Where would modern society be without advertising? Individual advertisers might think
they are just trying to sell a particular product but advertising as a whole sells us
an entire lifestyle. If it weren't for advertising the whole of society would be quite
different. The economy, for instance, would be plunged into a crisis without the adverts
and all the publicity that fuel our desire for limitless consumption.
As John Berger observed in his book "Ways of Seeing", all advertising conveys the same
simple message: my life will be richer, more fulfilling once I make the next crucial
purchase. Adverts persuade us with their images of others who have apparently been
transformed and are, as a result, enviable. The purpose is to make me marginally
dissatisfied with my life - not with the life of society, just with my individual life.
I am supposed to imagine myself transformed after the purchase into an object of envy
for others - an envy which will then give me back my love of myself.
The prevalence of this social envy is a necessary condition if advertising is to have
any hold on us whatsoever. Only if we have got into the habit of comparing ourselves
with others and finding ourselves lacking, will we fall prey to the power of advertising.
While fanning the flames of our envy advertising keeps us preoccupied with ourselves,
our houses, our cars, our holidays and the endless line of new electronic gadgets that
suddenly seem indispensable. Tensions in society and problems in the rest of the world,
if attended to at all, quickly fade into the background. They are certainly nothing to
get particularly worked up about. After all, there can't be any winners without losers.
That's life.
Furthermore, together with the holy rituals of shopping (people get dressed up now to
go shopping in the way that they only used to get dressed up when they went to church)
advertising is one of the ways in which we are quietly persuaded that our society is
the best of all possible worlds (or at least so good that it is not worth campaigning
for any fundamental changes). Adverts implicitly tell us to get off our fat arses and
do some shopping, and the idea that the shelves of the shops are full of the latest
products is indeed one of the most effective ways in which contemporary society gets
its legitimation.
People like John Berger are also not entirely over the moon about the impact that
advertising and shopping have on the value of political freedom. Freedom is supposed
to be the highest value in our societies, but in the age of the consumer that freedom
is all too readily identified with the freedom to choose between Pepsi and Coke,
McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken, Toyota and Ford, and people lose interest in the
various political freedoms and our ability to participate in the process of exercising
democratic control. There are lots of criticisms that could be made of modern democracies,
but no one is going to pay much attention to them if they are more interested in becoming
happy shoppers.
In all these ways advertising helps to keep the whole socio-economic show on the road.
We are rarely aware of this because we are too busy working to earn the money to pay for
the objects of our dreams - dreams that play on the