Cant Buy My Love - Jean Kilbourne

At this point in the writing of my essay I am only doing research that I know is relevant to my topic. Instead of reading around my topic I am reading with my essay in mind and am picking out quotes that I can see will be relevant to my current argument. In my feedback it was suggested that I need more supporting quotes for some of the statements I have made so this is what I intend to find from this point onwards.

p11

Deadly Persuasion (Jean Kilbourne) - describes the USA as ‘the United Stated of Advertising’. 

She ‘explores the commodification of our lives’ … ‘all over the world’. 

• The quote about commodification of our lives could be used in the introduction to help explain the overarching theme of my essay. Alternatively it could be used to help explain my practical work in chapter 4. 

p13

‘We are led by ads to expect transformation via products.’ 

• Link this to empty gestures idea. Promises that are unrealistic to be met. Also links to how we are lied to in advertising. 

‘Ads also steer us away from what really makes us happy: meaningful work, authentic relationships’…

• A shift in priorities. Connects to the idea that consumer society makes us care more about products than people.

p26

‘Our need for social and personal change and power is often co-opted and trivialised into an adolescent and self-centred kind of rebellion.’

• Links to Maslo’s heirachy of needs, we have a need to better ourselves. 

‘advertising turns people into objects’

• Good quote to use in chapter four to explain the concept of my practical work. 

p27

‘Advertising encourages us not only to objectify each other but also to feel that our most significant relationships are with the products that we buy.’

• Targeting emotions, selling values. This could be used to link to the H&M case study.  

‘The most effective kind of propaganda is that which is not recognised as propaganda.’

…’the most skilful propagandists of our time are not working for dictators.’ …[they are working for brands.] 

• The second part of this quote could be used to support the Klein quote about aggressive advertising. 

p27/28

‘They are to use all of their powers of persuasion, explicit and implicit, to sell a particular product. That’s all! No moral, no obligation to any other set of values.’

• Include this in description of Road to Hell. It opposes the idea of a scale and directly states that the creative has no responsibility. 

p29

‘One certainly doesn’t have to be an alcoholic or any kind of addict to have suffered from a sense of emptiness. Our materialistic culture encourages this because people who feel empty make great consumers. The emptier we feel, the more likely we are to turn to products, especially potentially addictive products, to fill us up, to make us feel whole. 

• Connect to Laura Callaghan illustration, the way fads and self-betterment is marketed to us. 

p31

… ‘a culture that is entirely materialistic, that co-opts spiritual values and movements for social change and uses them to sell [consumers] jeans and cigarettes.’ 

• Again, connect to Laura Callaghan image. Her image is full of products that supposedly are going to better her life, but the general fact is that she is surrounded by products. This is enough to prove that the concept is a gimmick. Buying products in the hope of buying a lifestyle.