positive. As we say, we are not against advertising as such, as it does still fulfill certain requirements of service technologies in the modern world in terms of communication, information and creativity

* There is nevertheless a but. Why are they asking us to swim in the pond, when we know there is a crocodile in there ? This is not a problem for some, who claim indestructibility, but can we all ?

* The next post, where we will attempt to list the demerits of the advertising industry, will soon be filled in equally by my students' ideas, with brilliant additions from the teacher. Note that the previous 'FOR' post has also seen changes originating from my students (see 23/04/09 post)



A suivre...

A (LITTLE) GU...ESS IS GOOD FOR YOU

Love your adman as you would yourself !

* We now come to a significant moment in our exploration of the ins and outs of this fascinating field of economic endeavour, namely, the advertising industry. How heartless we have indeed shown ourselves in our relentless criticism of the feckless, irresponsible adman ! The poor creature is just doing his job after all. Some of us would be quite happy to be appointed head of marketing for a dogfood company or a laxative product. “Hey, Mary, I've just been made marketing head of Poopy laxatives !! It's all downhill from here, baby ! Hold the Brussel sprouts !“ How cruel of us.

* As people tend to regard them favourably, let us establish an open list as to the merits and demerits of an advertising industry in any given developed country. We are dealing in macro terms here, in order to stimulate debate.

* The advantages of the list are to allow one to quickly group elements in a visibly accessible form, without having to write 20 pages of text. It is also undeniable that one of the consequences of the immediacy of information-retrieval on the Internet may indeed be that of consequent superficiality. So be it. Lists, while condensed, thus non-exhaustive, do however provoke thought, discussion and opposing views, all healthy.

* We leave aside here the debate on State advertising, which can touch on propaganda - term interestingly enough, coined by the Roman Catholic church to designate its early missionary activities. We will include, on the other hand, advertising for worthy causes and for public service announcements such as road safety, HIV-AIDS, alcohol abuse etc.


ARGUMENTS FOR ADVERTISING


Major Elements

- Serves as the locomotive to propel or the lubricant to grease (choose your metaphor), the capitalist consumer society

- Erects an ideal model of societal values through pedagogical universality and ubiquity (socialising role)

- Favorises a materialist, individualistic form of societal behaviour, thereby opposing spirituality, collectivism and fanaticism

- Furnishes, through identification, sub-conscious dreams or life solutions to consumers (escapism, see also religion)

- Proposes immortality through obedience (the dead don't earn)

- Adapts swiftly and remorselessly to deep societal changes (no-change is good, change is good)

- Suggests, per purchase, a series of mini-templates for happiness/ contentment/ satisfaction (if you buy...then you will...)

- Elicits in consumers, feelings of rivalry/ envy, which may be economically productive (I want one like that too...)


Minor Elements

- Displays, shows and pre-informs on the supply of products and services on offer to consumers

- In so doing, facilitates consumer choice at POS (Point of sale) by packaging recognition

- Recognises and thus psychologically encourages and supports economic target groups (children, bank loan seekers, car-buyers...you exist !)

- Informs on the specifications of diverse products/services for purposes of comparison (price, ingredients, conditions...)

- Helps develop an aesthetic sense in consumers: visual/ aural/ textual / ludic creations appreciated en tant que tel (fun factor)

- May underpin national or regional unity through sales discourse (1998 soccer World Cup, Superbowl...)

- Improves consumer reading, comprehension, vocabulary and maths skills (price per kilo, humour, wordplay...)


* This constitues a start, hopefully objective, to be completed with your help if you wish, as we advance. Some of the above possess a flip side of course, being both positive and negative according to one's take on the subject.

* Our next post will (possibly) add to this list and will undertake to establish a list of negative characteristics of advertising. Should go to several tomes...



STUDENT CONTRIBUTIONS (note that there may be some overlap with those above)

Advantages of Advertising, minor and major

- helps people discover that 'undiscovered' need, which he or she was trying to imagine... (Mariana)

- informs people about the health of the company (see institutional ads) or about their own health (see public campaigns for the health sector)(Mariana)

- develops people's creativity and serves as a good subject to talk about with your friends over dinner, during unlimited cellphone calls, or with your bored grandfather (Mariana)

- teaches people how to use a product and understand its function/purpose (Alexandre)

- allows people/gives them the space to compare products to identify which one is the best (Alexandre)

- helps traditional media, such as serious newspapers with decreasing sales and even public TV channels, to survive in times of free online publications. These private sector "cash injections" can help ensure good in-depth journalism (Stefan)

- can be interesting/enjoyable/funny per se; ads entertain us (Romain, Gabriella)

- constitutes a way for elders/senior citizens to keep in touch, at least stay informed, on the evolutions of new technologies (Romain)

- by focussing on environmental problems, may have popularized the issue of global planetary threats, which may then be researched elsewhere... (Tamia)

- contributes to democracy through public debate (Tamia) Example : ?

- presents life (as does consumerism), as simplified, often as caricature, but easy to follow (Farida)

- uses a common "référent culturel"(cultural stereotypes), so as a target, one rarely feels "lost in translation", thanks to common codes and references (in France for example, "Les Trois Mousquetaires", Claude François...)(Farida)

- if, as an adult, you're able to watch an ad and think : "this is manipulation and I am not going to fall into the trap", then Kant himself would have said that you were freeing yourself from the "guardianship" of mainstream thinking. This emancipation wouldn't be possible if advertising didn't exist (Farida)

- allows, just as tyranny or injustice pushes the best of people to become committed freedom fighters (e.g. Nelson Mandela), the most enlightened to become the heroic denouncers of the abuses of advertising and of consumerism in a globalised world (except some Parisian "bobos" and some latino "revolucionarios")(Farida)

- provides students with jobs in the industry (Pedro, Sophie, Pierre, Etienne)

- contributes to many sectors of the economy (without publicity, newspapers, TV etc. wouldn't be economically viable, for it is their main source of income)(Pedro, Sophie)

- encourages special offers and thereby helps the citizen/customer save money. Without advertising, special offers might not exist (Pedro)

- due to the constant flow/wave of commercials, stimulates a critical awareness in people, thus protecting them from commercial intrusions in their private thoughts and opinions; a sort of Darwinian process, a new kind of survival of the fittest : you filter or you drown in the wave (Emilie)

- although not essential to capitalism (one can buy a yoghurt or a shampoo without even having seen ads for those products), advertising exists, creates employment and stimulates growth (Emilie)

- succeeds in creating short stories that last one minute or even less ; to this extent, advertising could be considered as an art, just like the cinema (Maëva, Pierre)

- contributes to creating a TV culture ! (Maëva) Positive ?

- encourages lower prices; increases sales, which leads to higher production and more jobs, thus a virtuous circle (Sophie)

- encourages people's choices and decision-taking (Etienne)
  
- encourages diversity in society. Example : ? (Etienne)

- may provide the financial wherewithal for culturally or socially useful activities (sport teams, schools…), through sponsorship, for example (Lola)

- makes people aware of topical questions around the world or at a national/local level Example : ? (Gabriella)

- can create positive values of solidarity, cooperation, etc. Example : ? (Gabriella)





(à suivre)

BERETS OFF TO BAUDRILLARD

COOL MEMORIES II (1990), Jean Baudrillard, English translation by Chris Turner, Polity Press, 1996

For a change, let's glance through French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's book of musings, thoughts and aphorisms to escape from the constant, unilateral, advertising discourse which my somatised students seem to have assimilated quite successfully ! We are not hors sujet however, for the art of advertising covers the whole gamut of human experience, from cradle to grave. Adman to Deadman : And what sort of headstone would you like on your grave Sir ? Breton granite ? Crème de Touraine ? What choice of graven image Sir ? Advertising slogan ? May we remind you Sir, that for every slogan, our company will plant a tree in a McSchool playground ! Etc.

* Back to the Baudrillard book, from which I have extracted some interesting quotes below :

- " Everything makes us impatient. perhaps we feel remorse for a life which is too long, from the point of view of the species, for the use we make of it." (p4)

- "All these technologies which exalt or exasperate thought merely render it indifferent to itself... Le câblage est accablant." (5)

- "(On idleness)...I detest the bustling activity of my fellow citizens, detest initiative, social responsibility, ambition, competition...They are industrial qualities, whereas idleness is a natural energy." (7)

- "There is something faintly insane about belief, but conviction, which is a redoubling of belief, is downright moronic." (15)

- " The media reconcile us to violence, war, banality. Advertising, this nuptial sacrament and Extreme Unction, reconciles us to our artificial environment... Having himself become a virus, mankind is wrecking his dwelling-place and sanctuary. And the greatest mystery is perhaps that he was made for this, that this was his intended purpose." (23)

- "Hegemony of the commentary, the gloss, the quotation, the reference... We have to root out all metalanguages..." (25)

- "By his own admission, Descartes only thought for two or three minutes a day. The rest of the time he went riding, he lived...we can say of ideas that in Descartes they are to be found in thought and nowhere else, whereas in the modern world they are anywhere but in thought." (25-6)

- "America is not surrealistic at all. It is a universe of simulation or, in other words, a universe without artifice, not even the artifices of dreams... nothing can be imagined any more since everything becomes material, visual... nonetheless, (America has) become a dream universe." (39)

- "California... is a chivalric world with eyes only for its stars, and a courtly world, in thrall to the seduction of business and the love affair with images... It is not permissible to be bored... All new arrivals conform immediately; the solidarity is total. The Californians are committed to a job of advertising just as ascetic as the task of the Mormons with whom they share a geographical and mental space. They are a huge sect devoted to proving happiness..." (41)

- "Communication is to language what reproduction is to sexuality." (52)

- "(Should we) ...cancel the Third World's debt ?... debt is laundered precisely the way the drug trafficker launders money. For debt constitutes a heavy burden of moral culpability for the creditor countries... Thus, in laundering the debt, we launder our consciences as whites; we become whiter than whites." (54)

- "No pity for signs... with their semantic hypocrisy (the constant appearance of having meaning)... they must be taken for what they are - subtle and dangerous products of the world's indifference to us." (59)

- "Sex, lies and videotape. The spec of a class indifferent to life, but obsessed by its lifestyle. Of a class indifferent to itself and its desire, except when seen on videotape...it stands in...for seduction and language." (68) (N.B. videotape then = video today on I-Phones or Youtube)

- "All this artificial intelligence, this tele-sensoriality, screen perception... is the definitive end of illusion... the illusion of existing at any price, the brute illusion of death... all this vanishes right away... into the opposite of illusion, into total disillusion." (85)


* In this final quote, might Baudrillard be wrong in assuming so much ? Perhaps he is indicating - a Cartesian Frenchman under the influence of Californian myth and sun - that at his age and with his experience of life, that this is the impression he gets from the those in the environment in which he finds himself

* Though a smaller sample of society, when observing young French university students, we do not have quite the same impression of their reactions to their techno-environment. They seem to use it more than be used by it, although maybe education and individual character will come into the equation...à voir

HUMAN ANIMALS STILL

Where we seem to digress

Once an animal°, Man has evolved over time into, if one were cynical, a prolific, creative, serial killer. Anyway, into a creature possessing certain human characteristics (emotions, memory, humour, certain rational thought). Unfortunately however, in our humble opinion, he is still only at the hybrid stage of 'human animal' in terms of development

* If all goes well (lol), tomorrow he may accede to the ultimate(?) stage of sentient development on his small planet, that of HUMAN BEING. Too soon today to speak of 'humanity', except in tones of hope and reverence.

* “Throughout our lives as sentient beings, we are constantly under the influence of others and their ideas or creations, even of their personalities”. This highly illuminating comment by an undiscovered genius, rings true for the reason that it does seem to reflect our own life experience. Far from being rational like scientists, LOL, we tend to live and evolve in groups. In a sense, the group is US. A hermit is a nonsense in terms of the 'human' race, for we are condemned to reproduce our species

* Correct me if I am wrong, but given that our gene pool and our experiences are always going to be distinctive whatever the geography or climate, and given our natural gregarity, we are going to be in frequent physical contact with and possibly influenced by, several or many people almost every day

* Nowadays, this interaction can also occur via another medium, where the contact is multiplied by thousands, even millions. Whenever we see a human face in close-up on a TV screen or at the movies (the Carl Dreyer film 'Jeanne d'Arc' is a good example), we receive a quasi-physical shock, for we are witnessing the miracle of a new human being's appearance before us. Surely this is a mirror reflecting our own existence

* On screen however, the impact of the human face will lessen and disappear if re-iterated often, as we see in many Hollywood productions. The Russian Eisenstein, on the other hand, used the close-up shot in such a masterful way as to maintain the illusion of humanity (as in 'Staroye i novoye' - 'La Ligne générale'). But he was a genius. Perhaps witnessing the birth of a human baby might be a parallel to a better understanding of this feeling of 'attraction + shock'

* This daily physical contact with other humans, along with our reactions, may be termed 'interaction', but the term 'interaction' excludes neither influence nor rejection. One can unconsciously fall under the influence of what another says, does or does not do, just as one may consciously reject it

* We wish at this point to quite strongly stress the importance of this concept of influence. Whereas in previous posts, we have gone bananas criticising certain tendencies in advertising today, we wish to state forcibly that as 'human animals', peer influence is a natural tendency

* First proviso : as we know, advertisers do attempt to influence our behaviour by the manipulation of ideas and concepts via different media. Insofar as we, as educated citizens, are aware of this state of affairs, the deal seems reasonable, except of course when advertisers exploit in bad faith the educational ignorance of certain parts of society

* So advertising influence exists, nous l'avons rencontré, but we must proceed to fix the limits to this concept which decent advertisers should respect and responsible authorities should police :

- no discourse in bad faith (David Ogilvy would have agreed with that)

- no knowing exploitation of people's lack of education/ mental deficiencies

- no defacing/ overcrowding of public areas by ad billboards/ hoardings

- no ads in public places which, by their presence, could cause harm or danger to members of the public (e.g. road signs)

- no ads, except public service announcements, in public media and in schools

- no disproportionate volume of ads in private media (fixed limit)

- no use of subversive or secretive methods or technology in advertising messages/ media (e.g. hidden cameras in LCD ad boards at the Paris Etoile metro station)

- no misleading/ subliminal forms of influence masquerading under other names (advertorials, promotional events, games, viral marketing...)

- no crowding/ slowing down of Internet airwaves by aggressive pop-ups and videos

- no excessive advertising volume in any media or in public places where this might bother the citizen in his pursuit of happiness


* This is a non-exhaustive list°° of the areas in which advertising must be reigned in and regulated by formal, governmental bodies (French BVP, NOT !) and independent groups of specialists, academics and concerned citizens

* Influence exists, it is natural to humanity, but it too must be closely overviewed in the communications field, for if not, our society will fall victim°°° to the corruption of power oligarchies of the same ilk as the disastrous financial speculators/ CEOs of recent times. There is no other way.



° Note : do not forget that worms and bees are essential to other species, including Man
°° If you wish to add to the list, please contact me at : william.stephens@sciences-po.org
°°° We often already are...

NIX EX NIHILO

Will you be my ETAM/MATE ?

* To pursue our line of thought on the referential mode employed in commercials, we could state quite fairly that 'nothing exists in a vacuum, ex nihilo'. That is, no theatre, cinema or TV commercial can be staged with the director having 'imagined' (or so we call it) a situation which is totally original

* Throughout our lives as sentient beings, we are constantly under the influence of others and their ideas or creations, even of their personalities. Each of us will, if of a creative bent, subconsciously produce works which are at best hybrid , at worst, plagiarist. The less hybrid, the more original and the more authentically artistic

* To 'create' or to 'imagine' are merely words we use to recompense artists for their works/ productions, but in reality, these 'creative' works are always in connection with the experiences and memory of the artist. The potter needs clay to make his pot, just as the film director needs stories or images

* Referentiality is therefore a constant source of inspiration to directors of advertisements. Even a purely minimalist shot of an immobile person sitting in a barren desert wouuld call up in the viewer memories/ experiences (ours or others') relating to sun/heat/water/suffering/solitude/family/barren lands in Africa or elsewhere/rejection/religion/danger/protection/films on the subject (Westerns, documentaries...)/other commercials...

* Referentiality is indeed a positive option for the ad director, for we are all of us gregarious creatures requiring exchanges of ideas and of experiences. Like some parents who live vicariously through the lives of their children. The aim for the adman is to manage the references in as effective a way as possible

* In a 2008 commercial for Adidas, we see two young men in different sports attire on a playing field in front of a soccer goal-mouth. They are exchanging information on how to kick, first, a soccer ball, then a rugby ball. As in a real match, there is a 'wall' of young men blocking the goal-mouth, the aim being to kick around or over them. There is also – elsewhere - a set of rugby goal-posts

* At first, there are a few referentials, necessarily (youth, sport, weekend, rivalry, sacrifice ...), until we realise that the two men are both world champions in their respective football codes : soccer (Beckham) and rugby (Wilkinson). Other referentials now appear, like fame, excitement, money, success, credibility, expertise, learning, calmness, sense of humour, humility...

* Of course, the major referential in this Adidas commercial, which targets young men interested in football sports (soccer OR rugby),is identification with the success of their idols and the resulting efforts to attempt to emulate them, if only to wear a David Beckham jersey. Or wear his brand of sports shoe... This positive referential, the adman hopes, will suffice to seduce the young male, future Adidas customer

* This referential mode is, it should be noted, more subtle than the simple testimonial especially prevalent in magazine print ads and so often used in the domain of sport (Rolex/Omega/Tag Heuer watches, Adidas/Nike/Puma sporting equipment...) and show business (perfumes, beauty products, accessories...)

* Hollywood star George Clooney's self-deprecating role in the series of Nespresso commercials is an exception to the rule in that the ads are aimed at women who have either bitterly concluded that they will never sleep with GC, or cannot accept his good looks and success with 'other' women, thus his failure to seduce young women in the commercials is proof that they were right not to try to turn him on in the first place. They were too good for him, voilà ! But they CAN still afford GC coffee...

* Many more examples could be given of the importance of referentials in commercials in particular (more than in films, longer in duration, '007' flix excepted), suffice it to say nevertheless that all referentials will not function with all viewers and some may function improperly

* To conclude here for the moment on this central point, there are two types of referentials, the simple and the complex. The commercial above for Adidas sports shoes is an example of the simple model, GC and his 'What else ?' an example of the latter


(to be continued later)

KING KOMMERCIAL RULES

Referential Tactics of the Adman

* When viewing commercials, people may do so in the role of citizen or consumer, generally as consumer, because we tend to watch television at home (the cinema is a different kettle of fish) and at home we will be more relaxed than at the mother-in-law's

* When at home, commercials are either seen as 'a necessary evil' or as straight-up evil, a time to zap /do something else /talk with others...

* Ads are commonly upbeat, deformed mirror images of an advertiser's hypothetical dream society (in the West) where we are all subjects of King Kommercial, King of Dreamland

* Or where advertisers are like your best buddy (in Australia - sportsmen, France - Cerise), how could you not believe them when they give you advice ?

* Or where the sneaky adman has decided to create viral mayhem by 'creating' a 'banned commercial', knowing the Internet will do the rest in terms of visibility for the brand /product

* In terms of tactics, the advertiser may decide to employ the referential mode, which can be effective in that it calls up memories in the viewer, memories which, because they go back into a relatively distant past, are often emotional and thus not easily controlled

* Aside from abstract ideas such as time, power etc., many other potential references may be brought in : references to films, actors, songs, TV personalities, historical events, happy events, holiday destinations, sporting prowess...

* The top aim of the TV advertiser is to RELAX the adult viewer (from critical citizen to Joe Bloe in 5 sec flat) through the use of humour, childhood memories, images of social success, or positive ideas, like vacations...

* In France in 2004, Patrick Lelay, publicly stated that as head of private Channel 1 his role was to "sell available human brain-time to Coca-Cola" , a statement which caused a stir, people not being prepared to hear the naked truth

* In France, it is well-known that towards the end of news programmes and before the clutch of advertisements (now limited on public channels), there 'had to be' a cute sequence of images made to undermine the critical sense of most viewers, by showing (say) jumping dolphins, frisky baby tiger cubs with their mother, a baby foal's birth etc. At one point, such images were even integrated into the weather reports on a certain channel

* Emotion we know, kills critical judgement. Emotion sells. Aim for the child and you will reach the parent. In a fairly old French ad, a cute little boy makes a cute play-on-words for the Peugeot 806 ('huit cent six') van he wants his Dad to buy , misnaming it a 'huit saucisses' (eight sausage van) - LOL

(tbc)

DECENTRALISING THE DINOSAUR

Direct Participation

* Given what has already been said in this blog about trends in advertising over the past few years, given the 'madoff mentality' of the West's casino economy (gain, but no pain, for a tiny minority, a max of tax tomorrow for the poor majority), given the fundamental flaws of mankind (main flaw : corruption by money), but equally, Man's ineffable creativity, what can be done by the educated citizen to turn this Titanic-economy around ?

* Ahead and surrounding us, the icebergs of over-consumption. The opening of the ozone-layer. More pronounced global warming, as the middle-classes of India and China demand a slice of the pie we Westies have been happily munching for decades.

* Don't get me wrong, let us not abandon ourselves to facile feelings of guilt about the way things were in the past and are evolving at the moment. What we must do in the 'developed' countries is to lead - by example - the rising tide of Asian, South American and sub-continental consumers towards a better future, even if it means, and it will, a diminishing standard of living for the masses of the West. Compared to the fate of the Mumbai miserable, it should be possible...

* Leading by example and renouncing (some of ? most of ?) our former spendthrift ways may seem idealistic to some. However, we in the West, perhaps more than other nations, do possess the technological savoir-faire to make the breakthroughs necessary for the planet in the fields of clean power (see the Portuguese use of wave energy), communications, work practices, health, medication, the environment etc...

* If we decide, in the 'developed' world (this includes Russia), to merely wait and see, which seems to be the case, to allow our industrial society to continue to force-feed consumption through ubiquitous advertising practices in a hyper-commercialised environment, creating huge quantities of waste and a growing urban lumpen-proletariat, we will go down on our Titanic in a surprisingly short time. Violently...

* Not only this, but since 9/11, our societies are becoming more invasive of privacy, more technology-dominated, more secretive and less democratic (LCD ad signs, DNA samples, nanotechnology, embryo research, video surveillance, Internet snooping and hacking…)

* Technology, like advertising and banking, MUST be closely overseen by competent government/ independent bodies to prevent such dangerous deviations from the democratic norm as are being revealed these days

* More transparency, more democracy are the watchwords for today. To imagine our society rushing headlong towards a future of private-security, 'gated-community' inequalities and societal violence far worse than today, is unimaginable to those who have some leverage/ time in this society – i.e. the young, the educated, the politically-aware, concerned parents and retired people. These groups must stand up and demand changes of their local and national representatives in all fields (read Naomi Klein on this)

* In 'Fences and Windows' (Flamingo, G.B., 2002), the Canadian journalist notes some of the areas where citizens must act to protect the public interest against speculative, commercial interests :

- “...keeping advertisements out of schools (...), profit-making interests out of health-care, or news outlets from acting purely as promotional vehicles for their owners' other holdings (...) separating genetically-modified crops from crops which have not yet been altered” (Preface p.XIX-XX)

* As Klein says, citizens must reclaim the space taken over by private commercial interests, “ students kicking ads out of their classrooms, or swapping music on-line, or setting up independent media centers with free software (...) (or creating) farming co-operatives.” And : “...there are some things that don't want to be owned. Music, water, seeds, electricity, ideas...” (p.XXVI-VII). Direct participation is her keyword.

* To conclude, we need to become more involved in our democracy, through or within :
- the education system (as students, teachers or parents)
- local politics (housing, environment, advertising, waste management...)
- political parties (proposing positive ideas)
- Internet citizen involvement (blogging, targeted campaigns)
- media involvement (forums, letters to the editor)
- pressure groups, associations, unions, volunteer work
- street protests, to prove the citizen holds the power (Marx was wrong)

HERTA CONCLUSIONS

Rêvons d'un monde meilleur...

* So far we have looked at what advertising is, why it exists, the forms it takes - from paper to screen - where it is practised (principally , capitalist economies, i.e. most) and when it began (3000 B.C.)

* What interests us most however (I am employing, by affinity, the Victorian form "we", you will have noticed), is the conundrum involving Man's need to communicate versus the capitalist tendency - via the advertising industry - to forsake ethical principles for financial gain

* To better follow our logic, let us consider some simple, explicit conclusions which require writing down. We are assuming of course, that as a species, Man does have the right to exist and to survive, a point that the Deep Ecology movement (see later) might contest. These are :

- Conclusion 1 : primitive, gregarious Man needed to communicate with other members of his species. He tended to congregate in groups for protection, procreation, exchange...

- Conclusion 2 : Man is constantly creative. With his intelligence and ideas, he will attempt to survive, whatever the political regime, whatever the meteorological or economic climate

- Conclusion 3: Man as a species is also, as you may have noticed, chronically destructive. Destructive of himself, of others, and, more to the point today, of his environment

- Conclusion 4 : after a long historical process, most of the planet in 2009 lives in a market economy, under what Karl Marx denounced as capitalism. Capitalism places profit, not Man, at the centre of the the universe

- Conclusion 5 : modern capitalism, like a coin, has a creative side and a destructive side, corresponding to Man's nature

- Conclusion 6 : we live (until further notice), in a world of finite natural resources

- Conclusion 7 : global capitalism, in its scope and appetite, is objectively destructive of these finite natural resources (forests, oil, coal...), dependent as it is on growth to fuel what has become the 'consumer society' (1920s-?), soon to engulf India and China

- Conclusion 8 : the engine of growth in 'developed' consumer societies is the advertising/public relations industry, disseminated via a wide variety of media, events and spin-offs

- Conclusion 9 : like the financial industry, if left unfettered in its operations (CL, Enron, Lehmann, Madoff ...), the advertising industry requires strict regulation to prevent exploitation of the humble, the weak and the ingenuous Sciences-Po student...

- Conclusion 10 : the law of the jungle will not reign.

TOO COLD, TOO CLEAN

Size counts : small WAS beautiful

* We have previously stated that advertising, even at its most modest (fliers, posters) can be effective in calling on our attention, in informing us, while at its most sophisticated, it can reach the creative heights of high-quality cinema (see the classic G.B. Dunlop tyres ad or certain perfume or jeans commercials in Europe, in effect shot by film-makers like Ridley Scott or Michel Gondry)

* Whether or not these expensive, spectacular commercials are effective at the pointy end, we are not often told, unless a huge success (one campaign for Sloggi in France), for the information is likely to be considered too sensitive to be revealed (remember, advertising investment is a 50% success, but which 50% ??)

* If it is a given from the beginning that the role of advertising has always been to show in the best light, inform on and persuade in favour of a, product, brand, or service, the ethical and ecological situation has progressively deteriorated since the advent of mass television in the West. Stress on the 'mass'.

* Why ? as the French President would interject. To explain, I would reply here by a rural analogy. It concerns a certain British cheesemaker, who for generations had produced the same successful, good-tasting cheese in a small backyard dairy. He one day decided to expand his business to reach a wider market, putting up a far larger building to house the operation. Everything was ready and he set about producing his traditional cheese using the same old recipe in his modern premises. The cheese was abominable. It took him 6 months and special consultants to find out why. The reason was that his new premises were too cold, too big and in a sense, too clean, the bacterial cultures not being able to develop in the atmosphere to give taste and character to the cheese

* Today, advertising in the West, which is where I live, is indeed becoming like the factory in the example above, too cold and too clean (techno-driven, cynical, manipulative), too big (unpleasantly omnipresent, sponsor-mad) and like the tasteless cheese, far too readily accepted in its methods by the general public. Here we have a problem

* Let us not forget that this same general public is certainly not immune to the advertising discourse, for, firstly, its message is THERE in front of everyone and secondly in the message there will often remain at leasta modicum of information, plus some nice colours or a pretty face to look at. For we live in the West in a very visual universe...

* The problematic clearly equates to a dearth of pedagogy : citizens in our consumer society are not taught from an early age how their visual world is organised and how its codes function from medium to medium. Though per day we view quite passively hundreds of commercial messages (in the USA, 3000),
we are not consciously AWARE of the ongoing manipulation

* Most admit to WHY advertising resorts to manipulation, but underrate its importance. However, what people do not think about is HOW the manipulation is happening, for 95% of them have not been taught at school to ANALYSE, to DECRYPT a commercial message, written or audio-visual, and nor have their teachers ! On the other hand, of course, advertisers are all for the status quo, wonder why ?

* The new (for France) LCD hidden-camera screens (Paris Etoile metro station) mentioned in the previous blog, and which are to invade our public space by the hundred, are a good example of orwellian Big-Brother technology exploited by witless, cynical advertisers, in conjunction with trusted bodies like the RATP and the SNCF (French transport authorities) and sheep-like citizens...

* Unless of course this iniquitous development is being done in the name of the war against terror...solution : just film them !! If we are not careful, the large screens installed in citizens' rooms in the fiction film '1984' will one day become reality. In the name of security, shut up, consume and we are watching you if you don't...le meilleur des mondes pour nos enfants, awesome concept !

BEWARE THE SMILING SOFTWARE (WO)MAN

Where are you Bertold ?


To sum up in point form what we have said thus far about advertising :

* Historically-speaking, the medium of advertising, in terms of dissemination, has shown a logical development according to the technologies available at the time, from BC. Egyptian to AD. 21st century American (via papyrus, paper, wood, radio-waves, TV, through the Internet...)

* Some advertising (10%) is brilliant, creative, clever, persuasive and even ...ethical, but rarely green !

* Advertising is useful now and again. As time goes on, it has tended to become less so, as it may even cancel itself out with overkill (perfume ads in France), contradict itself, create disbelief or numbness in the consumer-to-be or even cross the ethical yellow line

* So in terms of volume/efficacy, the less the merrier

* Arguably though, to shock or provoke the viewer/passer-by however, can be seen by the cynical advertiser as a positive step toward consumer brand recognition

* Advertising does work half of the time, or used to (the time when an advertiser wondered on "which half ?"), so in the mad scramble to communicate and to thus leave no downtime, no space unexploited, no slot unpurchased, the notion of efficacy flies out the proverbial window, leaving mass discontentment and frustration in the public with the resulting overkill

* As advertising (along with its cousins, marketing and promotion - see in this respect the promotional ideas of Edward Bernays in the U.S.A of the 1920s to push smoking in women) became more sohisticated, it became more manipulative, using concepts such as psychoanalysis, subliminal messages and motivational research

* Regulations to keep it honest have been devised in most developed countries, either by the profession or by the State. In volume terms today, there are obviously time restrictions on radio and television advertising, although advertisers attempt to get around such restrictions in one medium by multiplying the message in different media, by spin-off products, product placement, sponsoring or even creating programmes around their advertising (TV soaps)

* Apart from exaggerated claims, advertisers use and re-use the old stand-bys of OMISSION of information, ILLEGIBLE SMALL PRINT on posters or packets, REPETITION of information, SATURATION of an outlet (tennis matches sponsored by ONE advertiser), FALSE INFORMATION (advertorials in the press), FREE SAMPLES (the French cycling Tour de France), SPAM, and many more

* In recent times however, famous clothes firms have persuaded people - especially in brand-crazy France - not only to BUY their brand, but to WEAR, FOR FREE, THE BRAND LOGO on the clothing ! Walking, unpaid, sandwich-boards ! People will sneer at you here if your clothes are unbranded. Fortiche ! (the French consumer, not...)

* Advertisers continue to seek out fresh spots and slots for their advertising : supermarket trolleys, escalators, whole buses/trains, toilets, school textbooks (U.S.A), sports clothing for soccer clubs, skin adverts (U.S.A, G.B), internet chats, forums and social networking sites (Facebook...) and 'pre-ads' attached to videos (to see the video, you have to watch the ad first)...

* NEW DEVELOPMENT : today in France there is an attempt by Metrobus, a subsidiary of Publicis, to use a new form of advertising based on hi-tech software, where the eyeballs of passers-by in the Paris Etoile metro station who look at an advertising screen will be tracked by a camera hidden in the advertising board to ascertain what he or she is looking at in the screened ad (the bottle of perfume ? the woman ?) and also to stock and sell information about the uninformed 'victims'. So far, the 'advertising watchdog', the CNIL has said nothing...

* These 'interactive' advertising boards are few and far between so far, but hundreds are planned for France. So 'Minority Report' was prophetic in its fascistic use of advertising against people who, from unsuspecting and uninformed (today in France) accepted the intrusive technology (in the U.S.A in the film). Eyeball-tracking technology again...

* I have inserted a link to a French anti-advertising portal in the title of this blog for more information in French , plus (Google permitting) a photo of the rather ordinary board.

* It is high time for those of us in education, students and teachers, to stop this unacceptable form of communicating an advertising message. Otherwise, it will be too late.

* The smiling adware-technocrat : "But we must keep up to date", "But they're doing this in the States", "But change is good, think Obama" "If we don't, they will!" "Do you want to regress to cavemen ?" - the excuses will abound, nevertheless, remember :
- the smiling car salesman (Tricky Dick, 1960s),
- the smiling software engineer (circa 2000)
- Now, the arrogant techno-adman who would code his own grandmother into fascism in two quick lines !!

DISINFORMATION & VOLUME

" You talkin' to me ?!? "

• Before speaking of disinformation, however, one tends to forget that the term ' information' derives from the Latin 'to shape, mould'. And it is, objectively, often difficult to be totally objective
  
  
• Disinformation ( public broadcasting of knowingly false, biased, or deliberately incomplete information), as we said in the previous post, exists equally in the private sphere, although in that case we would more willingly call it 'manipulation', person to person, small group to small group
  
  
• Large scale disinformation has a more insidious, Kafkaesque profile, for it implies a structure, a system, within which the information has deliberately been concocted to deceive a group of citizens or rivals, particularly in business or politics. In reality, it represents an attempt to twist, more than to shape, the information in question
  
  
• When you speak to students about this disinformation, whether in advertising or politics, they shrug cynically, admitting and even accepting its existence. However, many unfortunately remain in the grip of 'newspeak' or 'adspeak' out of a lack of information, education or experience.
  
  
• Nevertheless, knowing it exists is a start. To study examples of propaganda, whether it be posters or film (WW1 German, Soviet, Nazi, McCarthy era American...), certainly permits greater critical awareness in the viewer
  
  
• Before examining disinformation in more detail, we need first to introduce the important notion of volume, destined to become information overload, which, like too much alcohol, dulls the senses and blunts critical thinking
  
  
• With advertising, the phenomenon is rather subtle, for although we receive too much information, its medium and form will vary according to the product or service; it may please, flatter, even amuse or, Heaven forbid ...inform !
  
  
• As Eric Clark stated in his book 'The Wantmakers' , the risk of manipulation resides not so much in the individual advertising message - more or less effective - but in the constant, massive barrage to which we are subjected in the 'developed' societies, an informational overdose whose profound societal consequences are yet to be calculated
  
  
• Probable results of the omnipresence of the advertising discourse : delinquency, debt, divorce, de-politicisation, depression...
  

(to be continued)

ADS ON THE COUCH 2

As French semiologist, Roland Barthes, wrote in 1964, when analysing a print advert for Panzani pasta :

« Let us study an advertisement…because in advertising, the meaning of the image is certainly intentional…its signs are clear and straightforward, even emphatic. »
(translation by the author)

• In the same way that Patrick White's novels or Tim Burton's films call for analysis, so we might wish, from an academic standpoint, to analyse the production of a worldwide, creative industry, especially when its production is specifically designed to bear influence on individuals. Why though might this be considered useful ?
  
  
• Because citizens need to understand the society in which they live, work and procreate. This task of analysis behoves the intellectual, the academic and the journalist. For it is their traditional role to extract meaning from events and creations, past or present, in the socio-political and cultural spheres
  
  
• Let us not forget that to understand the past is to better apprehend the future, into which the citizen naturally projects himself
  
  
• A citizen requires honest, considered information and interpretation via these three professions for him to best choose his or her education, fields of interest, career, family or cultural options, amongst other things. He needs visibility
  
  
• It is also essential that he understand the forces that shape his society : the institutions, the political process, business, trade unions, and, of course, the media environment of his country, for make no mistake about it, if media barons exist, it is to wield political and economic power over a society as ignorant, disillusioned and unaware of its rights as possible
  
  
• Collective education is a tool in the combat against ignorance and poverty, we know that. Those powerful groups in the developed world who would control the destiny of society (and who indeed succeed in some) also possess a tool , a tool called disinformation.
  
  
• Disinformation (knowingly false, biased, or deliberately incomplete information) is transmitted both via the journalist (in PR, agenda-setting, false neutrality, hidden bias...) and secondly via advertising agencies (never neutral). The web has also now become a source of much unchecked disinformation, a form of good old-fashioned rumour-mongering
  
  
• All advertising (I can hear the wails of protest) IS NOT necessarily disinformation (only about... 99% - just joking). The British 2007 Moonwalking Bear commercial for cyclists' road safety in London is a good example of a thoughtful, creative campaign broadcast in cinemas, then virally on the Internet. Of course, human life is not a product...
  
  
• It is in the interest of the manufacturer or the service sector to prefer persuasion to accuracy in their sales communication or their packaging. This may be understandable given the costs and the brevity of the message, but too often, honesty flies out the window to be replaced by manipulation of fact or form (the famous asterisk on the price which says below in small print : ' price valid only at Limoges train station between midnight and 1 PM to people with a password aged 94 and dressed as toreadors'...)

(to be continued)

ADS ON THE COUCH

On analysing commercials - Part 2

• As we said earlier, the chronos of the commercial (or the video) on the television screen and its referential, essentially narrative nature, render more complex the analytical process
  
  
• Another difficulty derives from the fact that in the past, cultures and civilisations were all largely oral in their communicational tradition. Until Gutenberg and the printing press in 15^th century Europe, only the clergy tended to be literate, with the result that the man in the cobbled street or on the sand dune had to rely on his memory and his oral skills to understand his environment and make a living within it
  
  
• Man subsequently became literate and learned to communicate via the written word, but the word does present certain limitations, for indeed many words would be necessary to properly explain all the subtle implications of many a 30-second commercial, the reason lying in the referential nature of the visual film medium. See Jean-Luc Godard's fragmenting battle with the narrative here. Of course, even more complex forms of communication exist...
  
  
• The 'proof' of communicational complexity : watch closely a conversation between two friends and notice the shades of meaning, of intonation, of body language, of facial expression, of linguistic options etc. inherent in human interaction. Now that is subtle stuff, for humans are complex, walking, talking A-V machines !
  
  
• If one were to FILM this above interaction, one would arrive at something approaching real video (remember 'The Blair Witch Project' ?), cinema and TV, the thing would then become 'analysable' as a media object
  
  
• The narrative then is the original form of oral communication of information, from the limited grunts of the cavemen to our newsreaders of 2009 on French TV. The narrative :
  
  - subjectivises
  - implicates
  - informs
  - describes
  - invents

• In times past, the narrative may have been propaganda or information on the state of affairs of the land. It may have been warnings, gossip, lies or commerce. The purpose was to impart relevant information to what became a network of villagers or nomads who disseminated the (sometimes oriented) information to each other in a subjective way, according to the interpretation of the listener and the emphasis or aim of the teller. Nowadays, guess who is the teller...
  
  
• One may object that recent social networking sites on Internet 2.0 now constitute a counter-weight to the 'industrial' power of mass communication and the mass media, so that the citi-not-very-zen can weigh on the form or content of information on these outlets.
  
  
• Influence, possibly, but, one fears, for a limited period of time, only so long as the citizen remains ahead in the ideas game. His two main advantages over the journalist or advertiser on the interactive web being his reactivity and and his creativity
  
  
• Multinationals and big media (Volvo, Ford, CNN, Yahoo, Le Monde...) are now busy exploiting the 'You-Tube syndrome' and viral marketing in order to tap for their ends the reactivity and creativity of committed internauts, not to mention their avidity...
  
  
• Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' will help us recall that the media, in the USA of the 1940s, were already a source of real political power and influence. Think also Edward Bernays, Rupert Murdoch, Berlusconi, Bouygues...
  
  
• Consolidation and convergence in the above groups (remember the recent saga of 'The Wall St. Journal' ?) are the enemies of citizen initiatives, but citizens and political groups have begun to create wide, if loose, networks which may be effective in at times exerting pressure on the plans of the powerful

Fiction and narrative

• So, not only does the commercial insert itself in the general narrative tradition of the oral tale (I am telling you, I am showing you), it also uses the referential mode to emphasise and to re-inforce its message. For the advertiser knows that he is working in the realm of fiction, so his problem is to convince the viewer to re-act in real terms (to buy) to the injunction of his message, where his message is a ‘tale’ of fiction known to the viewer
  
  
• The advertiser knows that the the viewer knows that his message is fictional, which should constitute a disadvantage for him, except that that he also knows that the viewer accepts this state of affairs, to enter into what literary critics would call a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ towards the false tale being spun. The viewer is willing to listen, hoping the tale will be believable
  
  
• In other words, as with movies, the advertiser can use an actress to play the part of a housewife complaining about her washing powder and another to act out the role of the authoritative laboratory expert explaining why his or her brand is better (see 1950s G.B. ads here)
  
  
• The viewer knows that the manufacturer and the advertiser have hired the actor to repeat his or her lines on the box, but in a world swamped by advertising messages, it seems likely that the Western viewer will exhibit a certain reticence to 90% of these messages
  
  
• The advertiser is saying in effect in his commercial : "Pretend to believe me, even if this is all fake" !
  
  
• In other cases, of course, a significant slice of the TV-viewing 15-30 age group will ostensibly enjoy commercials for fun (You-tube trend), without believing them, indeed, mocking the poor taste or weak arguments of the adverts on show
  
  
• Ostensibly, perhaps, but they will buy the product in the end (the 'Apple' or 'I have a Sony Vaio' syndrome' ?) if only to appear cool or fashionable
  
  
• Although the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ (WSD) functions equally at the cinema - thanks to Monty Python, we know those clopping horses’ hooves are done with coconut shells - as in literature before it, the situation is a little different from TV
  
  
• Better even, for when the cinema audience sees ads in a cinema theatre, he has already bought his ticket for the product (an audio-visual production), whereas the TV viewer in his home is exposed to a (sometimes random, in terms of focus) barrage of ads, the WSD functioning thus differently
  
  
• In France, much of the advertising on public stations has just been suppressed by the Sarkozy government (cf. Britain's BBC on this). Let us then suspend our suspension of disbelief !
  A suivre donc.