Re: Financing media/effectiveness of advertising 29 Jul 1994 03:28:30 -0600 from <6155GUASTELL@vmsa.csd.mu.edu>

[Jim Devine <JNDF%LMUACAD.BITNET@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One idea that seems to have gone unnoticed in the discussion of
advertising: over the last two centuries, capitalism has destroyed
all sorts of local, national, and religious culture and continues
to do so (for example, by encouraging the mobility of labor and
jobs).  (This isn't all bad, but that's another story.)  To some
extent, people have struggled to create new cultures to replace
the systems that have been destroyed, but my guess is that at
present, capitalism is winning. Part of this is that cop
capitalist culture of various sorts has replaced traditional
cultures.  Part of this is that Hollywood and advertising have
entered popular consciousness in a big way.  E.g., the recent
Big Brouhaha over O.J.  Mass-marketed celebrities and other
corporate entities are now the standard cultural referents.  People
learn how to deal with stresses in their families by watchng
situation comedies (rather than from their parents or school).
Advertising is part of the seamless web of cultural mystification
that people take for granted.

That's a bit disorganized.  (and my inability to easily fix
typos led to the word "cop" appearing above.)  But the point is:
whether one accepts my pessimistic premise (the current c victory
of capitalism) or not, there's a battle going on between two
types of culture: (1) culture created by people for their own
purposes, to make sense of and organize their collective life
and (2) capitalist culture developed by industrial amn and marketing
psychologists to manipulate us.  Advertising is part of the latter.
Leftists and liberals should support the former.

sincerely,

Jim Devine
jndf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx or jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles, CA 90045-2699 USA
310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950