Essay

Does advertising use a myth of glamour to change society or mirror it?

Advertising, the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, but is this really what twenty first century advertising is about. Are we simply buying a product for need or necessity, or is it something altogether different, are we buying into an idea, a myth of the way we should or would want to live our lives. Has society changed so dramatically that we cannot be content with who we are, the way we look the clothes we wear and even the way we smell. Does advertising package and distribute the ideological glamor life style we all find our selves drawn to if only to avoid the realisation of our own miserable existence, but surely as a society we are not so susceptible to by the nonsense that is shovelled down our throats as if to readying us for the slaughter house. Perhaps modern advertising is a critical evaluation of the way we live our lives and therefor is a reflection on the western consumerist society besieged upon us. Although could it be the cultural we find our selves apart of is what drives the way we are advertised too, twenty first century advertising is just feeding the beast within. ‘Advertisements are one of the most important cultural factors moulding and reflecting our life today’ (Williamson, J, 2005, page 11). I will be exploring these two points; I will focus my investigation on perfume and the advertising of perfume. Do people believe that buying water scented with various chemicals will lead to success, it will make them good looking and ultimately happy, or is it simply this idea of glamour that sells us our dreams.  

‘As Joseph Goebbels said: This is the secret of propaganda: those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the idea of the propaganda’ (Kilbourne, J, 2006)  

Glamorous, beautiful even gorgeous, are all words that could be describe the ideal male or female body, but who can achieve this, is it possible, probably not. Perfume retailers rely on the dissatisfaction with life to sell their products, ‘ads gleam with promise of transformation and transcendence via material objects’ (Kilbourne, J,  2006) to provide us with the relief we rely on to perform the menial task of existing. Perfume advertising shows us what we could be how we could live and least importantly how we could smell, the ‘reliance and craving’ we are subjected to during the brief thirty second clip is what makes perfume on of the most profitable brands around. Blue de Channel, a fragrance by Channel, channel have recently made an advertisement, the advertisement features the perfume for exactly two seconds, the rest of the advert is made up of one “beautiful” man in a room being asked questions by a number of members of the press, the adverts concludes with the man looking rather dashing uttering the lines “I’m not going to be the person I’m expected to be any more”, despite no one knowing or caring who he is we are encapsulated by this man. The advert is simply and blatantly has nothing to do with perfume, but a ‘product which initially has no ‘meaning’ must be given value’ (Williamson, J, 2005, page 31). This advert shows a good looking man being given the attention of the entire room, the perfume, an over priced glass jar of smell, on its own cannot provide us with an ideal of who we want to aspire to be. ‘ Women’s and men’s bodies too these days are dismembered, packaged and used to sell everything’ (Kilbourne, J, 2006) this is paramount within the advertisement of perfume, a myth of glamour, and a myth that we subscribe to. ‘A myth is not defined by the object of its message but by the way in which it utters this message’ (Barthes, R, 2000, page 109) this brings me back to my previous point that it is not the product but the myth that sells the product, perfume adverts and the ideologies that surround perfume adverts manipulates people to create a system that sells commodities, people feel underwhelmed by the whole experience, as the hang over from the night before takes hold and the sobering reality that you are not Angelina Jolie, the dishevelled man lying adjacent is indeed not Brad Pritt and you are still lying in the Ikea bed in your run down council property in Swindon. Perfume is given a use-value, ‘use value the power to satisfy, directly or indirectly a human desire’ (Cohen, G, A, 2004, page 418) perfume advertisements translates the product into different consumer and human relationships/emotions creating an ideology around the product. Perfume is glamorous, beautiful and sexy which is what everyone would long to become, perfume couldn’t make you any of these things. Perfume adverts are made in such a way it conjures the idea of glamour, and therefore become glamorous and once this connection has been created it inevitable will become an automatic acceptance of our relationship with perfume and how as a social group will be controlled into believing the myth. ‘Advertising performs much the same function in industrial society as myth did in ancient society’ (Kilbourne, J, 2006) Perfume and human emotion become interchangeable as they are of equal value, because they are one in the same, it is the twisting of peoples personal perception of there own lives that fuel the juggernaut that is the mass media. We are encouraged to ‘buy more to seek our identity and fulfilment’ (Kilbourne, J, 2006).  It is human nature to play the role of the naïve easily influenced docile body, have we been indoctrinated for so long it is the normal. As a society do we resemble Foucault’s description of the docile body, ‘a body is docile that may be, used, transformed, and improved’ (Foucault, M, 1979, page 136) we are being improved in the eyes of the holders of commodity, we are willing to role over and subscribe to the myth we are being fed.

‘Advertisements must take into account not only the inherent qualities and attributes of the products they are trying to sell, but also the way in which they can make those properties mean something to us ... Advertisements are selling us something besides consumer goods; in providing us with a structure in which we, and those goods are interchangeable, they are selling us ourselves.’ (Williamson, J, 2005, page 13)

 

If advertisement is selling us our selves, advertising is merely a reflection on society and the culture we have created. Society is the beast within; that advertising is merely keeping happy with what we want to here. Could it be that we don’t want to be genuinely advertised to all, what we want to achieve in life is to whiteness scandal and uproar. ‘We are surrounded by hundreds of messages every day that link our deepest to products, trivializing our most heartfelt emotions’ (Kilbourne, J, 2006) Perhaps that is the society we have created for our selves, people are constantly looking for any one to make a mistakes, to slip up, its not only celebrities that we want to see fall out of clubs or disgrace themselves ultimately trivialising their existence. In a recent survey of five hundred children ‘fifty six present believe the planet will not be as good a place to live when they grow up’ (Britt, R, 2009) this says volumes about the way our world is built on false values and lies. In an age full of phone hacking, big brother and global warming, to name a few things denting human civilization, perhaps advertising in particular perfume advertising is only mirror image on the debacle that we call twenty first century society. ‘The important thing to remember about signs is that their meaning can only be assessed in relation to their structure and their structural relationships with other signs.’ (Dyer, G, 2009, page 98) if perfume advertising is the sign, the structure it is to be considered against is society, it is only relevant to the way we are and what we want to see and be subjected to. If advertising is an assortment of lies and false reality it is only because of the nature of our own culture and the mess we find our selves in that it is like that at all. ‘Advertising encourages us not only to objectify each other but to feel passion for products rather than our partners’ (Kilbourne, J, 2006) is it not more likely that we have no affection for our fellow inhabitants on this rock and therefore we take solace in material good rather than people, as they can be so tricky to get along with. It’s much easier to want to forget about your horrible life and think believe you can be something better and someone more glamorous, perhaps there is not a myth regarding the way perfume advertises, but due to the society we have create advertising such as this seems more like escapism rather than indoctrination. ‘The connection of a “thing” and an abstraction can lead them to seem the same, in real life’ (Williamson, J, 2005, page 37). The connect we have with perfume advertising and the ideas they encapsulate in comparison to real life, it can be seen that the lines are blurred, between reality and what we would like to perceive as our reality, but is this due to how we live our lives and not how we are instructed to live our lives. Perfume advertisement therefore can only be considered as a mirror of what we have created. Reality is what we perceive and what we want to perceive is a better life, so we are only indoctrinating our selves rather than being indoctrinated.

Throughout this essay I have challenged my own opinions about the way I perceive perfume advertisement, I have attempted to explore the two conflicting views on the effect of advertising hopefully coming to a conclusion regarding my opinion of the myth of glamour within perfume advertising. Does advertising change society or reflect it? Through my investigation I have covered two ways of looking at how perfume is advertised, we are the reason for advertising and the way we are advertised to. Society has created a picture of itself and advertising agencies mealy play on this to sell goods, glamour sells but only because want to be sold to society does indeed strive to be bigger and better that it is, therefore it seems logical for to be advertised in such away to allow to believe in a myth that is glamour. Buying the product will not change you, but it could make you happier. If someone willingly subscribes to the myth then they may get some sort of pleasure from striving to be some one they’re not. Advertising has both changed society and indeed mirrors it as well. Advertising is defiantly part of the reason we believe and subscribe to a myth that we could be as glamorous as the products suggest, but it is society and the dishevelled, consumerist, disposable lives we live that is fuels this that keeps such advertising in business. The only conclusion is that we subscribe to advertising because of the way society is and society is the way it is because we subscribe to advertising.

         

      

Bibliography

Williamson, J. (2005) Decoding Advertisement. London, UK, Marion Boyards.

Barthes, R. (2000) Mythologies. London, UK, Vintage.

Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. London, UK, Penguin Books.

Barnard, M. (2006) Graphic Design as Communication. London, UK, Routledge.

Dyer, G. (2009) Advertising as Communication. London, UK, Routledge.

Cohen, G, A. (2004) Karl Marx Theory of History. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press.

Foucault, M. (1995) Discipline and Punish. New York, USA, Random House Inc.

Britt, R (2009) Is modern society ruining childhood. USA, livescience. http://www.livescience.com/7713-modern-society-ruining-childhood.html (12.01.2012)

Unknown, (n.d) Semiotics and Ideologies.  Unknown. generation-online. http://www.generation-online.org/c/fcformalism.htm. (16.01.2012)

Kilbourne, J. (2006) Jesus is a Brand of Jeans. UK. Newint. http://www.newint.org/features/2006/09/01/culture/. (13.01.2012)