Preliminary communication

The Speech of Goods

Veljko Žvan orcid.org/0000-0003-2532-2383 ; Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The fact that all mass media, all communication channels, are clogged with advertising messages, raises many questions – e.g., what is the purpose of advertising and media presence? Is a medium efficient manipulative tool subjected to the interest of capital bought by the same medium with an ad? Critical analysis of some of the works of prominent thinkers who tackled those questions from a different standpoints, Marcuse and McLuhan, we come to a perspective that a medium should be regarded as commodity; goods with many specific features. It also should be a communication tool for other goods. Relying on Marx's analysis of fetish character of commodity in his work „Das Kapital“, we show that an ad actually communicates that what had long been established by production of goods, but it does that in a more open and subtle way. The conclusion is that ads do not create demand for goods and consumption, but it is the other way around – goods and production of goods creates advertising

Keywords

ad; commodity; brand; medium; demand; manipulation

Hrčak ID:

114410

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/114410

Publication date:

3.9.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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