Blog Post #3

Advertising images draws attention to emptiness that an individual did not know existed within themselves. The images may have just caught a consumer’s eye for just a few seconds but if it’s appealing enough the few seconds is all a producer needs. The advertising image’s purpose is to give the idea that purchasing the product would give the consumer a sense of fulfillment and bring them joy. John Berger refers to the publicity as “an alternative life”. The ads create envy you want what that person has in the picture, you want to feel how they feel but you can’t because you’re missing what they have, or you are not where they are. In the earlier years before the publicity there was the oil paintings which showed where a person was already in their life vs the ads which show where you want to be. Some advertisings impersonated or incorporate the paintings both showing a way of life that you do not live. What separated images from the paintings was the publicity gave instruction whereas the oil painting was just used to flaunt never showing how to reach the status of the owner. The advertising images played with one’s fear of deficiency of money as well never too much to make you scared but to urge “each of us to scramble competitively to get more “as John says. There was a dream being proposed a dream of the items touching your skin. That having such item against your skin will make you look better and creates a desire to feel the fabric against your skin playing with the desire to touch. The publicity gives a consumer either a sense of joy from an object or happiness of being in a particular place. It made sure to also show that if you did not have the glamour you became “faceless, almost non-existent” and no one wants to be irrelevant in society, so you feel compelled to buy the producers product.