Irving brings up several good points with this quote. Where do our needs come from? Are our needs liberal or conservative? Or a bit of both? As previously mentioned, capitalism and the commercial media system are directly correlated. They feed off each other and are quite the combination.
"Either capitalism is very weak or I am totally dis-illuded thinking the choices i make are my own. Who is to say we have not freely chosen this path to the satisfaction of our needs?" -Irving
Another interesting point Irving brings up. I am glad we discussed it in class and I am going to have to 100 % agree with Dr. Strangelove's view on this issue. Capitalism controls media and media control capitalism!
I wonder what the official statistic of money spent on advertising annually from McDonalds. Unfortunately, I could not find the answer online.
Considering America's dominance in this category, it is easy to see why capitalism is at its strongest in this western part of the world.
"I try to make the world more open."- Mark Zuckerberg
We buy into the liberal system. i.e. No limit to speech, power or personal wealth.
As Michel Foucault states, "Wherever we find ideology/power at work, there will always be resistance."
Propaganda in advertising is never 100% effective and it never lasts long.
Diversity: If you have a characteristic that is significant in one system, in this case advertising, it is most likely repeated in other systems. According to Dr. Strangelove, it seems like the belief system of capitalism reduces diversity and originality. In the context of media, diversity has contradictory genres with the same intention of converting the audience into consumers.
A Marxis concept is 'false consciousness'. This term is essentially the idea that we are all experts in deceiving ourselves. Society produces false consciousness within us. The core of this way of thinking relates to consumption and happiness.
Demassification: 7 billion people on the planet; What makes you so special? - This notion of the 'crowd' or 'mob' became a concept because there are so many of us. The advertising system demassifies products to enhance the concept of individuality. The notion that the product is made 'just for you'.
Post capitalist cultural production involves the participants creating non-marketed things.
i.e. Facebook profiles, wikipedia pages, youtube accounts... In other words, things that re-enforce commercialism.
What does corporate/capitalistic America want us to think as consumers? "Shopping is good!""I'm so stressed out, BUYING something will help me feel better!" "We are going to BUY pink to support a good cause!" "Let's BUY green to support the environment!" "Lets celebrate what we BUY!"
If we can be certain of one thing, it is that men run media and advertising. This directly related to gender in the media and how the different sexes are represented. During the feminist movement, Lucky Strike cigarette company changed its logo and shortly after greatly increased its sales. "Have a smoke, you deserve it." I could not find a picture of that logo but I did find this one, which has feminism written all over it:
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