Figurative rhetoric (Advertising and Contemporary Social Theory)

Author: Roland Barthes and others
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Starting from the point where goods are recommended to consumers not for their utility value but as part of a value system supported by language and codes in the pursuit of cultural identity, commodities are deeply aestheticized or culturalized. Baudrillard once said that consumer society is one where consumption never ends. It's hard to imagine what a consumer society without advertising would look like. Advertising has truly become a visual empire, far exceeding the realm of general commodity consumption and becoming a crucial means of encoding our desires and daily consciousness, as well as a key battleground for visual culture studies in 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, including grand pronouncements and meticulous analyses, all taking advertising phenomena in daily life as a starting point to explore the explicit and implicit aspects of contemporary social culture, offering a satisfying and thought-provoking read. Special mention should be made of Baudrillard's seminal essay, "The Critique of Political Economy of Signs," which is fully included in this collection.