Tammy Oler, "Making Geek Chic" 159
One.
Thomas Frank, “Commodify Your Dissent” (163)
One. What is the “countercultural idea” in marketing?
That you can brand yourself a rebel and an outsider who dares to break the rules of conformity. You are your own fierce spirit who won’t be tamed by The Man (164). “I drive a Subaru. Therefore, I’m an outdoors person who isn’t bought by corporate America. I’m not some bland suburbanite.”
Two. What is the irony behind the countercultural idea?
We get manipulated into buying and indulging in buying things we don’t need to “prove” our rebel status. Corporate America gets in on the act buy not being “an oppressor but a sponsor of fun, provider of lifestyle arrangements” (166).
“Transgression” and rebellion are now expressed through unbridled hedonism and fulfillment of one’s desires, which translates into spending money on this “rebel lifestyle.”
A middle-aged man buying an Audi coupe or BMW M3 is not purchasing a car; he’s resolving an existential crisis, tying loose ends, an finding vindication for a life spent toiling in the absence of adequate appreciation. “Well look at me in my new car, guys. Now I’m appreciated!”
Three. How have corporate warriors changed?
They still sleigh the dragons of money and commerce, but now they wear a different tribal wardrobe that replaces suits with athletic wear.
Today’s business warriors are more visceral about their war to win markets and they ape the histrionics of athletes and gladiators to get into their hyped-up mindset. Now they’re “risk-takers” and “ass-kickers.”
Chapter 2 Brought to You Buy (171)
One. Why is the office a familiar setting for advertising?
Because of its popular films and TV shows, which give the office setting a positive association. However, the humor is based on a more and more grim environment for people with white-collar jobs. Overworked and underappreciated, these employees live lives of quiet desperation.
A lot of the humor is based on schadenfreude, the pleasure of others’ failure and misery.
Two. Why is laughter at our office despair dangerous?
Because laughter suggests apathy and helplessness in the face of a seemingly insurmountable challenge (173).
Three. Why are advertisements the best way to learn about semiotics?
Because advertisements substitute “signs for things and by reading those signs you can discover the values and desires that advertisers seek to exploit.” Cars for example are not selling transportation but “fantasies of power, prestige, and sexual potency.”
We further read: “By substituting desirable images for concrete needs, modern advertising seeks to transform desire into necessity.” When we analyze the way ads transform desires into necessities, we have the opportunity to hone the craft of semiotic analysis.
Four. When did we transition from a production to consumer economy?
In the 1950s is when marketers used commodification, “associating logically unrelated desire with an actual product.” Advertisers had to come up with constant and new ways to stir discontent in the hearts of shoppers in order to keep them coming back to buy stuff they didn’t need.
Ads change with different eras, which reflect different values. Sixty years ago, ads promised greater domestic tranquility. Today, the emphasis is on celebrity association since Americans believe happiness is “living the life of a celebrity” and enjoying a “Chanel No. 5 Moment.”
In the 90s, irony was introduced into ads to flatter the consumers into believing they were above it all when it came to being manipulated by ads; rather, we were in on the joke.
James B. Twitchell, “What We Are to Advertisers” (182)
One. What happens to our consumer habits as we become older?
We stop clustering in groups or tribes to define our identity and we stop skipping from one cluster group to another as we constantly search for the ideal “lifestyle.” Eventually, we seek meaning upon which time our consumer habits become more fixed.
Two. In advertising, what is the term “positioning” mean?
Change the meaning of a product to fit the target audience.
Three. How do advertisers predict the buying tendencies of their target audience?
They use VALS2+, which refers to Values and Lifestyle System and specifically says that customers are motivated “to acquire products, services, and experiences that provide satisfaction give shape, substance, and character to their identities.”
Here are the various audiences:
Actualizers: These are educated shoppers who don’t need anything. They want independence. They already have the things they need. They are advertisers’’ worst nightmare because they are most resistant to manipulation and mind control.
Fulfilled: These are satisfied customers who support the status quo. They are retired and prefer function to bling.
Believers: They support traditional moral codes and are conservative in their shopping choices.
Achievers: They seek prestige and define themselves by the things they buy. Advertisers love them.
Strivers: They are bitter because they are frustrated achievers. They live beyond their means to show everyone, and themselves, that they are really achievers.
Experiencers: They see spending their income on products and services as ways to fulfill their lives so they are willing to spend a lot of their disposable income on these “experiential consumer goods.” Advertisers love them. Between ages 18-24, 61% of Americans are Experiencers.
Makers: They are like the experiencers but they are self-reliant and do things themselves.
Strugglers: For all the work they do, they just can’t make enough money for advertisers to care about them. “They are the invisible millions.”
Between ages 55 to 64, Actualizers, Fulfilled, and Strugglers claim 15% of the population.
Acheivers, Strivers, and Makers fill about 10 percent a piece and remaining 2% are Experiencers.
Writing Assignment Option from Reading the Signs, page 186, Number 4:
Using the VALS2 paradigm, analyze the shopping patterns of the two families described in John Verdant’s “The Ables vs. the Binges” (p. 152). Do the families fit neatly into the paradigm, or does their behavior call for a revision of it? Use your findings as the basis of an essay in which you assess the usefulness of the paradigm.
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