Académique Documents
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COURSE HANDBOOK
2010
Contents........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction..................................................................................................................................................1
Learning outcomes.......................................................................................................................................2
WEEK BY WEEK.......................................................................................................................................5
Week 4 Hard and soft sell; or the rational, the creative and the postmodern...................................... 6
Study Groups............................................................................................................................................. 12
FURTHER READING..............................................................................................................................16
RESOURCES............................................................................................................................................. 19
Note: ........................................................................................................................................................... 22
Introduction
Students shall also aim to examine the notion of advertising’s power. The
means of regulating and challenging those powers are issues ever present
in debates, whether advertising is regarded as shaping our media
environments or encouraging individual consumer purchases and shaping
identities.
Learning outcomes
At a more practical level you will have developed some other skills:
• You know where to turn to begin to research a particular aspect of
advertising.
• You have built up your experience of working collaboratively and
independently.
• You have gained more confidence in expressing your ideas, asking
questions, and responding to others, even in a quite large group.
• You have become more adept at doing 'formal' presentations,
relying only on notes to speak from, and making appropriate use of
audio/visual material. But you have also developed your skills in
responding to others’ presentations and evaluating them.
• You have improved your writing skills. You are more confident with
the genre of the academic essay, especially the long research
essay, and have had practice at other forms of writing.
INTRODUCTION
WEEK 1: Lecture: ‘Introduction to advertising & promotion’
Seminars: Advertising and everyday life, plus organisational
matters
WEEK 2: NO Lecture
Seminars: Advertising and Social Change
WEEK 4: NO Lecture
Seminars: Hard and soft sell; or the rational, the ‘creative’
and the postmodern
WEEK 7: NO Lecture
Lecture: Behind the brand
Seminars: Emotion, nostalgia and utopia: what politics?
The knowledge industry?
In this week students will have the opportunity to exchange views on their
perception of marketing, while discussing several advertisements. The
personal relationship of advertising to our lives shall be discussed, with
emphasis on the effect of advertising on our daily lives, as well as the
temporal reach and limited of advertisement. Furthermore, light shall be
shed on how advertisements enter our consciousness, their indirect
impact, individual and collective, on our emotions, thoughts and actions
and the boundaries of advertising.
Key Reading
Everyone should read:
Schudson, Michael (1993), The Uneasy Persuasion, London, Routledge, Ch
6 The emergence of new consumer patterns: A case study of cigarettes,
pp.178-208
This week will engage students with terms and frameworks of thinking
that have been employed since the beginning of the 20th century. The
terms modernity to postmodernity here refer to the wider social and
political as well as economic shifts, and how audiences experience the
modern world, and the cultural change. Students will try to understand
how the development of the advertising industry can be related to these
frameworks and more particularly we will be focusing on how the cultural
level shifts can be identified in advertising i.e. the identification of what
has been referred to as postmodern advertising.
Key Reading
Featherstone, Mike (1991) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, London,
Sage, Ch 1 Modern and postmodern: definitions and interpretations, pp.1-
12
Slater, Don (1997) Consumer Culture and Modernity, Cambridge, Polity,
Ch 7 ‘New Times’ especially sections ‘Fordism’ and ‘Post-fordism’ pp. 183-
193 [full chapter pp.174-209]
Supplementary Reading
Blake, Andrew (1997) ‘Listen to Britain: music, advertising and
postmodern culture’ in Mica Nava et al (eds) Buy this Book: Studies in
advertising and consumption, Londong, Routledge, pp.224-238
Featherstone, Mike (1991) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, London,
Sage, Ch 5 ‘The aestheticization of everyday life’, pp.165-82
Harvey, David (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity, Cambridge, Polity,
Parts,1and 3 but especially Ch 3 ‘Postmodernism’, pp.39-65
Lash, Scott and Urry, John (1994) Economies of Signs and Spaces, London,
Sage, ‘Advertising: new paradigm for the culture industries’, pp.138-142
Lee, Martyn (1994) Consumer Culture Reborn, London, Routledge, Ch 9
‘The culture of deregulation’, pp.138-159
Murray, Robin (1988) ‘Life after Henry (Ford)’, Marxism Today, October,
pp.8-13
Week 4 Hard and soft sell; or the rational, the creative and
the postmodern
This week looks at the shift from the historic style of advertising, which
focused more on rational, plain-speaking advertising relying more on
words than images, to the more ‘creative ad’ in which product is
backgrounded and visuality foregrounded.
Key Reading
Bradley, Sandra (1994) ‘Hard sell v. soft sell: a comparison of American
and British advertising’ in G. Englis (ed) Global and Multinational
Advertising, Hillsdale, New Jersesy, Lawrence Erlbaum, pp.141-157
Leiss, William, Kline, Stephen, Jhally, Sut, Botterill (2005) 3rd edn Social
Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the mediated market
place, London, Routledge Ch 16 ‘The fifth frame’ extract pp.563-572 [full
chapter, pp.563-578]
Lee, Martyn (19940 Consumer Culture Reborn, London, Routledge, Ch 9
‘The culture of deregulation’ extract, pp.148-159 [full chapter pp.138-159]
Supplementary Reading
McFall, Liz (2005) Advertising: A cultural economy, London, Sage,
especially ‘Introduction’, pp.1-8
Lury, Adam (1994) ‘Advertising: beyond the stereotypes’ in Russell Keat,
Nigel Whiteley and Nicholas Abercrombie (eds) The Authority of the
Consumer, London, Routledge, pp.91-101
On ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sell
Barthes, Roland (1988) The Semiotic Challenge, ‘The advertising message’
Oxford, Basil Blackwell, pp.173-178
Brierley, Sean (1995) The Advertising Handbook, London, Routledge, Ch
10 ‘The principles of persuasion’, pp.139-151
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of
taste, London, Routledge, Ch 7 ‘The choice of the necessary’ especially
pp.372-382
Bullmore, Jeremy (1991) Behind the Scenes in Advertising ‘The consumer
has a mind as well as a stomach’, in, pp.107-122
On ‘creativity’
Fletcher, Winston (1992) A Glittering Haze, Henley, NTC Publications, Ch 7
The creative hook, pp.79-84
One of the oldest mediums of advertising were the handbills (the Victorian
equivalent of the flyer) and posters. This week looks at the development
of the medium of advertising from posters to newspapers and magazines,
then radio followed by the television and today the internet. This week
shall also examine the account of advertising’s development and changing
address from mass markets to more segmented micro-markets (therefore
allowing for targeting individuals), what has once been referred to as ‘me’
media by a advertising commentator.
Key Reading
Hegarty, John (1998) ‘Selling the product’ in Margaret Timmers (ed) The
Power of the Poster, London, V&A Publications, pp.220-231
Internet Advertising Bureaux (2006) ‘Online audience’ and ‘Resources’
Read further on: http://www.iabuk.net/
John Tylee (2006) ‘That was the year that was: Adland’s 2006’, Campaign
15 December, extract p.4 [full article pp.4-5]
‘Viral marketing’ (2005) MediaCuardian, Guardian, 19 Dec, p.9
Supplementary Reading
Bernstein, David (1997) Advertising Outdoors: Watch this space, London,
Phaidon Press, ‘The strengths of outdoor’, pp.112-175 [but if you fancy
you could read any of the other chapters as an alternative]
Curran, James (1981) ‘The impact of advertising’, Media Culture and
Society, Vol. 3, January, pp.43-69
Jacobson, Michael F. and Mazur, Laurie Ann (1995) Marketing Madness: A
survival guide for a consumer society,' Boulder Colarado, Westview
Leiss, William et al (1990) Social Communication in Advertising, London,
Routledge, Ch 5 ‘Advertising and the development of communications’,
pp.91-122
Miller, Vincent (2000) ‘Search engines, portals and global capitalism’ in
David Gauntlett (ed) Web.studies: Rewiring media studies for the digital
age, London, Arnold, pp. 113-121
Myers, Greg (1994) Words in Ads, London, Edward Arnold, Ch 8 “Do we
have time for a coffee?” Conversations and everyday life’, pp.105-121
Myers, Greg (1999) Ad Worlds: Brands, media, audiences, London, Arnold,
Ch 5 ‘The media mix’, pp.75-92 or Ch 8 ‘Advertising, interaction and the
world wide web’, pp.133-147
Key Reading
Dyer, Richard (1992) Only Entertainment, London, Sage, Ch 3
‘Entertainment and utopia’, pp.17-34
Goldman, Robert and Papson, Stephen (1996) Sign Wars: The cluttered
landscape of advertising, New York, Guilford Press, Ch 4 ‘The flip side of
jadedness: memory and a sense of place’, extracts pp.115-118, pp.127-
130, pp.137-140 [full chapter pp.115-140]
Klein, Naomi (2000) No Logo, London, Flamingo, Ch ‘Culture jamming: ads
under attack’, extracts, pp. 281-288, pp.304-309 [full chapter pp.279-309]
Supplementary Reading
Falk, Pasi (1994) The Consuming Body, London, Sage, Ch 5 ‘Selling
good(s): on the genealogy of modern advertising’ pp. 151-185. Especially
section ‘Modern advertising: dimensions of change pp. 156-157, and
‘Epilogue pp.179-182
Lears, Jackson (1994) Fables of Abundance:A cultural history of
advertising in America, New York, Basic books, extract from ‘Introduction’,
pp.9-end of first paragraph p.12, extract from Ch 7 ‘The new basis of
civilization’, pp.212-218
McCracken, Grant (1990) Culture and Consumption, Bloomington and
Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, Ch 7 ‘The evocative power of
things: consumer goods and the preservation of hopes and ideals’,
pp.104-117
Meijer, Irene Costera (1998) ‘Advertising citizenship: an essay on the
performative power of consumer culture’, Media, Culture and Society, Vol.
20, No. 4, pp.235-49
Winship, Janice (2000) ‘Women outdoors: advertising, controversy and
disputing feminism in the 1990s’ International Journal of Cultural Studies,
Vol. 3, No. 1, pp.27-55
Marketing Communication
Decisions and Ethics
Advertising Management and Strategy
Assessment 1
Diary
The diary has to be submitted in by the Friday of the week 1. With your
diary you should aim for around 1000 words but it may be longer if you
actually find it easier to write more.
Assessment 2
Group Advertising plan in Week 6
A word of warning
Study Groups
Aims
• Provides you with a supportive environment in which you can
discuss the week’s reading in advance of the seminar thus
developing your confidence to articulate your ideas in the seminar.
• Help you to actively think through your ideas and enable you to get
to know some other students quite well
• Provide a forum where you can exchange and share reading matter,
raise problems and issues arising from your individual study and
written work, and the course more generally.
Your Study Group will also be engaged in a group presentation and in
gathering together certain kinds of material to bring to the sessions.
Weekly Tasks
Schedule:
We want you to meet regularly, at least once a week, probably for an hour
if you’re discussing reading and preparing some shared notes to bring to
the seminar. You may need to meet for a bit longer at your first meeting
and in your final meeting before doing your presentation in Week 4. This
time could be split into two shorter periods.
Organisation:
Initial tasks: (These can in fact be done in our first seminars)
• Introductions!
• Exchange names and decide on the best way of communicating
(quickly) with each other.
• Fix preliminary dates, times and venue. Regular times each week
are probably best and Friday may be the easiest day to opt for.
• For each meeting arrange for one of you to lead or chair discussion
and a second person to take notes. Try to alternate these roles.
Organise this for your first meeting. The ‘chair’ can then think in
advance about how to ‘manage’ the session.
The pluses of group work should be that you can cover more ground than
when working on a project by yourself and this combined intellectual
effort can fruitfully push ideas on. When battling with material by yourself
you may get 'stuck', and the experience is a lonely one, whereas doing
work with other people can be a more sociable (and hence less anxious
and lonely) experience. Doing a presentation as a group is usually less of
a number than when doing one by yourself: you have the support of the
group; it is not just your responsibility.
Our own view is that to get the most out of working in a group, many of us
have to work in a different way than we do when working by ourselves.
Bear in mind too that everyone does not have the same strengths (or
weaknesses) and can contribute different things to a group. But the best
learning experience is perhaps where individuals feel they have been able
to contribute what they're already best at, but also tried to improve those
areas in which they are weaker.
The following are some of the key academic books in the field:
Arvidsson, Adam (2006) Advertising Cultures, London, Routledge
Sheehan, Kim Bartel (2003) Controversies in Contemporary Advertising,
London, Sage
Berger, Arthur Asa (2000) Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture, Lanham
Boulder, Rowman and Littlefield
Brierley, Sean (2002) 2nd edn The Advertising Handbook, London,
Routledge
Brown, Stephen and Turley (eds) (1997)Consumer Research: Postcards
From the Edge, London, Routledge [a collection of articles from the
discipline of marketing]
Burke, Timothy (1996) Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women Commodification,
Consumption and Cleanlines in Modern Zimbabwe, Leicester, Leicester
University Press,
Clark, Eric (1989), The Want Makers, London, Coronet
Cook, Guy (1992) The Discourse of Advertising, London, Routledge
Cortese, Anthony (1999) Provocateur: Images of women and minorities in
advertising, Rowman and Littlefield
Cronin, Anne (2000) Advertising and Consumer Citizenship, London,
Routledge
Cronin, Anne (2003) Advertising Myths: The strange half-lives of images
and commodities, London, Routledge
Cross, M. (ed) (1996) Advertising and Culture: Theoretical perspectives,
Westport, CT, Praeger
Davidson, Martin (1992) The Consumerist Manifesto, London, Routledge
Dyer, Gillian (1982) Advertising as Communication, London, Routledge
Ekstrom, Karin M. and Brembeck, Helene (eds) (2004) Elusive
Consumption, Berg Publishers
Englis, G. (1994) Global and Multinational Advertising, Hillsdale, New
Jersey, Lawrence Erlabaum
Ewen, Stuart (1988) All Consuming Images, New York, Basic Books
Ewen, Stuart (1976) Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the social
roots of the Consumer Culture, New York, McGraw Hill
Featherstone, Mike (1990) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, London,
Sage,
RESOURCES
Videos
The Art of Persuasion (multi part series)
Carat’s Classification of consumers from erstwhile Late Show
South Bank Show The Art of the Ad (Germaine Greer)
High Interest and News Night on Benetton
On the internet there are also various ad archives. Many of them are
designed for people working in the business and are therefore not free.
Try the following to access ads on the net without paying:
http://adflip.com
Historical ads
http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk
Registration required, can’t download (I don’t think) but lots of
contemporary TV ads to view)
http://www.adforum.com
Registration required. UK plus world wide ads.
http://www.visit4info.com
Registration required and payment to access all ads. But some free.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/creative/ads
http://.zeropaid.com
http://www.j.c.deceaux.co.uk
Outdoor industry company: billboards shown in situ
Problems or difficulties:
If you have problems, difficulties or complaints with any of your
courses or programme, do discuss these as early as possible with
your Academic Advisor, the appropriate Course Convenor, or a
Student Advisor. If you are need to take matters further, then
speak to your Head of Department or Director.
Note:
Information regarding contributory assessment and formal
course requirements is published by the Undergraduate
Examinations Office and available on the web. On regulations,
details of submissions and late submissions only this information
is authoritative.
If you are in doubt, always check with the Exams Office, NOT
tutors unfortunately as tutors we sometimes make mistakes!