Wednesday, January 22, 2014

QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 2 READINGS

DAY ONE:
John Kenneth Galbraith: Galbraith argues that seeking a higher standard of living is a fundamental component of American ideology.

Why is such an ideology necessary for advertising to “work”?
What kinds of possessions do you think currently symbolize achieving a high standard of living or “the good life”?
Can you think of ads that embody these ideas or model examples of “the good life” in order to sell expensive goods? To sell inexpensive goods?

DAY TWO:
Read the Fiske article, and take a trip to La Palmera. Answer one of the following on your notecard.

Do you think that there is a hierarchy to the types of stores along the class lines of products and customers as discussed by Fiske on pages 324-326? Give examples.


Fiske says that style works to identify group membership (to relate to the social order) and tastes works within style to differentiate and construct the individual. Look around at your fellow shoppers at the mall. Can you identify different styles of clothing that identify group membership? What types of clothing make up the styles? In what ways are individuality expressed within these styles?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This was a very hard read for me. I had to have a dictionary by my side just to try and figure out what this guy was saying. I am not too sure I ultimately understood his point because I was so distracted with definitions instead of the meaning of the article.

Why is such ideology nec. for advertising to work?
-If I understood correctly, it seems the idea if production increases, then wants will be created. Seems that people strive for a higher standard of living when they see new things produced. An example could be, before people wanted a phone for their house. Then the new technology of a cell phone and now smart phone came about and now the want for a cell phone(the good life)has increased and the want for a LAN line has deceased.

Some ads I have seen on TV are the Lexus commercials during Christmas season. I don't know anyone who gets a $60,000 car for christmas with a bow on it. But for some reason this commercial pushes people to feel this is a realistic thing to do for the Holidays and I am sure Lexus sales go up during this time because of these ads. As far as inexpensive goods ads go, I would think the Swiffer commercials make cleaning look so easy and show people so happy with a HUGE clean house, that one can't help but feel that they can have a happy home with the Swiffer's help cleaning their house.