Advertising as a social communication study guide

1 Questions for “ New Branded World” by Naomi Klein “ On Advertising: Sut Jhally vs. James Twitchell” “ Advertising as Religion” by Sut Jhally Film: No Logo Film: The Diamond Empire Naomi Klein: New Branded World 1. What idea was the gospel of the machine age? Bolstering ones brand name was important 2. What consensus emerged about corporations in the 1980’s? Corporations were bloated, oversized, owned too much, employed too many people, and were weighed down with too many things 3. What race were new companies such as Nike and Microsoft competing in?

A race to own the least and employ the fewest people rivaling the traditional all American manufacturers’ for market share. hey claimed that producing goods was only part of their operations 4. What tools and materials are needed for creating a brand? brand extensions, continuously renewed imagery for marketing and, most of all, fresh new spaces to disseminate the brand’s idea of itself 5. What is the difference between the brand and theadvertisement? Advertising any given product is only one part of branding’s grand plan, as are sponsorship and logo licensing.

Think of the brand as the core meaning of the modem corporation, and of the advertisement as one vehicle used to convey that meaning to the world. 6. What was the first function of branding? The first task of branding was to bestow proper names on generic goods such as sugar, flour, soap and cereal 7. According to adman Bruce Barton what was the role of advertising? In 1923 Barton said that the role of advertising was to help corporations find their soul. The son of a preacher, he drew on his religious upbringing for plifting messages: ” I like to think of advertising as something big, something splendid, something which goes deep down into an institution and gets hold of the soul of it. … Institutions have souls, just as men and nations have souls” 8. Where did the search for the true meaning of the brand take the agencies? The search for the true meaning of brands – or the ” brand essence,” as it is often called – gradually took the agencies away from individual products and their attributes and toward a psychological/anthropological examination of what brands mean to thecultureand to people’s lives. 9.

Why was the purchase of Kraft by Phillip Morris spectacular news for the ad world? This was spectacular news for the ad world, which was now able to make the claim that advertising spending was more than just a sales strategy: it was an investment in cold hard equity. The more you spend, the more your company is worth. 10. What did the radical shift in corporatephilosophytowards the value of branding send manufactures to engage in? Increased advertising 11. What does David Lubars call consumers? David Lubars, a senior ad executive in the Omnicom Group, explains the industry’s guiding principle with more candor than most.

Consumers, he says, ” are like roaches – you spray them and spray them and they get immune after a while. ” 12. What is the “ experientialcommunication” industry? A $30 billion bill industry. It is the staging of such branded pieces of corporate performance art and more. (ads on park benches, sidewalks, phone calls) 13. What happened on “ Marlboro Friday”? it refers to a sudden announcement from Philip Morris that it would slash the price of Marlboro cigarettes by 20 percent in an attempt to compete with bargain brands that were eating into its market. 14.

What was “ Marlboro Friday” a culmination of? it was the culmination of years of escalatinganxietyin the face of some rather dramatic shifts in consumer habits that were seen to be eroding the market share of household-name brands, from Tide to Kraft. 15. What happened to corporate strategy as a result of the bargain craze of the early nineties? Advertising spending went down. Many decided to put theirmoneyinto promotions such as giveaways, contests, in-store displays and (like Marlboro) price reductions The bargain craze of the early nineties shook the name brands to their core.

Suddenly it seemed smarter to put resources into price reductions and other incentives than into fabulously expensive ad campaigns. 16. According to the agencies what would competing on the basis of real value lead to? Stooping to compete on the basis of real value, the agencies ominously warned, would spell not just the death of the brand, but corporate death as well. 17. How did companies such as Coke, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Burger King and Disney respond to the brand crisis? And when the brands crashed, these companies didn’t even notice – they were branded to the bone. They always understood that they were selling brands before product.

They had their eyes fixed on global expansion. 18. How did The Body Shop and Starbucks foster powerful brand identities? What the success of both the Body Shop and Starbucks showed was how far the branding project had come in moving beyond splashing one’s logo on a billboard. Here were two companies that had fostered powerful identities by making their brand concept into a virus and sending it out into the culture via a variety of channels: cultural sponsorship, political controversy, the consumer experience and brand extensions. 19. According to Scott Bedbury what must brands establish?

Emotional ties because there’s no difference between products 20. What is the difference between advertising and branding? Advertising is about hawking product. Branding, in its truest and most advanced incarnations, is about corporate transcendence. 21. What was the new consensus that developed as a result of the success of the brand builders? The brand builders conquered and a new consensus was born: the products that will flourish in the future will be the ones presented not as ” commodities” but as concepts: the brand as experience, as lifestyle. 22. How do brands present themselves on-line?

It is on-line that the purest brands are being built: liberated from the realworld burdens of stores and product manufacturing, these brands are free to soar, less as the disseminators of goods or services than as collective hallucinations. . 23. How does Tom Peters separate types of companies? The top half – Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Disney, and so on – are pure ‘players’ in brainware. The bottom half [Ford and GM] are still lumpy-object purveyors, though automobiles are much ‘smarter’ than they used to be,” Peters writes in The Circle of Innovation (1997), an ode to the power of marketing over production. 24.

In the new context how did ad agencies present themselves to their clients? 25. What does Phil Knight think Nike’s mission is? its mission is not to sell shoes but to ” enhance people’s lives through sports and fitness” and to keep ” the magic of sports alive. ” 26. According to John Hegarty, what is Polaroid? ” Polaroid’s problem,” diagnosed the chairman of its advertising agency, John Hegarty, ” was that they kept thinking of themselves as a camera. But the ‘[brand] vision’ process taught us something: Polaroid is not a camera – it’s a social lubricant. ” 27. How does Tibor Kalman sum up the shifting role of the brand? The original notion of the brand was quality, but now brand is a stylistic badge of courage. ” 28. According to Richard Branson, what do you build brands around? The idea, he explains, is to ” build brands not around products but around reputation. 29. What is Tommy Hilfiger in the business of? Tommy Hilfiger, meanwhile, is less in the business of manufacturing clothes than he is in the business of signing his name. The entire company is run through licensing agreements. 30. According to Paul Otellini, how is Intel like Coke? Paul S. Otellini, replied that lntel is ” like Coke.

One brand, many different products. ” 31. According to Sam Hill, Jack McGrath and Sandeep Dayal what can also be branded? “ Based on extensive research, we would argue that you can indeed brand not only sand, but also wheat, beef, brick, metals, concrete, chemicals, corn grits and an endless variety of commodities traditionally considered immune to the process. ” “ On Advertising” Sut Jhally vs James Twirchell 1. As a social scientist, what question is Jhally interested in? As a social scientist, I am interested in the question of determination– what structures the world and how we live in it. . What is Marx’s aphorism that Jhally works with? I work with Marx’s aphorism: philosophers help us understand the world, but the point is to change it. 3. What was Twitchell amazed by in terms of what his students knew? I was amazed by how little my students knew about literature compared to advertising. 4. What about the material world interests Twitchell? I’m interested in why the material world has been so overlooked. Why has it been so denigrated? Why are we convinced thathappinesscan’t come from it? 5. Why is Jhally interested in advertising, coming out of the Marxist tradition?

The reason I am interested in advertising, coming out of that tradition, is that advertising links those two things together. It allows us to speak about both the material world and the world ofsymbolismand culture. 6. What is Jhally’s view driven by? Political factors not moral ones 7. What according to Jhally, have advertisers realized since the 1920s? They’ve realized since the 1920s that things don’t make people happy, that what drives people is a social life. 8. Why doesn’t Jhally agree with Twitchell, when he (Twitchell) says that advertisers are delivering to people what they want?

Advertisers are delivering images of what people say they want connected to the things advertisers sell. 9. What vision does Jhally see in advertising? A vision of socialism 10. Why does Twitchell think advertising excludes communal desires? because they are not as high on most people’s agendas as they are for those of us in our fifties. Maybe most people are not as interested in the things we say we are interested in such asfamilyand community. Maybe they are more interested in individual happiness. 11. Why doesn’t Jhally think that we can accept that advertisers reflect people’s real needs and desires?

Advertising dominates so much that it leaves little room for alternate vision 12. According to Jhally, where is the only place in the culture where there is still independent thinking going on? The academy (universities) 13. Why does Jhally think that students do not follow through on the politics they really believe in once they leave highereducation? When they leave school, they have a lot of debt that they have to do whatever they can to make money. 14. Why does Jhally disagree with Twitchell’s claim that the media system reflects most people’s ideas and desires? It has to do with access, not ideas.

Everything is dependent on ad revenues, rather than public service. 15. How do Jhally and Twitchell disagree when it comes to the question of power? Jhally: Power is coming from the outside in. As if these corporate interests are over there doing things to us. Twitchell: ads are the articulated will of consumers rather than the air pumped out by commercial interests. 16. Why does Twitchell think people buy diamonds when they know them to be worthless? The need to make ceremony, to fetishize moments of great anxiety 17. According to Jhally, what does the diamond example point to?

It points to how ads work (by reaching to human needs) capitalism works because it talks about real needs that drive people. 18. According to Jhally what is real and false about advertising? Real: its appeals False: the answers it provides to those appeals 19. According to Jhally, why is happiness a zero-sum game? Because although things are connected to happiness, it is always in a relative state ( in terms of what other people also have at that time. 20. What does Marx say about people making history “ people make their own history/meaning, but not in conditions of their own choosing” 1. According to Jhally, what happens when you look at only one side of Marx’s aphorism on making history? You get a distorted view 22. According to Jhally, why did the Soviet Union fall apart? No one believed in it. They could see images of an alternative coming out of the west. 23. Why does Twitchell think advertising is not a trick? Because he sees trickery not as them pulling a trick on us but us actively collaborating in the process 24. What is Twitchell’s view of morality in advertising? It doesn’t figure into it. Ad has 1 moral value: Buy Stuff.

Billboards ( immoral. The application of moral concerns to ads is feckless. 25. According to Jhally, what is the last way you should evaluate advertising? Whether advertising is telling the truth or not. There is nothing to evaluate in ads. 26. What does Twitchell think people are after in advertising? These patterns that have to so with belonging, with ordering, with making sense 27. How does Twitchell answer the question of whether advertising is art? Art is whatever he says it is. Art= what people who teach literature, art, run galleries, edit magazines say it is. 28.

Where does Twitchell see power emanating from in religion? The congregation behind the pulpit (supermarket arises) Sut Jhally “ Advertising as Religion: The Dialectic ofTechnologyand Magic” 1. What secret did capitalism discover that previous modes of production had not? (p. 218) capitalism discovered the ” secret” of material production and proceeded to install it as its central and defining activity 2. In older non-market societies how could we characterize people’s relationships with goods? (p. 219) A much more direct connection between the 2. people produced the goods the consumed for the most part. . What feature of goods did Marx recognize and install into his methodological framework? (p. 219) Goods are communicators of social relations 4. Why did Marx start his analysis with the Commodity? (p. 219) Because if one could understand how the community was produced, exchanged and consumed, then one would have the basis of an understanding of the entire system of capitalist relations 5. What happens to the real meaning of goods in capitalist production and consumption? (p. 220) 6. What does T. Jackson Lears argue about the early years of the 20th century (p. 220) That “ feeling” replaced information . What had happened to the quest forhealthby the 20th century (p. 220) It had become almost entirely a secular process -advertisers picked up on these exploited emotional needs 8. How does advertising resemble the therapeutic world? (p. 221) All overarching structures of meaning had collapsed 9. In the consumer society what takes over the functions of traditional culture? (p. 221) The market place and consumption 10. What is the function of advertising with regard to the relation between object and producer? (p. 221) To refill the emptied commodity with meaning –ads ( initial emptying out 11.

In the stage of Idolatry how does the consumer society respond to the appearance of the “ immense collection of commodities” (p. 222) Celebratory mode: celebrate the great productive capacities of industrial society as reflected in products 12. What are the early stages of national advertising characterized by? (p. 222) Products are dominant/transcendent/ awesome 13. What strategy did advertisers use to call forth a religious experience with objects? (p. 223) -visual cliches: vague forms of sacred symbolism -transformed products into a surrogate trigger 14. How does advertising develop in the stage of Iconology? (p. 23) -moves from the worship of commodities to their meaning within a social context. Products + People = embodiment of social values ( ads are meaning-bared 15. In the stage of Narcissism how is the power of the product predominantly manifested? (p. 223-4) Through the strategy of “ Black Magic” people undergo physical transformations or the commodity can be used to entrance/enrapture other ppl. 16. In the stage of Totemism, what do goods take the place of? (p. 224) Natural species 17. In the contemporary marketplace how is the person-object relationship articulated? (p. 224) Psychologically, physically, socially 8. How does advertising reflect the world that Marx described as characteristic of capitalism? (p. 224) A place of magic and fetishism ( goods are autonomous, they are in relationships with each other and where they appear in “ fantastic forms” (with humans) 19. What is the real function of advertising if not to give people information? (p. 225) To make people feel good 20. What is advertising a secular version of and why? (p. 225) God. They can “ satisfy” us and “ justify” our choices 21. What two gospels does John Kavanaugh identify? (p. 226) Commodity form Personal form 22.

At what level does advertising as a religion operate? (p. 226) Mundane, everyday level 23. What kind of religion can advertising be compared to? (p. 227) 19th century west Africa tribes ( Fetishism 24. According to Raymond Williams, what choice does modern advertising obscure? (p. 228) The choice between man as consumer and man as user 25. In the world of advertising the spirits of what invade the commodity and supply its power? (p. 229) The spirits of technology Film: No Logo 1. What did the new political movement identified by Klein in the mid 1990s take issue with? The growing power of multinational corps . What fundamental shift in marketing thought is reflected by “ lifestyle branding”? Management babble ( if companies wanted success, their true product was their idea, not products 3. What does this fundamental shift explain? New forms of marketing, assault on public sphere, less choice -hearing more about the quality of work 4. What was the function of the first brands? Comfort and personal relationships 5. What does Klein mean by “ brand tribes” Sell lifestyles ( ex. “ nike type of person” 6. What idea did Coke sell in the 60s? Peace and love, youth and lifestyle 7. What did Disney sell? TheAmerican Dream8.

What does Nike sell? The nature of sport, athletic ability of star athletes 9. How does the new marketing approach differ from the old one? NEW: goes out into the culture and actually sees where people are using products 10. What is distinctive about the town Celebration? Created by Disney ( reps the American Dream Worlds first branded town ( no brands there 11. How does the colonization of public space pose a fundamental threat to democracy? No choice anymore ( ads are EVERYWHERE –lost the idea of the public 12. How are shopping malls a striking example of this danger? They are private but designed to mimic a town square 3. What is different about the contemporary power of corporations than previously? -corps are on private property ( nofreedom of speechand expression – they decide what to put in their stores ( they decide who makes money 14. How does Walmart’s “ family values” brand identity clash with free speech? Lyrics, pics on magazines, etc. ( don’t fit their image 15. What do companies now see as their primary role? Producing brands and image meaning (logos) 16. How does a Nike sneaker get produced and by whom? Broker in hong kong send them to factories and contractors to find the cheapest place 17.

What is the “ Nike paradigm”? Finding cheapest places for the production and paying low wages 18. How are wages kept low by companies? Tightly controlling a work force (no unions) 19. What are export processing zones? Industrial parks (produces goods for our exploits) 20. Why is the work force in free trade zones largely young and female? They come from provinces and women are easier to control 21. What contradicts the much heralded claim thatglobalizationwill lead to development in poor countries? Labor is cheaper out east and they pay very little 22. How is the Nike example acase studyin worker abuse?

Countries began competing to see who could abuse their workers more 23. When companies decide to build the brand, what is at the cost of? Company sells off factories 24. How are American and European workers casualties of globalization and the Nike paradigm? People who had steady jobs lost them 25. What are McJobs? People who sell products for mega jobs, not real ones 26. Who are the two biggest employers in the U. S. Wal-mart and man power 27. How can a shoe tell the story of globalization It was produces all over the world 28. What are brand-based investigative activities?

Campaigns look behind the brand to see how products are produced 29. What have become the most visible targets of globalization? Brands produced globally (china, korea, etc) 30. What is the line of riot cops guarding a McDonalds or a Starbucks symbolic of? They’re guarding the “ entry point to globalization” 31. How can you shop ethically in this context? Support businesses that are ethical, buy in bulk as a school m become apart of the global movement 32. If you keep following the logos, where do you end up? Doorstep of the institutions that are writing the rules of global trade 33.

What is being articulated by the street protests outside the meetings of the global financial institutions ? Reclaiming the public ( “ the world isn’t for sale” 34. What forms can anti-corporate activism take? Culture jamming, ad busting (climbing on a billboard) Questions on film: THE DIAMOND EMPIRE 1. What did Edward Epstein discover is the real business of the diamond industry? RESTRICTING what people knew/got 2. Why can’t DeBeers operate legally in the United States? Because it is a monopoly 3. According to Thomas Helsby, what makes the diamond cartel different from other cartels?

It is controlled by a single company (which is owned by Anglo-Americans which is owned by DeBeers) Interlocking ownership 4. What makes DeBeers monopoly of diamonds an astonishing feat? Supply of diamonds is plentiful and abundant 5. What threat did Ernest Oppenheimer make to become Chairman of DeBeers? He would flood the world market with diamonds 6. What did a DeBeers mining engineer warn of in 1930? The diamond monopoly is dependent on the fact that the general public believes diamonds are rare 7. What was the simplest answer to the potential threat posed by small diamond mines? To buy them out 8.

How does Foudad Kamil describe the operation that he ran for DeBeers when investigating unlicensed diamond dealing and smuggling Terrorist groups, black market. Broke the law, beatings, punishments, kidnapped, took them as prisoners. Buying offices in jungles 9. The rise of what presented a new challenge to the diamond cartel? The rise of African Nationalism (1960) 10. What did DeBeers do when Mobutu Sese Seke emerged as the dictator of Zaire? Send in American businessman, Templesman. Attempt to mend relations with Mobutu regime. 11. What term is used to describe how the Mobutu regime operated in regard to atural resources such as diamonds? Cliptocracy ( organizing principle is one of theft 12. What did Debeers do to keep diamonds from Angola from flooding the market and depressing prices? Spent $1/2 billion…regulated diamond mining 13. According to Edward Epstein, what is DeBeers objective when mines are discovered in “ inconvenient” places? Prevent mines from being developed that are outside their control and come up with ways to prevent these diamonds from reaching the market. 14. What is Ernest Oppenheimer alleged to have done in regards to the diamond mine in Murfreesboro in Arkansas?

Illegally influenced the closing of the mine to keep diamonds off the market 15. What was DeBeers response when American strategists wanted industrial diamonds during the Second World War for the production of weapons? DeBeers hesitated ( they denied US free access to industrial diamonds 16. Who was DeBeers alleged to have supplied diamonds to during the Second World War? Hitler , Germany 17. What did an investigation by the Justice Department conclude about the DeBeers actions with regard to the industrial diamonds it did provide to the Unites States during the war? DeBeers overcharged US 18.

What did DeBeers wartime advertising appeal to? AmericanPatriotism( Paid for mining which produces diamonds we need to win war 19. According to Edward Epstein, what was the major way that DeBeers wanted diamonds to be introduced when scenes were written into the movies? In a way that was considered favorable ( man had to surprise woman and present her with a diamond 20. What did the British royal family become in regards to DeBeers? Sales agents 21. What fear did the slogan “ a diamond is forever” arise out of? Fear that sales would be cut if second hand jewelry was put out in the market 22.

According to DeBeers message to its dealers, what is its goal? Convince consumer to buy diamonds for every romantic milestone (cultural imperative) 23. How did DeBeers respond to the discovery of diamond mines in Siberia? did business with Russians 24. What does Thomas Helsby think is amusing about the eternity ring? Filled with stones from Siberia 25. Who comprises a significant part of the Indian labor pool that cuts small diamonds? 750, 000 cutters 100, 000 children under 13 26. What have Indian diamonds made possible? Low price jewelry 27. How did DeBeers respond to the discovery of a diamond mine in Australia?

Mobilized threatened to reduce prices 28. According to Walter Adams, what does the Sherman Act say? As long as you have enough competitors and act independently public interest will be protected. 29. According to DeBeers executives, what is the easiest airport in the United States to use if you need to leave the country when a subpoena is issued? Chicago O’Hara’s Airport 30. According to Edward Russell what did his boss at GE tell him about competing with DeBeers in the gem market? We won’ t compete with DeBeers 31. What evidence does Edward Russell give for his belief that GE is involved in a cartel with DeBeers?

After he was terminated, identical price increase was implemented 32. While Harry Oppenheimer has criticized the apartheid system in South Africa, why does Duncan Hines think he is not being genuine? He claims he opposes the apartheid system, but yet he makes money from it 33. How did DeBeers create a mining workforce from black people living on the land? Unskilled workers ( they forced them off the land by enforcing taxes the black people didn’t have cash so they had to work in mines to pay the taxes 34. What are working conditions like for the miners in South Africa? Long hours, not much to eat, harsh weather conditions 5. How did the revulsion of the world to the brutality of apartheid contribute to the growth of the Oppenheimers’ power within South Africa? Investors withdrew investments, international companies in South Africa got out of the country 36. What may be the cartel’s greatest accomplishment? Transformed the illusion that diamonds are valuable into a reality 37. Why is the diamond deception not a one-person play? Deceiver and deceived . The person who is deceived plays a part in the deception as well. It’s future rests in all of the people who believe its myths and carry on the value.