"Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Pop Culture" Summary

      Sut Jhally begins his article by talking about diamonds. Prior to their change into a symbol of love in 1938, diamonds were known only for their worth as precious stones. Once the slogan, "a diamond is forever" came out, this stone became a status symbol, one needed to be bought in order to marry the woman you love. This is his way of introducing how consumer advertising can shape culture. The technology-based society that we now live in provides a faster and easier way of sharing products on the market. Newspapers to colored magazines to the radio to television, and now the internet. That is how the history of advertising developed; with each change causing a dramatic increase in the creativity of advertising, resulting in imagistic ways of representing products.
     In the 1920's there was a shift from advertising necessary products to trying to sell "nonessential" goods. With the changing technology, marketing switched to using visual and textual advertising, which in a way was teaching society how to read commercials. After a while, the sexual side to commercial messages disappeared because consumers finally understood how to read purely visual advertising.
     Jhally explains that advertisements want to show us how to achieve happiness. He further states that surveys show that what makes people happy is "personal autonomy and control of one's life, self-esteem, a happy family life, loving relations, a relaxed mention-free leisure time, and good friendships." He points out that none of these things are actually connected to physical goods that can be bought. However, commercials bend this reality. Marketing preys on the life-goals society idealizes by connecting products to each of these, making consumers believe they need those goods in order to achieve that life-goal. Commercials reflect what people are dreaming about, not necessarily what they are doing in that moment. The problem with this is that it leads society to focus on having these things, rather than being the person reaching their life-goals. They identify themselves as what that have, rather than who they are.
      The author warns that this visual image-sysetem is dangerous because it is a way for industries to persuade people how they wish. He mentions how music videos, which became popular in the 1980's, use sex to sell, just as commercials do. If a music video is memorable or popular, the song is more likely to be a hit. This fades into the authors opinion of present day commercials, specifically how fast they appear and disappear. Rather than older ads which were static, such as in a newspaper or magazine, commercials now are under 60 seconds long. This means marketing companies prey on emotions rather than actually selling their products. A person may not even know what the ad was for, but they remember the emotion it instilled, which may be enough to buy the product. This is another reason why sexuality has become such a huge part of advertising. They need to catch the consumers attention and get them to feel what they want them to feel. Jhally warns that this type of advertising suppresses reasoning and encourages feelings, which ultimately has a more persuasive effect on viewers.