Advertising

According to Jean Kilbournes film “ Killing us Softly 4,” advertisements are talked about and used widely every day,  it emphasises that 3000 ads everyday are exposed to the general public through media and power and are influencing our society each and every day ( Kilbourne, 2010) . This film talks about how advertisements are very influential to our consumer society and by displaying these images creates an ideal persona that everyone wants to live up to. This in comparison is very similar to the author of “Power and Everyday Practices,” claim that we shape our marketplace based around the wants and desires of our society using a theory called consumer sovereignty.

 In the film “Killing us Softly 4,” Jean Kilbourne outlines that advertisements are very influential on us each day. Advertisements are used on everything; buses, airplanes, schools, buildings and even food. The usage of advertisements is a great way for marketing businesses and clothing items. Although, the way they are displaying us is simply wrong. Advertisements sexually objectify women and men everydays just too simply make some profit off of their product. Also everyday women are constantly having self image issues because of the way they advertise women’s beauty (Kilbourne, 2010). The ideal that all women should have the slender body and perfect hair is unrealistic because that perfect person doesn’t exist she is just airbrushed and photo shopped to look that way. These advertisements tells us who we are and who we should be in our society and if we don’t live up to these standards then we aren’t considered beautiful or the best. Furthermore, Kilbourne emphasises that it is impossible to fit the ideal because it doesn’t exist especially for non white people because they have different type of hair and skin then we do, so it is almost impossible to get soft silky hair when you are naturally born with course hair.

The authors of “Power and Everyday Practices,” claims that advertisements are a cultural meaning and act as means of social communication with our society through use of media and power (Brock, 203). Material goods can act as markers of status and this is a main concern that advertisements put forth what Jean Kilbourne says is the considered “ideal” person. Kilbournes’ claims about the ideal person displays that if you can’t afford or live up to the standards that these advertisements than you will be considered not beautiful, and poor. Consumer goods are used to embody the wealthy, in order to metaphorically communicate their higher status (Brock, 204). Upscale emulation, is a term the author uses to show where they are wealthy and what position or class they have in our society (Brock, 204). Advertising as a cultural role relates not purely to its ability to sell individual products, but its ability to act as false information. This helps induce the shape of consumer desire and behaviour.

 The consumer sovereignty model, assumes we logically seek to maximize their own wellbeing by choosing the goods and services that best fulfill their needs. This model states that those with income or wealth are able to use their power to help encourage producers (Brock, 206).  They do this by giving the steady message that cuts across all advertisements today, this is that happiness comes from the claim and consumption of the marketplace. Consumer sovereignty allows customers to have power because they are the dominant population that the company needs to make profit off of. Without the use of advertisements and help form our society we wouldn’t have as large of a market place we do today. Our society creates the desires and needs and we make a market shapes around their wants.

This being said, the consumer sovereignty model relates to Jean Kilbournes film “Killing us Softly 4,” because the bourgeoisie class has influenced our marketplace making it difficult for the people in the proletariat class to live up to the standards displayed in these advertisements. The market for these goods has greatly influenced the way we display these images in our usage of advertisements in a way for the lower class to want and desire these products creating more profit for our marketplace.