GEOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATION OF ADVERTISEMENTS

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GEOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATION OF ADVERTISEMENTS
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Why is place so important in ads?

• Many ads use a special setting to promote the
  product
• This is very rarely the most likely setting in
  which to use the product
• Wild, natural environments are popular

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What are the functions of place in ads?

• Forms a link between the product and its user
• This link says something about the personal
  identity of the user his/her hopes, dreams,
  aspirations, values, etc.

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Learn to read places in ads

• What does it tell the consumer about
  himself/herself?
• If the place is hard to get to, what does that
  say about being there?
• Why show the product being used in a remote and
  wild place?
• What message is carried by the place itself and
  what message is carried by access to that place?
• Can you read the intersections between social
  class and access to place?

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Ads and conflicting ideals

• People generally seek status in society
• People also generally dream of dropping out or
  escaping from society
• Ads provide images that reconcile these
  conflicting desires

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What product is associated with this place?
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What is going on here?

• How is the consumer supposed to see
  himself/herself?
• What qualities of place are being evoked here?
• How does the product carry those qualities of
  place to the consumer?
• What is the user supposed to desire and how
  effective is the product in delivering that?
• What stands between the consumer and what he/she
  desires?
• There is another invisible place the place of
  consumption. How does it fit in?

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Generic place

• A place that could be many different places
• The seashore
• The city
• The desert
• The mountains
• The jungle
• Etc.
• Generic places are quite often gendered

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What gender is the desert?
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Dont think men arent insecure
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What aspects of the desert reinforce cultural
stereotypes of masculinity?
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Environment as challenge

• Many ads that show natural settings present the
  environment as a challenge
• Men, in particular, are supposed to want to test
  themselves against this challenge
• Men are also supposed to believe that any kind of
  technological assistance in meeting this
  challenge is OK and does not invalidate the idea
  that nature tests (and therefore shows off) their
  manhood

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What kind of place is gendered feminine?

• Earth Goddess
• Luxuriant vegetation
• Green growing
• Soft
• Luminous
• Not dry
• City Princess
• Luxurious
• Sleek
• Sophisticated

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A fantasy-place stands in for what other kinds of
fantasy?
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Other identity stereotypes in generic places

• The desert represents a masculine fantasy of
  toughness, ruggedness, and (dare we say it)
  hardness
• Both the garden and the city represent feminine
  fantasies of romance, seduction and sensual
  pleasure
• What about fantasy places for children?

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Whats the impact of this?

• Ads intervene in place symbolism
• Place symbolism guides action
• So ads ultimately affect action
• (this must be true or advertisers would not pay
  for them)
• All human actions in some way affect large-scale
  systems of geographical interest
• Bottom line is increased consumption and
  increased alteration of natural systems resource
  depletion, habitat loss, pollution and climatic
  alteration

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The upshot of all this is

• Consumption
• Ads sometimes work to deny this fact, creating
  other place images

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Summary
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Ads do various things

• Promote diffusion (thats their purpose, put in
  our vocabulary)
• Use and reinforce certain generic place images
• The beach
• The big city
• The wilderness
• The small town
• The farm
• Etc.
• Use and reinforce stereotypes about men, women
  and children
• Q. What about racial and ethnic stereotypes in
  ads? How do they use place?

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What does an ad do?

• Ad creates links
• Between a place or landscape and a product
• Between a place or landscape and a particular
  identity (e.g. a tough and independent cowboy, a
  sleek and sophisticated urbanite, etc.)
• Ad makers intend for these associations to linger
  in the background (unconscious) because people
  buy the product in order to take on the
  particular identity but the product cant fulfill
  its implicit promise
• Ad promotes and denies the act of consumption
• People are compelled to buy more and more
  products to satisfy their insecurities
• This leads to a resource-intensive lifestyle with
  heavy environmental impacts that the producers
  would rather disregard or else actively deny