Advertising and Consumerism and Education This week we looked at advertising and consumerism, with the assistance of Funes (2008) article titled Advertising and Consumerism: A space for pedagogical practice. To study advertising is an interesting concept, as Funes pointed out several times throughout her article. To study advertising, isn't to understand a product, but to understand the mode in which is sold to us, which of course can only exist in a consumer culture. When I think of advertising I often think about Mad Men and I think about what goes into the work that creates these ads and the buying of our short attention span. One of the trademarks of Mad Men, is when they have their brainstorming sessions or a sales pitch and Don Draper is able to come up with something brilliant that not only sells the product, but the feeling around it, at a time that was evidently the start of lifestyle based consumer culture. The goal on the Mad Men is what Funes says "the social representation of advertising produces an informational dynamic that allows one to see certain aspects of reality while at the same time blocking other aspects from view" (p. 163). As you see here. When we see what goes into creating advertising, we can see why it would be a important tool to study the everyday. I agreed with what Funes discusses about the teachers role, "to stimulate the analysis and reflection process" (p. 170). To study advertising is to study the process, the analysis and emotion that is created. I think this is an opportunity to give students the ability to think critically about what they are exposed daily. By studying the advertisement and not the product we can link back to McLuhan says about the medium being message and that understanding advertising is understanding the message. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y4b-DEkIps I will end this post with a final thought about the article. This article was written in 2008 and talked a lot about TV commercials, but I wonder, as was mentioned in class, TV in the traditional broadcasting form is longer the main way young people and students get information or entertainment. Youtube, online marketing and social media advertising, is way more powerful tool for that demographic, with that said, does that change the analysis and learning process of these advertisements for the classroom? If we follow what Funes suggests then, does that have adapt for the changing way this information is disseminated?
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AuthorHigher Education professional, with a passion for student affairs and educational events. Currently working towards my M.Ed. Archives
November 2016
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