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While the power of the consumer is generally recognized as being a defining force in the media industry, the relationship between media, advertiser and consumer is a bit more complex. The consumer can indeed control the market if it can be brought together within a defining context. This is a big if as companies work to both prevent the outlets through which consumers can gain accurate but damaging information about companies as well as blocking legal means through which workers might be able to gain help. The companies are not entirely to blame, though, as they are merely taking advantage of a natural human tendency to collect, trade and consume. In doing so, though, they also help to define and shape society’s expectations. Thus, companies in fear of consumers seek to control them by taking advantage of natural human traits and providing the media with accepted definitions and standards.
The power of the consumer is widely recognized as the only force capable of making or breaking a company. If a brand is considered to be ‘in-style’ or ‘hot’, it can do virtually anything and get away with it through the use of a catchy slogan or big-name endorsers. This is the case with brands such as Nike and Neiman Marcus, both of whom have been caught utilizing so-called ‘sweat shops’ as a means of maximizing their bottom line. Jesse Jackson reports on a case out of El Monte, California in which “government officials raided a sweatshop filled with immigrant Thai women laboring for as little as 59 cents per hour for 16 to 22 hours a day.
Discipline was enforced by threats of rape and beatings. The women were locked up day and night as they produced garments for Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney and other U.S. retailers and manufacturers” (389). However, increased media attention into these sweatshops has made these large brands nervous, knowing that once consumers understand the true nature of what is occurring and rejects the brand, the company is doomed. Their only chance of protection is to encourage further lobbying on the Republican side to block or change laws that protect workers’ rights and the company’s responsibilities when utilizing subcontractors. However, they have another weapon in their arsenal which is proving to be much more powerful – the power of the media itself. Through a variety of means, what we think is directed by the media and all of the media is supported by these very brands that are undermining the values on which we base our lives.
Whether we care to admit it or not, there is a great deal of truth behind the statement that we are what the media tells us we are. “Much of what we share, and what we know, and even what we treasure, is carried to us each second in a plasma of electrons, pixels and ink, underwritten by multinational advertising agencies dedicated to attracting our attention for entirely nonaltruistic reasons” (Twitchell 468). Rather than the relatively straight-forward approach to advertising taken in the days of print-only media, today’s media outlets are designed around the product or brand first and then disguised to suggest other objectives. This is not necessarily the fault of the media, but is instead a part of the reality of our system. “These media are delivered for a price. We have to pay for them, either by spending money or by spending time. Given a choice, we prefer to spend time. We spend our time paying attention to ads, and in exchange we are given infotainment” (Twitchell 469-470).
Rather than being completely the fault of the media or even of the producers, Twitchell suggests that the human condition is one in which we have been inherently materialistic. “We have always been desirous of things. We have just not had many of them until quite recently, and, in a few generations, we may return to having fewer and fewer” (Twitchell 471-472). However, in this material culture, where so many things are mass-produced in a variety of forms and substances, it is helpful to have some sort of guide to help us determine which things should be accorded the highest value and which things are not so great. This is where advertising enters the scene and helps us to define just what is valuable and what kind of meaning or history a particular object might have. It takes advantage of this natural human tendency to want to be comfortable and to have stuff to own, trade, protect or produce. However, new technology has made it increasingly easy for impatient and technologically savvy young people to instantly wave away the traditional approach to advertising, forcing it to go underground and become the programming itself.
The power of appropriate advertising is discussed in Gloria Steinem’s article “Sex, Lies and Advertising”, relating her experiences as an ad sales representative for Ms. Magazine. In discussing her magazine’s efforts to encourage car manufacturers to provide advertising copy geared toward the female consumer, Steinem says most domestic companies continue to have a problem producing copy that will appeal to women while more foreign companies have embraced the female consumer. “Perhaps that’s why some foreign cars still have a disproportionate share of the U.S. women’s market” (Steinem 451).
Through a number of examples of how she and other members of the magazine staff attempted to persuade marketers to provide advertisements to women with little or no real success, Steinem demonstrates how advertising worked to shape public perception of female likes and dislikes, regardless of what the actual statistics had to say about the magazine’s major demographic – educated young women living in the Western consumer culture. Areas in which women were generally thought not to participate, and continue to be largely ignored, include car makers, technology gadgets, alcohol or tobacco products, business travel industry and financing services among other things. By refusing to pay attention to the statistics and facts collected by the Ms. staff workers, advertisers are essentially insisting that women belong in particular categories of society and insist upon them remaining there. They specifically advertise their products to men as a means of ensuring which consumers are the ‘right’ consumers for a given product or service and again, work to shape the basic fabric of society as both men and women are told what they should be interested in and what is beyond their accepted spheres.
As can be seen through this investigation, the relationship between the advertiser, the media and the consumer is complex and multi-layered. The cycle cannot be blamed on any one element but is instead a seemingly natural outgrowth of the culture established through natural human tendencies. As companies begin to fear the consumer turning against them, they begin to manipulate the consumer’s desires in such a way as to begin defining what culture should mean and what we should value based upon our age, gender, race and cultural identification.
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