A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

We have witnessed several critical shifts in the world of advertising when it comes to how the ads or the people in the ads are presented. For example, the representation of women went from a very conservative motherly figure to an attractive happy-go-lucky kind of girl. Similarly, in printed ads, we see a shift from text to audience. It used to be that people would read the large paragraph of text typed under a small picture or photo of the product and believe it to be telling the truth. As years went by, the amount of text became less and less while the size and demeanour of the photos became more eccentric and provocative. Throughout this shift, the communication between corporations and the consumer has become distorted. When you see pictures of a Big Mac, you fall into this commercial illusion that associates McDonald’s with a healthy lifestyle. The more you become drawn into that, the more disappointed you are after you finish two of them and feel like your insides are trying to punch each other.

In the 1920s, people had the ability to produce but there was no market to sell to; the middle class simply did not exist. So what would any good businessman do? Create that market. Wages were raised so that people could afford to buy things they didn’t really need. As the middle class separated itself from the other, so called, classes, further divisions were created within it based on what they could and could not afford to buy. The function of the product didn’t even matter by this point! Today we see a similar trend in car advertisements. More so than not, we hear about the OnStar safety guide that is featured in every GM vehicle or the Acura with the already built-in XM satellite radio. But what about how the car drives? Is it safe? Is it built to last more than a year? My car may not have the latest World-Class In-Car Speech Recognition System, or automatic windows for that matter, but it’s been getting me from A to B for the last 8 years without a hitch. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’ll outdrive cars that are younger and better-looking than it based on the quality of its motor and its fuel efficiency alone. But today, that doesn’t matter. I get made fun of each and every time I have to reach over and roll down my window at the McDonald’s drive thru.

In modern day society, the corporate voice is the loudest. We are always promised to be using the only product that is suitable for our unique skin tone or ‘because we’re worth it’, as L’Oréal likes to put it. Ads always reassure us that we can be individuals and that we’re special and amazing. What about the other 6 billion people out there? That’s a whole lot of promises that will be broken. But we still buy it, despite being fully aware of that! And that is how strong the corporate voice is. Likewise, corporations even encourage us to spend. Look at the bank ads that tell us to ‘borrow with confidence’ or the department stores that make sure we know that ‘shopping is good’. Corporations know that people are willing to get into debt and to endanger their financial freedom by giving into consumption, but they don’t hold back. And neither do we. Advertising has been so successful because it has a way of getting into our faces whether it is through words, pictures, printed ads, or TV commercials. We may hate it when it sneaks its way in right before Derek is about to get shot in the middle of Seattle Grace Hospital (I’m a big Grey’s Anatomy fan, can you tell?), but we also live by advertising. We reiterate its message by wearing clothing with the little eagle symbol embroidered on the side of every American Eagle sweater, by buying the same eye shadow that Drew Barrymore wears in the Covergirl commercials, and by classifying people as preppy, nerdy, rich, or poor based on all of those symbols. We may not like it, but advertising sets up the cultural rules we live by each and every day.