Figurative Rhetoric: Advertising and Contemporary Social Theory

Author: Wu Qiong Bart
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: Starting from the point where goods are recommended to consumers not for their use value, but as a value system supported by language and codes in search of cultural identity, goods are deeply aestheticized or culturalized. Baudrillard once said that consumer society is one where consumption never ends. It is hard to imagine what a consumer society without advertising would look like. Advertising has truly become a visual empire, far exceeding the scope of general commodity consumption and becoming an important means of encoding our desires and daily life consciousness. It is also a key battleground for visual culture studies to enter the field of mass culture. The focus of contemporary social theory on advertising stems from its central role in consumer society. This book collects nine outstanding essays by contemporary academic luminaries such as Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard. They include grand pronouncements and meticulous analyses, all using advertising phenomena in daily life as a starting point to explore the implicit or explicit aspects of contemporary social culture, offering a deeply satisfying reading experience. It is particularly worth mentioning that Baudrillard's seminal essay "The Political Economy of Signs" is fully included in this collection.