Advertisements do not exist in isolation. Advertising is both a reflection of and a formative influence on our culture [Pollay 1986]. Each ad is a microscopic element within an encompassing shroud which infiltrates all of public life and attempts to divert attention away from organized dissent. This omnipresence is not merely a casual byproduct of extensive advertising; it is an integral and necessary component of its effectiveness.
Very few people would view a single commercial for a $65,000 SUV and then race out and buy one. However, growing up and living within a context of such calls to consumption, exposed to them hundreds or even thousands of times a day, and never being in an environment which is totally free of advertising, is a completely different matter [Kilbourne 1999]. It is in this situation that advertising becomes the context, self-indulgence becomes the unquestioned norm, and alternatives, such as a life of forbearance and restraint, become the aberration.
Advertiser Control Over Public Discourse
Todd Gitlin writes that car ads are “an amalgam of the way advertising agencies and their clients think, the way they think we think, and the way they want us to think about what a car is” [Gitlin 1986]. The direction of power in this structure is significant. While “the way they want us to think” is included as a shaping force, “the way we want them to think” is notably absent. While there is an exchange of power, (meaning that consumers are influenced by advertisers and advertisers by consumers), it has been argued that in our present culture that balance is heavily weighted in favor of advertisers [Mander 1978, Kilbourne 1999].
Contrary to surface appearances, what is being sold in automotive advertising is not a gasoline or hydrogen powered vehicle constructed of glass, metal, and plastic, but rather a way of life and thought constructed of ideas and assumptions, all of which are far more subtle and difficult to grasp than the automobiles which result from their universal acceptance.
Once this way of life and thought has been accepted, the cars will sell themselves. In order for the growth on which market economies depend to continue, a population in enthusiastic agreement with a consumptive ideology is required. It is this deeper purpose, and not the sale of individual items, which is the raison d'etre of advertising.
Automotive advertising utilizes numerous modernist concepts in its ongoing campaign to maintain an atmosphere which is not only friendly to but unquestioningly supportive of car culture. The concept of the individual as sovereign, entitled, and deserving of as much privilege and convenience as he or she can afford is an underlying trope of all advertising. Without the dominance of this and other supporting concepts such as short-term thinking and dominance over nature, a world view in which private automobiles play a central role would be difficult to maintain.
Individualism
As an outgrowth of Liberalism, individualism is endemic to our modern way of life. Within the context of stable communities, which function to maintain a balance between individual and collective interests, this is not necessarily a destructive thing. Unfortunately, the long-term effect of cars, due to the mobility and separation that they offer, is the weakening of community ties, leaving only individuals uncontextualized by controlling forces [Kunstler 1996].
This individualistic view of the world is visually encouraged by the singularity of cars within advertisements. Each ad presents a singular car for a singular viewer, the viewer of the ad and potential consumer. No appeal is made to communal values, and no recognition given to the fact that, if everyone reading the ad buys the car, the real world will have little resemblance to the pristine isolation presented in the ad.
Despite their drawbacks, it would be foolish to deny that people love their cars. Throughout the critical literature, and in the advertisements themselves, metaphors of romance, sex, and even marriage are constantly engaged. When one considers the reality of a car as a steel object powered by an internal combustion engine (or a hydrogen fuel cell), this seems more than a little bizarre. The problem with this "love" is the same as the "love" of the natural world which is implied in green advertising: it is all love of self.
What someone who loves their car is actually loving is their own experience of having the car. Private automobiles are inherently supportive of a world view that is dependent on the primacy of the separate self. Many advertisements stress the difference between the "quiet comfort" found inside the car and the chaos and malevolence of the world outside.
In most car ads, not a single driver can be seen, not a single open door. The division between inside and outside is total. A person privileged enough to be inside the car needn't concern themselves with what is happening outside, beyond a bland appreciation of the unpeopled mountain landscapes which present themselves unproblematically in the distance. The emissions coming from the tailpipe are someone else's problem. These metal skins in which we encase ourselves are a manifestation of a mind set which is inherently self-absorbed.
Read more on automotive advertising:
- The Displacement of Nature
- Short Term Thinking and Nature as Optional
- Making Friends With Nature
- A Narrowing of Options
- Dominating Nature
- Cheerleader for Modernity
Sources
- Gitlin, Todd. “We Build Excitement,” Watching Television. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
- Kilbourne, Jean. Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. New York: Touchstone, 1999.
- Kunstler, James Howard. Home from Nowhere. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
- Mander, Jerry. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. New York: Quill, 1978.
- Pollay, Richard W. “The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising.” Journal of Marketing, 50 (April 1986), p. 18-36.
