How does advertising & branding further perpetuate the structure of class within society?
This essay explores how the methods involved in advertising further maintain society’s positions in the class system. It aims to explain the reasoning why the class system is so deeply engrained into society, and investigate the techniques featured in marketing and how they effect the individual in lower classes; and finally in magazines aimed at the proletariat.
Class inequality has been universally present in our progressing society. Historically manifesting itself in terms of wealth and possessions; with individuals owning more land, money or goods than others, propelling their status in society and placing them at a higher advantage, as Max Weber would suggest ‘besides the specific status honour, which always rests upon distance and exclusiveness, we find all sorts of material monopolies. Such honorific preferences may consist of the privilege of wearing special costumes, of eating special dishes taboo to others, of carrying arms’ (Weber, M, 1979) Fundamentally, this has created a class system that is evident in modern society today, exhibited through the ruling class and the working class. This is an ongoing battle, as D’Amato would suggest ’the struggle between classes is as old as class society itself’ (D’Amato, P, The Meaning of Marxism, 2006, Page 68).
Karl Marx believed conflict existed between different classes. Marxism is based on a philosophy of dialectical materialism, and can be described ‘in the words of the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: "All things flow, all change”’ (What is Marxism? An introduction to dialectical materialism, no date) in other words, the Marxian interpretation of reality that views matter as the sole subject of change and all change as the product of a constant conflict between opposites arising from the internal contradictions inherent in all events ideas and movements. Marx suggested that an individual’s life is determined by the State, otherwise defined as economic determination. Marx’s clearest statement on this is contained in the preface of the 1859 Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, “in the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will … which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.” (Marx et al., 1970)
Marxism also teaches of the economic base, also known as the substructure, which controls the other institutions which includes everything that is not involved in the means of production, also referred to as the superstructure. The ruling class own and control the majority of the superstructure, this ensures that their dominant hegemony is further reinforced to maintain the proletariat in a state of false class consciousness. This entails the working class being unable to identify the injustice, preventing united revolt to alter their situations, and further catering to the bourgeoisie and their capitalist society.
These institutions within the superstructure, are all interlaced with exploitation from the ruling classes. For example, schools are controlled by the economic base, raising youths to never question their living and financial situations, no matter how dire they truly are. Students may never push themselves further due to complications in the education system, such as placing students in lower bands, making them incapable of achieving their full potential. In Paul Willis’ text Learning to Labour, and in particular his study ‘the lads’, in which he followed a group of working class males who overtly rejected education and it’s values. Because these ‘lads’ could not achieve academically, they strived for social status in their peer group (Willis and Aronowitz, 1981). Due to this ideology being thrust upon students in the system, this could lead onto them rejecting their education and forming a ‘counter school subculture’, as they have accepted their fatality, realising their fate lies in a working class manual job, therefore they choose to enjoy their school life socially while it lasts. In relation, Vance Packard suggests, ‘people in lower social brackets do not seem to strive particularly hard to get into a higher social layer, they can be persuaded merchandisers have learned, to up their consumption.’ (Packard, V. 2007).
Another sociologist who concerned themselves with the class system was Max Weber, a German sociologist and political economist. In Weber's view every society is divided into groupings and strata with distinctive lifestyles and perspectives of the world, just as it is divided into different classes, he suggested that “status honour is normally expressed by the fact that above all else a specific style of life can be expected from all those who wish to belong to the circle” (Weber, M, 1979).
According to Althusser, as he explains within the text ‘Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays’, the State is a repressive apparatus utilised by the bourgeoisie as a technique to dominate and exploit the proletariat. The Repressive State apparatus includes institutions such as heads of state, the government, the police, the courts and the army, which can hold a dominant role over the working class by applying violence in favour of the ruling class, which is the class who possesses the State power. The Repressive State Apparatus is a separate concept to Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus, which in contrast include private institutions such as the church, the education system and families, which do not induce repressive means to initiate order. Rather, the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) reinforces these dominant principles in favour of the ruling class by ideology, teaching that those who do not follow order will face social rejection. The ISA serves to reproduce capitalism in regards to the means of production. Althusser suggests “the Repressive State Apparatus functions ‘by violence’, whereas the Ideological State Apparatuses function ‘by ideology’” (Althusser, L., 1971, page 145) Instead of fearing coercive action, the individual will fear straying from the social path and the common social consensus. This is how the ruling class achieves hegemony, “The processes by which dominant culture maintains its dominant position.” (Definition: Hegemonic, 2002).
One of the main institutions in relation to the ISA is media, whilst technically outside of state control, it still in many ways serves to transmit the ideas of the State, and as stated previously, to maintain the means of production which serves the capitalist structure. “The mass media, overwhelmingly private capitalist enterprises themselves and having other private capitalist enterprises as their chief customers (selling advertisement opportunities to them), promote consumerism continuously. Richard D Wolff would argue that “advertising has increasingly succeeded in “colonising” workers’ “free time” by defining the purchase and consumption of specific commodities as the necessary way for “leisure” to be “enjoyed.”” (Wolff, R.D., 2004)
Capitalism is the economic system regarding owning and distributing personal produce in order to gain profit for the individual. It rules out any shared wealth as a society and rejects any ideologies regarding communism. Capitalism is for the individual and the individual only. Capitalism takes a toll on the working class, especially those who have jobs in manual labour, as Judith Williamson comments “a Marxist perspective enables us to see capitalism’s ‘excesses’ as integral to it’s structure: how could it not exploit its workforce, and still make profits?” (Williamson, J., 2002) Working class children are prepared for the exploitation of the workforce from a young age, as Althusser proposed, “Somewhere around the age of sixteen, a huge mass of children are ejected ‘into production’: these are the workers or small peasants.” (Althusser, L. 1998)
Advertising is a direct manifestation of modern capitalism frequently integrated within our busy society today. In western society the individual is met with numerous advertisements every single day, from listening to the radio in a morning, seeing a billboard driving to work, to watching the channel breaks on television. Therefore, advertising plays a colossal role in everyday life. Benhabib would imply that “western societies have developed into a historically new stage in the evolution of capitalism, one which is characterised by corporations exercising monopolistic power and sustaining demand by advertising through the media.” (Benhabib and Bisin, 2000)
Advertising is a method of persuasion upon the individual, using various key procedures and elements. Williamson argues that an “advertisement’s role is to attach meanings to products, to create identities for the goods…they promote: a process today described as branding” (Williamson, J., 2002) The idea of acknowledging that our feelings and thoughts are not fully in our own control creates a sense of discomfort, further integrating these ideologies into the mind.
Even though the divisions of the classes is signified by the individuals various roles in the process of production, in other words job titles, through advertising and branding, it is these products in their false class categories that warp the structure of the class system by then redefining these class structures in respect of the consumption habits. “We are made to feel we can rise and fall in society by what we are able to buy, and this obscures the actual class basis which still underlies social position” (Williamson, J, 2002), this theory supports the idea that the individual’s worth is somehow calculated by material goods and financial status, as Wolff also concurs “Individual worth – for themselves and for others – became measurable above all by one’s achieved level of consumption” (Wolff, R.D., 2004).
Social pressures can arise as a result of advertising and consumer culture, meaning that individuals may constantly strive for material goods that their financial status simply cannot afford. The individual may feel excluded and disintegrated if they cannot include consumer goods into their lives, whilst they see ‘everyone else’ possessing them. Since we live in a ‘bulimic society’, as Jock Young would describe, with many products which are designed with planned obsolesce in mind, we constantly take the newest material objects in and purge them out when something new comes along. This creates a relationship with these material products, and a way to communicate a message to other members of society, regarding wealth, status or power. A person with the latest goods is seen as wealthy whereas those who cannot afford are associated with a lower status of worth; ‘advertising gives those goods a social meaning.’ (Williamson, J, 2002)
To the modern working class man, advertising implements ideologies and standards that are almost impossible to meet. Brands learn to appeal to the male by selling sex, perfect physique and social status, the key desires that a male may want to possess to magnify their worth in society. An example of this method of advertising is the Joop: Real Men Wear Pink campaign (Fig 1), displaying a male that clearly has a defined physique that a lot of men in the working class may not possess, being clutched by an animalistic female, clearly depicting the desire for sexual relations with the protagonist. The prime idea applied onto the audience is that if a male was to purchase Joop perfume, they could achieve the lifestyle that the leading male in the poster or footage appears to have; females suddenly want you, and you are the top dog. Unfortunately, this is never true, but with manipulative tag lines such as “Real Men Wear Pink”, it is easy for the audience to abandon logic and be immersed into a fantasy - exactly the scenario the brand craves. These methods are applied in advertisements of all categories; and if the audience cannot afford to purchase these products, they are further repressed and alienated.
As for working class women, their role in the family is constantly ascribed for them in terms of advertising. For decades, advertising has depicted women in the kitchen, fitting the ‘housewife’ role that had been conditioned onto it’s respective audience of the working class. These advertisements imply that women belong in this environment, and since it is the working class female that are most susceptible to viewing these advertisements due to their everyday activity, this is the exact target audience that the ruling class want to address. For example the Mr Clean advertisement shows a woman cleaning in a bathroom or kitchen, and not only this, she is teaching her child how to clean (Fig 2). This advertisement supports Althusser’s theory of the Ideological State Apparatus; through the institution of the family, the next generations vicariously learn to instil these roles through advertisements and seeing their mother clean and cook. The advertisement also contains text that reads “This Mother’s Day, get back to the job that really matters”, insinuating that the modern working class woman does not merit a day off and her most pivotal job is to clean and cook for the family. The brand introduces an imaginary male character, giving the impression that a female is a ‘damsel in distress’, and always in need of a strong male role to help her - she can’t possibly clean the bathroom on her own without Mr Clean.
Furthermore, women are put under pressure, to look and act a certain way. In order to gain sale of their products, brands will promote a standard of beauty which could be impossible to obtain for every individual. Through the use of photoshopped imagery, a lot of women, especially the lower classes, will feel uncomfortable with themselves, and the natural effects of ageing, weight gain or fluctuations in skin. Through this method of portraying the perfect woman, a lot of the time this will boost sales of the product, as with advertising comes the notion that life will improve with this product; you will be attractive if you buy our skincare products; men will want you if you purchase our weight loss pills. It is a cycle, and a direct result of capitalism, and a modern concept - “glamour is a modern invention” (Berger, J, 1972, page 146) The beach body campaign demonstrates exactly this (Fig 3) “Are You Beach Body Ready”, the use of inclusive pronouns suggests that the advertisement is addressing the individual directly, forcing them into a conversational discourse structure. The image shows a very petite figure, one that not every individual has, or has to have to be beach body ready. Since this particular body type is of a homogenised ‘norm’, and is dominantly portrayed in advertisements, other body types are ignored in mass media; leading to the alienation of a large fraction of the population, and it can not be generalised as an accurate representation of how a woman looks.
Advertisements and branding obviously paints an unrealistic standard separately for both men and women, especially those who are part of the lower classes. Some could say that advertisements are beneficial, the individual is able to distinguish their need for a product and consume, however there are more pressures placed on a member of the proletariat as they are not able to fully achieve ‘the American dream’. Berger, in his text Ways of Seeing, would say that “publicity principally addressed to the working class tends to promise a personal transformation through the function of the particular product it is selling” (Berger, J, 1972, page 145) Communicating that a product will serve the individuals emotional and social needs, persuades the consumer to buy it, in hopes that their life will improve socially or physically.
Though movements do exist to overthrow capitalism, for example the communist revolution, the lower class still mainly remain stagnant. Furthermore, mass media provides distractions within popular culture which is catered to the lower classes’ preferences. An example of this is X Factor, or celebrity news and gossip, dramatising trivial stories and creating hype to distract the individual from their class status, in effect, this could prevent any future motives to revolt, and keeps the proletariat in the same position in the hierarchy. In support of this theory, Adorno suggests that culture is to blame for the stationary social and financial position of the proletariat. Industries produce a mass of unsophisticated sentimental products which replace the more critical forms of art (Adorno, T). An exceptional example of this is publications tailored to attract the lower class, and more specifically, women. Through the established imbalance of gender equality in previous periods, ideologies have been implemented onto women without their say for many years, ideas which have been explored in this essay; such as body image and the overall ‘importance’ of appearance to fulfil their male counterparts ideals.
Publications such as ‘Take a Break’, a weekly magazine, creates a different setting than that of a high class magazine such as ‘Vogue’ or ‘Glamour’, the publisher, H. Bauer explains that this magazine is aimed at ‘C1C2 women [clerical or skilled manual workers] aged 25-55 with children’, (Gauntlett, D. 2008, Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction, page 145) this is evident through the concoction of real life stories, competitions and puzzles. The publication aims to attract a less aspirational reader through the nature of the lives portrayed within, perhaps with spare time on their hands. The real life stories featured in the publication are dominantly very shocking and usually involve violence or rape. The working class may be more concerned about issues regarding pop culture than important world events, in support of this concept, Noam Chomsky commented on how ‘normal’ individuals apply analytical skills and attention to detail into sports, however when discussing world events, there is not the same level of intellect; “The way the system is set up, there is virtually nothing people can do anyway, without a degree of organisation that's far beyond anything that exists now, to influence the real world. They might as well live in a fantasy world, and that's in fact what they do.” (Chomsky, N., 1988, The Chomsky Reader)
The headlines featured in weekly magazines easily attract an audience of impressionable women, through the use of emotive language and composition; exploiting the love that a woman has for her family and inducing a sense of empathy and the need to read on.
Lower class magazines also reinforce the idea that women need a partner, and offer various methods on how to ‘get a man’, whether this be through changing the appearance or through sexual gratification. The example (Fig 4) demonstrates the use of these methods. The main headline is ‘diets that work’, further perpetuating diet culture and placing a false seed in the consumer’s head that dieting is the norm to achieve a healthy body. Under this headline is other ways to achieve a standard that is difficult for anyone to achieve. Another headline states ‘Katy’s Xmas without Russell’, insinuating that it is negative and lonely to be without a man. This could also play with the individual’s insecurity if they are without a love interest. The magazine also shames Debra Messing for already dating her costar. This has a negative message which contrasts with other ideas included in the publication, for example the need for a love interest. The message behind this is, you should have a man, but do not be ‘promiscuous’. Through instilling these ideas into the consumers brain, they can attach meaning.
Alternatively, Joke Hermes suggests that women do not actually attach any meaning to the content in these magazines, rather, they are something to simply pick up and put down without any additional thought. This would then suggest the fallacy of meaningfulness, the notion that ‘when someone consumes a media text, meaning is always produced’ (Hermes, J. 1995)
In conclusion, it is apparent that advertising does play a significant role in the maintenance of class structure through methods explored in this essay, for example the selling of sex, social status and body image. The stagnancy of the lower classes is perpetuated through culture, especially the nature of today’s media for example television, radio and publications, producing meaningless products and distractions to stop the lower classes realising the truth of their situation, and disconnecting them from world issues. Pressures are placed on the lower classes to buy into capitalism, promising happiness through consumerism, whilst in actuality, this is not the key to happiness.
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