Trapnest, 3/29

As someone who is interested in going into advertising and marketing as a profession Adorno’s comments on the world of marketing and advertising were of particular interest to me and raised particular mention. These two quotes seems to work together:

“The Dominant taste derives its ideal from the advertisement, from commodified beauty.” 64

“Only those who can keep paying the exorbitant fees charged by the advertising agencies… that is, those who are already part of the system… can enter the pseudomarket as sellers.” 68

The reason why I chose these two to begin my discussion is I believe they set up the framework for our world of advertising. Firstly, it is advertising that establishes what we want, what we “Have to have.” Think of (a classic example in the CMC major) the pet rocks that were popular back in the sixties. Everyone knows a pet rock, is a rock, and will not do anything. Yet advertising sets in motion the proverbial snowball, once a few people have to have it, everyone does. The next quote exemplifies who has power to do this within the market. Everyone knows about that actually useful product that’s out for five years and you only eventually hear about it though one of your friends because all the company had money for was a 20 minute infomercial on Lifetime at 3am in the morning on a Tuesday night. Whereas there are hundreds of products that may not be as good as my hypothetical example but you see them everywhere so you’re more likely to consume them.

Another great example of these working in tandem is the movie industry. Think of the last movie you saw that was a let-down. Everyone has gone to the movies, sat down, excited for what you’re about to see and then realizes they put the “best parts” in the preview. Advertising creates an artificial hype about its products. Companies with money pay millions of dollars to have their posters in every theatre, previews on every channel, and cardboard cut outs in every movie store. When you constantly hear and see something you cannot help but having an invested interest in it.

While this is a theorist/theory that is brought up a lot I believe this exemplifies the cult of the new. Advertising continually creates “new” and “better” things that you have to have. And it could not have this power to usurp the old products if it was not present in all aspects of society, a constantly convincing and present force.