Thesis

Thesis: The reference of Karl Max throughout the article shows the concept of capitalism in the world and how the wealth of the world would be on the collection of commodities, which is mostly due to the constant advertising.

Key Terms

Advertising agencies: Advertising agencies who are working hard and inputting more resources in the venture so that their message stands out from the “clutter” and ”noise”.   This means that the advertising agencies are trying to come up with new concepts on a daily basis to outdo each other.

Questions and Critique

The question that we need to pose at this stage (that I almost never asked) is ”is it true?’ Does happiness come from material things? This is the question that has been prevalent in most parts of the excerpt because the advertisers continue to bombard the consumer with different type of goods using unconventional means like urinals, supermarket shelves and literary beneath our feet.

The market cannot provide love, it cannot provide real friendships, and it cannot provide real sociability. Commercial colonization of the culture is in the advertising agencies, which have pushed the narrative of traditional means of bonding on the side by creating a new culture that is dependent on consumerism. The traditional methods of bonding that were found in human interactions are currently directs towards the possession of new and trendier commodities that are supposed to fill the void which is created by advertising.

The environmental crisis is complex and multilayered cutting across both production and consumption problems. This means that the advertisement industry has created other effects across the globe, which is contributing to the destruction of the environment as the production companies’ look for resources to meet the demand of the consumers.

References

Jhally, S. (2002). Advertising at the edge of the apocalypse. Critical Studies in Media Commercialism, 1-7