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Fluid identities and Advertising
M98MC Week Three Fluid identities and Advertising John Keenan
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So far... Advertising’s role in maintaining capitalism. Five stages of advertising: utility, branding, symbol, personalisation, lifestyle. Methods, USP, semiotics The rise of consumer culture. 19th Century, 1950s, 1980s
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Reading check-up Week One
Understains Words in Ads Freedom Captains of Consciousness Decoding Advertisements Watch Century of the Self and Ways of Seeing
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Reading Check-up Week 2 Lury Twitchell Lee Bocock Goldthorpe Papson
Baudrillard
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Reading videos - volunteer
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The postmodern condition
What do you know?
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Postmodernism 1 – sign not goods consumption
‘the game of sign consumption is an integral part of the ‘society of the spectacle’ Lury, 1997: 69 Baudrillard ‘all needs are socially created’ Lury, 1997: 68 ‘the logic of production is no longer paramount; instead the logic of signification is all-important’ Lury, 1997: 69
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Postmodern Consumption 2 - knowing
‘The audience is increasingly made up of a media-literate generation, its members, rather than seeking the truth, in turn self-consciously mimic the media – they adopt the persona of fictional characters as a way of expressing themselves, they discuss their personal lives as analogies with the story-lines of soap-operas, and talk in catch-phrases of celebrities and the slogans of advertising campaigns. They know when they’ve been Tango-ed’ Lury, 1997: 70 ‘it makes no sense to criticize people for being insufficiently materialistic; instead, we should submit to the magic of advertising as a playful code’ Lury, 1997: 71
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Postmodern Consumption 3 – fluid signified
‘Objects are no longer related to in terms of their practical utility, but instead have become empty signifiers of an increasing number of constantly changing meanings. There is an overproduction of signs and a loss of referents’ Lury, 1997: 71
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Postmodern Consumption 4 – the consumed individual
‘Rather than people using objects to express differences between themselves... people have become merely the vehicles for expressing the differences between objects’ Lury, 1997: 71
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Postmodern Consumption 5 - hyperreality
‘the final triumph of capitalism...meaning is a sham...reality flickers like a television screen’ Lury, 1997: 71
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Targeting Fluid Identities
This week… Targeting Fluid Identities Targeting by demographics, psychographics, lifestyle, lifestage. The nature of discourse in the 21st Century
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Are you an individual?
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I love China
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What is the most important thing in the world Ruoxi Chen?
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Market Research
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Conceptions of Audience
1. Utility Unknown mass 2. Branding/Product Symbol Manipulated mass 3.Personalisation Socially created 4. Lifestyle Media and socially created
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Constantly moving happiness machines
Branding/Product Symbol 1890s-1960s crisis wants turned into needs Branding Meaning Constantly moving happiness machines
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The audience as active and in control
No longer a mass 1960s The audience as active and in control uses and gratifications (Blumler et al, Lull) encoding-decoding model (Hall, Morley) We must get away from the habit of thinking in terms of what the media do to people and substitute for it the idea of what people do with the media James Halloran (1970) cited in O’Sullivan et al, 1998, p.129
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code encoder decoder How knowledge of audience power grew
No longer a mass Awareness of sophistication of communication - shared codes need shared experience. code encoder decoder
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article
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Drugs are Music cool Posters Teenagers Drugs are bad Lasswell
The government Drugs are bad
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Communication must be targeted
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Personalisation Stage 1960s-present
People are targeted Q. How can millions be targeted? A. Discourse Because we act/think/dress/walk/talk as types
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Discourse - how we can be targeted
class age group ethnicity gender In society, perpetuated, exaggerated and fixed by the media
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Discourse - how we can be targeted
Michel Foucault The positions to which we are summoned
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Discourse - how we can be targeted
Louis Althusser interpellation
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Where is discourse contained?
Dress Talk Think Walk Objects Activity
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What is the male discourse?
Dress Talk Think Walk Objects Activity
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Targeting Men
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Male + Northern England
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NOe to the adverts 1. Codes 2. Style 3. Target
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Discourse - how we can be targeted
Products are part of the discourse ‘We are both product and consumer; we consume, buy the product, yet we are the product. Thus our lives become our own creations, through buying; an identikit of different images of ourselves, created by different products…Advertisements are selling us ourselves’ Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertisements
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Demographic categories
Demographics Age Gender Ethnicity Class What to say, drink, eat where to go, how to think, what to wear
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Ethnicity
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What lies behind the way we structure the world is, ‘not directly available to the senses … non observable … unconscious’ Strinati D 1995 An introduction to theories of popular culture London: Routledge p96
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Gender – class – age – ethnicity - nationality
In pairs What demographic discourses do you belong to? What are the features of that demographic group? To what extent do you ‘belong’ in this group? Gender – class – age – ethnicity - nationality
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However... Most adverts reflect discourses through Products targeted at them Signifiers
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What products are targeted at women
Foucault - The subject is produced performatively Althusser - hail
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signifiers Semiotics denotation-connotation signifier-signified
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signifiers pink red - love soft
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signifiers blue freedom powerful
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signifiers natural white pure innocent
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signifiers natural Green
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signifiers
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1980s + Psychographic targeting Life-stage targeting
Lifestyle targeting
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Psychographic Targeting
Based on charting psychological-types
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Examples of psychological types
Succeeder Mainstreamer Aspirer Reformer Individualist Carer
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Gillette 1 Gillette 2
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What is the type?
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What is the type?
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What is the type?
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What is the type?
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Put your name on a sheet of paper and 4 adjectives which describe your character
Pass it to the person next to you and they choose an animal the adjectives describe
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Animals as psychographics
playful happy loyal caring
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Animals as psychographics
Independent Scheming Quick-thinking Like luxury
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Animals as psychographics
Powerful Calm Like to be in control Competitive
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Life-Stage Targeting
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Self actualisation – becoming all we are capable of being
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Life-Stages child teenager student worker singleton coupledom parent empty-nester pensioner
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Life-Stage Acronyms DINKY Double Income No Kids Yet. GLAM Greying, Leisured, Affluent, Married. OINKY One Income, No Kids Yet. SADFAB Single And Desperate For A Baby. SINBAD Single Income No Boyfriend And Desperate. SITCOM Single Income Two Children Oppressive Mortgage. SKI-ing Spending the Kids' Inheritance. WOOP
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Targeting by a ‘way of life’ People act in discourses
Lifestyle Targeting Targeting by a ‘way of life’ People act in discourses Increasingly these discourses are media-originated
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STUDENT LIFESTYLE LISTEN TO POP ‘ZANY’ OPERATE IN GROUPS WEAR JEANS
USE RECREATIONAL DRUGS DRINK TOO MUCH THINK POLITICIANS ARE CORRUPT STUDENT LIFESTYLE SLEEP IN UNTIL THE AFTERNOON LISTEN TO LOUD MUSIC EAT TAKE-AWAYS LISTEN TO POP ‘ZANY’ OPERATE IN GROUPS WEAR JEANS FRIEND DEPENDENT LIKE CHEAP
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The Yuppie 4.42
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The Earth Mother
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Friends Lifestyle
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SEX AND THE CITY Plenty of sex/partners . Eat ice cream
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Skater/Surfer
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Hip-Hop Discourse .
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Emo Discourse Attitude: anti-everything mainstream, appeal of the unusual, self-reflection, melodrama, respecting others’ feelings Words: rank, techie, panning Lifestyle: live in a shared house/parents, vegetarianism ‘Following a band that seems like “your little secret”’
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Cosmo Girl Loaded Lad Today's Hottest Gossip
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Lifestyle advertising
1980s-present Lifestyle advertising
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Lifestyle Adverts First BT ad Development End? Slice of Life
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‘Advertisements are selling us something else besides consumer goods: in providing us with a structure in which we, and those goods, are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves’ Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertisements
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Adverts give objects meaning
We buy the object we buy the meaning The meaning transfers onto us We are the object We have been sold ourselves
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Adverts give products meaning for use in our social identity
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Conspicuous consumption
Thorstein Veblen 1953
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William H White The Organisation Man
inconspicuous consumption = an anti-social act
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I consume therefore I am
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The postmodern condition
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Postmodernism: identity
The death of God left the angels in a strange position. They were overtaken suddenly by a fundamental question… The question was, ‘What are angels?’
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Creation of Metanarratives
Modernism THE IDEA OF PROGRESS Creation of Metanarratives Rational Thought History Voltaire ( ) - ordered history and set it in a time frame and judged it by a fixed morality and scientific laws Science Newton ( ) - science. 17th Century onwards: ‘science became the major aspect of human life…science could only move one way, forward’ SIDNEY POLLARD LONDON: MIDDLESEX, 1968, P.20 Philosophy Descartes ( ): I think therefore I am Pascal( ): ‘men…as one man, always living and incessantly learning’ cited in THE IDEA OF PROGRESS, SIDNEY POLLARD LONDON: MIDDLESEX, 1968, P.20
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All that is solid will melt into air
Postmodernism All that is solid will melt into air Berman cited in Hebdige, After the Masses, in New Times, Hall S and jacques (Eds),1989: p.76 We are swimming in a sea of signs Jean Baudrillard Postmodern culture is a fragmented culture John Fiske, Postmodernism and Television, Chapter 3 in Mass Media and Society, 2nd Edition (1996), London: Arnold p.56
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
Science By understanding the world we will control it We exist to make the world better (progress) metanarratives 1 The universe was made by a Big Bang People keep improving life People evolved from apes
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
History Cavemen were wild We live to maintain this progress metanarratives 2 Civilisations like The Romans controlled them but were violent and dangerous Democracy came and gave us power Kings established a secure civilised country
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
Church God creates world People go bad Jesus dies to save people from Hell Metanarratives 3 Repent and go to Heaven Life is a trial
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
Some people have special skills Authority metanarratives 4 These people should use them to serve society Life is about knowing your place in society and serving where you can We must respect those who serve for our good
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
State I am born an Englishman metanarratives 5 I like roast beef, drink pints and show no emotion I exist to maintain the natural way of life of my people These values I will fight for my children to have
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
Marxism We are all born equal metanarratives 6 Some have more than others, some starve I exist to ensure that the world becomes fair We must take from those with more than they need and give it to those who need it
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
Feminism Women are oppressed by men metanarratives 6 Women need to rise up and take an equal place I exist to make the world fairer for women
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Lyotard - an incredulity towards metanarratives
Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives Post-modernism Lyotard - an incredulity towards metanarratives
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
High Windows
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
The loss of metanarratives A culture with No progress No common ideology No common meaning We are free. We are lost.
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Postmodernism 1: Metanarratives
The loss of meta-narratives Dick Hebdige 3 Negations Against totalisation Against teleology – designed for result Against utopia As if (1950s) As if (2000s)
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Postmodernism: identity
‘Consumers use these symbolic meanings to construct, maintain and express each of their multiple identities’ Elliot 133
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Postmodernism identity
‘The self is conceptualised in post-modernity not as a given product of a social system nor as a fixed entity which the individual can simply adopt, but as something the person actively creates, partially through consumption’ Elliot p.132
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Postmodernism identity
‘the individual endeavours to construct and maintain an identity that will remain stable through a rapidly changing environment’ Elliot p.131
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Postmodernism identity Northern - down-to earth
Male - watches football Amir Khan British - accent Sporty - Adidas Muslim - prays to Allah Amir Khan Pakistani - supports them at cricket Teenager - wears a baseball cap
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rural Who am I? green rich
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I am powerful Who am I? I am sporty/be the best I am independent/art above science
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Educated and liberal Who am I? Fashionable/active Young and sociable
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‘The individual is offered resources to achieve ‘an ego-ideal’ which commands the respect of others and inspires self-love’ Elliot p.131
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Who could you be?
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A pool of possible selves
Who could you be? A pool of possible selves
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10. ‘Culture and commerce are now fully intertwined’
Davidson M, The Consumerist Manifesto, 1992, London: Routledge, p.191
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‘The self is a symbolic project, which the individual must actively construct out of the available symbolic materials’ Elliot, p.131
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