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Paper Abstract: The terms consumer culture and promotional culture have much to bear on the study of advertising. They are essential to understanding how advertising does not victimize its consumers but rather informs them and, at best, occasionally empowers them to make better decisions and think of themselves more positively. Paper Introduction: Consumer Culture and Promotional Culture The terms consumer culture and promotional culture have much to bear onthe study of advertising They are essential to understanding howadvertising does not victimize its consumers but rather informs them and at best occasionally empowers them to make better decisions and think ofthemselves more positively To understand how advertising functions in this way as opposed towhat many media outlets and private social circles rail against it isgermane first to analyze the definitions of these terms Consumer culturecan Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. London: Arnold, 1996.Twitchell, J. Advertising and Popular Culture. The shifts taking place in advertising are mostly occurring on theinterface between the consumer and advertiser in online technology. Theassociation with cool new social media puts advertisements in the risk ofsacrificing creative content for mere juxtaposition with popular socialmedia interfaces. Yet as Sivulka admits, advertisers' modus operandi arenot so much to victimize consumers as they are to play into dominantconsumer cultural trends and hope that by reflecting them they can wooconsumers to their products. The Unmanageable Consumer. Most ofthese developments are positive, although the advancement of computertechnology does have potentially negative implications for consumerprivacy. Promotional culture is mostly a measure of how saturated withadvertising and the rhetoric of persuasion that consumer culture hasbecome. While this does not a victim out of the consumer make, it doesposition him or her in a theoretically ancillary role in the advertisingprocess. Coupons and rebate advertisements, significant additions tothe advertising mix brought about by promotional culture, empower consumersmore than any other facet of advertising. The rhetorical form of advertising molds the culture'ssymbolism and ideology (Wernick The Consumer Society Reader 3 ) in anadvertising ethos. Indeed, the set ofeconomic circumstances allows advertising itself to flourish. Namely, as John Sinclair writes, thisfrees advertising from the claims by many that advertising introduces"undesirable attitudes such as sexism and consumerism in society." Rather,as the author writes, advertising attempts to sell products in the here andnow and only when prompted will it highlight products or themes advancingsocial change. (Anyone can go online under anyone else'sprofile if the circumstances are right.) Abuse of advertising, more thangovernment malfeasance, proposes the biggest threat to consumer empowermentin the new media-advertising environment. It is undoubtedlyadvantageous to the advertiser and the client, as well, as the consumer iseasier to pinpoint. Yet the ever-presence of advertisements alone does not account forthe surge in new media advertising. Computer Technology and Advertising13. Much of this movement can be traced to the cynicism with whichconsumers reacted to the advertising culture of the 199 s, which treatedconsumers as a mass and cared little for individual interests or sub grouptendencies. Thus, the cynic either is appeased with a likableadvertisement or is allowed to avoid certain ads altogether in designatedoutlets (though the ubiquity of advertisements assures that it will likelyencounter the product in a different setting). Increasingly if advertisers are toengage young people at all, they must meet them where they stand. 2 9 19 Apr. And they are being treated as powerful agents deserving ofadvertisements tailored to their interests. 2 9 ."Who's Wearing the Trousers?" The Economist 8 Sep. New York: New Press, 2 . Cell phones and web pages are the new venues to catch the youthof the world because of media consumption trends. The moreinteractive nature of promotions is persistent in its treating the consumeras an individual, thus empowering him or her. Robins. With the unique cocktail of ubiquity andspecialization, advertisers can promote their clients in a worldincreasingly fragmented because of their consumers' busier, more distractedlives. Indeed, the consumption of advertisements is emerging as an art inits own right. Whether or not consumers like it,advertisements are appearing in more and more places and are coming to beincorporated in more and more aspects of the culture. The culture of consumption is the basis of oureconomic lifeblood; the culture of advertising informs much of ourdecisions in the former culture, in addition to providing significant newopportunities for connections and activities in the wider culture. As Tolson notes, "historical changes andtransformations in popular media texts can and do occur, but these alwaysdepends on broader social and economic conditions" (Tolson Mediations 5).In addition, the information age transformations in advertising aredefinite products of the information age. John Philip Jones. In the case of those who may not knowexactly how advertising works, in the case of children, parents and theindustry must strive to be certain that children are not being used tocollect detailed data such as e-mail addresses, street addresses andbehavioral patterns, as Pasnik notes (Pasnik "Responsible Advertising toChildren and Youth in the New Online Environment" 78). Of course, consumer cultures are not thesame everywhere. The interplay between these two terms and theirconsequences is worth exploring, especially in the context of whether ornot such economic and rhetorical realities victimize the human beingsparticipating in such a reality. Warren writes of how the advertisingindustry favorably viewed the move, averring that the "value ofunderstanding people's personal information is enormous - this will allow aform of subliminal advertising to develop." The author cautions that whilea boon to the advertising industry, access to private information couldbecome potentially dangerous in the hands of the government (Warren"Invasion of Privacy via Your Cell Phone" 1). While concerns about personal privacy of data abound in relation tothe techniques of advertisers reaching out to new media outlets to findconsumers, they are not too realistic. While certainly consumer sensibilities are included in thecourse of designing advertisements, most models of the consumer cultureassume that the judges of the ads will most properly be the parties payingfor them. This development can beseen as a boon to the consumer, who now does not have to search forproducts that might be of interest to him or her. Such localparticularities should not be obscured in analyzing the role of theconsumer and promotional culture. Advertisersare veritably fine-tuning their approach because of the new mediaexplosion. Frith. As Pountain and Robins note, "cool" is often tied tocompetitive consumption (Pountain & Robins Cool Rules 166). Works CitedEwing, Michael. London: Sage, 2 .Fowler, Jib. "For most of the twentieth century," J. Social media advertising representsa bold new foray into the world of the consumer, thus empowering theconsumer by catering to his or her wishes, desires and needs. They are essential to understanding howadvertising does not victimize its consumers but rather informs them and,at best, occasionally empowers them to make better decisions and think ofthemselves more positively. Sivulka writes, "advertisingportrayed women in narrow roles--as dim-witted sex objects, as perky youngthings in search of a man, or one-dimensional homemakers eager to servetheir husbands" (Sivulka Soap, Sex and Cigarettes 383). It follows that exposure to new typesof media would result in additional exposure to advertisements. Newmedia, Web 2. It even has its own national holiday of sorts in the UnitedStates, the National Football League's Super Bowl, where families andfriends gather around the television in many cases to simply view the spateof new ads released that evening. It is important to note that promotional culture is still secondaryto consumer culture. Overall the new-media advertising scheme empowers consumers becauseof the character of the advertising. With flashing coupon dispensers in grocerystores, "the experience of food buying has become an advertisingadventure," Twitchell writes (Twitchell, Adcult 57). The Consumer Society Reader. While advertisements themselves do not allow ordinary consumers toparticipate, their presentation does allow a participatory role in theirown consumer choices about what they buy and how they shape their identity.Meijer writes about how some thinkers see the advertisements they respondto as appendages of who they are (Meijer "Advertising Citizenship" 24 ).Indeed, advertisements have not significantly changed; their presentationand tact in addressing the consumer have changed, however. Adcult. When advertiserssought to portray women in more favorable lights, as the social moreschanged in the late 199 s, many of them resorted to "reverse sexism,"simply portraying men in a negative way instead of women (Sivulka Soap, Sexand Cigarettes 385). New York: Wadsworth Publishing, 1997.Stravens, Felix. The usage-based advertisements on socialnetworking sites like Facebook empower consumers, it can be argued, bycutting through the glut of advertisements a consumer might otherwise face,affording the consumer more time and energy to devote to other, non-promotional culture activities. London: Arnold, 1999."Pizza and Tech Talk but Hold the Veggies" Communications Update 147 (Sep. Indeed, in Ewing's analysis of Asianadvertising, he found that most consumers viewed advertising as a barometerof the marketplace and social trends and an overwhelming majority enjoyedthe advertisements they were presented with Sivulka (Ewing "The AsiaPacific Tigers" 234). Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.Tolson, A. Thus, the first term entails a society in which buying goods is acommon and structural way of life, and the second term recognizes the powerand importance of the messages adduced to attract consumers to purchase acertain set of goods. This, in essence, isthe advent of the promotional culture (Sivulka Soap, Sex and Cigarettes4 8). 1998).Pountain, D. Ed. Ed. Soap, Sex and Cigarettes. This model at base views the consumeras a product of its consumer culture, though not a victim because theconsumer is still able to decide whether to buy. So by the veryact of reaching out to a new trend in cool communication such as Facebookor YouTube, advertisers can gain exponential coups for their clients. Sivulka expresses some unease about thistendency because it perpetuates stereotypes (Sivulka Soap, Sex andCigarettes 394). Juliet Schor, D.B. The new media approach closely mirrors the approach taken by brandadvertising. The consumer is, in this model, expected to react in the dominantway of its subset of the consumer culture to a stimulus the company and theadvertisers deem persuasive enough. Deceptiveadvertising to children or phishing for personal banking data is a tangibledrawback to online advertising. As Gabriel and Lang note, many products seek to establishrelationships with their users so that users might remember the product thenext time they are forced to go shopping (Gabriel and Lang, TheUnmanageable Consumer 78). Junior mints are placed in Seinfeld episodes, Ford Explorers inJurassic Park, and Reese's Pieces in E.T. Part of the individual-empowerment bender advertisers have been onfor the better part of this decade is a result of the influence psychologyhas had on the advertising process. Psychological consulting firms havedevised a type of advertising that centers on the ubiquity of advertising"rather than the technology and methodology of advertising" (Fraim"Friendly Persuasion" 2). Indeed, relationships tend to be the center of new media advertisingmethods. As one articlethat studied Asia Pacific youth noted, most young children are not readingnewspapers or magazines to encounter advertisements but they are more thanlikely to be online surfing content ("Pizza and Tech Talk but Hold theVeggies" Communications Update 11). 1996.Wernick, Andrew. Neithervictimizes the consumer per se, though both cultures depend on the consumerto operate and occasionally empower him or her. Ed. "The Asia Pacific Tigers." International Advertising. By advertising on social networking sites whosevery purpose is to promote relationship building among friends andcolleagues, new media advertisers are taking integrated marketingcommunications logic to where it rationally belongs. Nevertheless, advertising has often offended its consumers plenty oftimes. The tactwith which the advertisements treat the young consumers demarcates the trueinnovation in new media. "Friendly Persuasion: The Growing Ubiquity of Advertising, or What Happens When Everyone Becomes and Ad?" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.1 (2 ).Gabriel, Y, and T. These are the very descriptions ofwhat the digital generation seeks in their new media obsessions. "Advertising Citizenship: An Essay on the Performative Power of Consumer Culture" Media, Culture and Society 2 .2.Myers, G. K. "Advertisingin Singapore." Advertising in Asia. According to Sinclair, the primary target for theproduction is the client, who must be satisfied by its effectiveness as atool to increase revenue and profit (Sinclair Images Incorporated 275).Thus, much debate has been raised over whether advertising should not infact satisfy the consumer primarily, whom the ad is seeking to motivate tobuy a product. Even as consumers become empoweredby being able to encounter the types of products they enjoy and avoidingproducts that would simply waste their time, advertisers too benefit fromthe psychological frame of mind their consumers are in when viewing theads. However, conventional wisdom says that advertisers are aware thattheir personal information is being used in individually targeted data-mining ads. Indeed, consumers areenticed to engage with advertisements in a way never before imagined. London: Croom Helm, 1987.Sivulka, Julian. Images Incorporated. Likewise, interactive TVallows a user to choose whether to include certain commercials in itsviewing experience. New media is also highly effective for advertising agencies and thecompanies who pay them. While technology is now highly important in howthe ad is presented, the technology of the construction of the ad, whatFraim refers to, has not changed much. While newmedia techniques certainly go above and beyond simply splashing the pagesof the Web with their products, their careful attention to location ofplacing ads, or the "where" element, has predominated discussions ofstrategy. Lang. London: Reaktion Books, 2 .Tapscott, Dan. Ad Worlds. Considering how mobiledevice feeds and Google ads percolate with a pertinacious fervor, Fraim'sargument holds water. New York: McGraw Hill, 1997.Warren, Pete, "Invasion of Privacy via Your Cell Phone" The Hindu 2 Apr. Furthermore, the digital revolution and itsproliferation of information has allowed consumers to demand moreinformation and perform their own research based on advertisements (Ewing"The Asia Pacific Tigers" 234). Works CitedFraim, John. It is customized, provides manychoices for the consumer and is tactful. In sum, consumer culture and promotional culture are both ubiquitousaspects of modern life. In some cases, advertising is empowering not just for the consumerbut also for the whole society when its function plays an important role inthe advancement of free enterprise democracies (Sinclair ImagesIncorporated 272). In Singapore, for example, the family dynamic, even as itis become more westernized, plays a dominant role in informing consumerchoices (Stravens "Advertising in Singapore" 381). Promotional culture overallempowers the consumer more than consumer culture. "Faith No More." The Bulletein 22 July 1997.Meijer, Irene Costera. Capitalismdrives consumerism, which feeds the functioning of society and becomes apart of the ethos. However, with little evidence that data isbeing mined for purpose inimical to those of a free society or freeenterprise (advertising's root motivation in the first place) for now newmedia advertising methods should be approached with caution and notabandoned. The question of the role of consumer culture in the advertising worldbrings to the fore the question of who should be the primary beneficiary ofthe advertisement. As Paul McIntyre writes, today's promotional culture is "reallya mood where organizations have to go further and further out of their wayto actually provide proof of the pudding" (McIntyre "Faith No More").Advertisers are attempting to seek out the individual and his or herinterests so as not to alienate another generation of consumers. London: Sage, 1995.McIntyre, Paul. The potential for nefarious use ofprivate data is significant. Cool Rules. It should not be discounted, either, that by embracing the new socialmedia outlets and technology, advertisers can promote the "cool" factor oftheir products. It is a strategy that seems to beworking as traditional companies as well as the new upstarts are findinghomes on cell phones and internet sites, molting the skin of thetraditional newspaper, billboard, mailer mix and venturing into newterritory. New media advertising can even be viewed as a necessity because ofthe way young people approach media in today's modern world. To begin with, there is the theory (heralded by many within theindustry) that advertising merely informs the consumer of the existentsocial values and social behavior. Notwithstanding, promotionalculture plays a large role in the information age. And on the opposite extreme, advertisingdoes do explicit good in empowering minority groups to view themselvespositively by placing them in ads and portraying them as active, powerfulpeople worthy enough to be reached out to (Sivulka Soap, Sex and Cigarettes4 4). It is that technology allowsadvertisements to be displayed almost everywhere. Mediations. Theeconomic benefits gained by consumers from experiential advertising areconsiderable. However, advertisers' relatively easy access to consumer consumptioninformation does give some experts pause. 2 1. Not only is the permeation of advertisements a signpost of the heydayof promotional culture, but the experiential nature of advertising intoday's age also sets it apart. But he does not go so far as to say that advertisers preyupon helpless media consumers. Consumer Culture and Promotional Culture3. Indeed, consumers are in aprecarious position by having their personal data read for advertisers arenot the only groups interested in knowing the information and productconsumption trends of individuals. Thistransference technique harkens back to advertisers' increased reliance onpsychological hooks to engage consumers. It certainly does not empower the consumerand indeed exposes the consumer to new risks. Companies are respectingconsumers' cynicism and their individuality, thus giving them more creditin the producer-consumer relationship. Growing Up Digital. As DanTapscott writes, Net Generation desires customization of products andchoices in their consumption options (Tapscott Growing up Digital 188).Thus, advertisers are assuming that customization of products' advertisingand choices in how advertisements are received will further draw youngconsumers to their clients' products. Promotional culture has its own techniques of interpretation of styleand composition that empower consumers toward more perceptive consumerism.Some advertising experts recommend gathering with others in order todecipher the meaning of ads, paying close attention to the way the imagerelates to the intended message (Fowler Advertising and Popular Culture17 ). Promotional culture, as defined by the term's inventorAndrew Wernick, is that part of consumer culture that promotional rhetoricinfluences. Facebook ads that scan a profile's contents inorder to present relevant information appeases the consumer because itpresents an already favorable advertisement and promotes a consumptiondecision the user may already be inclined to make. Where brand advertising markets a brand instead of a product,focusing on selling a personality, new media advertising sells apersonality to a personality, focusing on the personal spending and viewinghabits of the consumer ("Who's Wearing the Trousers?" 27). The promotional culture is only growing with the explosion inInternet usage. This allows advertisers to admit that while some of theiradvertisements may offend people, the offended parties would be just as putoff by the extant culture that produced the ideas being used by advertisersin the medium to sell a product. To understand how advertising functions in this way, as opposed towhat many media outlets and private social circles rail against, it isgermane first to analyze the definitions of these terms. , social media, interactive TV, and mobile phone updates areall revolutionizing the consumer's role in the consumer culture. and D. The Internet capitalizes on the interactivity betweenadvertiser and user, often designating certain advertisements for certainusers based on their Web surfing. But more importantly advertisementspermeate the Web, and are indeed a major source of funding for many freeWeb content providers. As Myers notes, consumers know how advertising works and theyare capable of boycotts if advertisements go too far or companies abusetheir rights (Myers Ad Worlds 2 9). Holt, and Douglas Holt. The hope ofadvertisers is that consumers will extend their actions of relationshipforming from their online friends to their favorite brands. London: Sage, 1996.Sinclair, John. Constructing industryguidelines so that children are not the targets of direct-responseadvertising will be difficult because of the lack of face-to-faceinteraction in Internet surfing. The key to consumer empowerment is that advertisers are seekingto bring consumers more information (another hallmark of the NetGeneration) about products that they might be interested in. As Pete Warren writes, whenGoogle released applications for the mobile phone in April 2 9, privacyproponents protested that Google could now have access to whatever themobile users browse nolens volens. In the past, cultural critics viewed advertising as a stiflinginfluence on regular peoples' ability to demand change and think aboutthemselves as empowered citizens (Meijer "Advertising Citizenship" 236).However, consumers are more and more often being able to control the typeof information they would like to receive about products they might beinterested in buying by such innovations as TiVo and Web block pop-upoptions. Consumer culturecan largely be defined as the culture in the United States and many otherindustrialized Western nations to purchase goods. However, the adventitious opportunity to ride on thecoattails of these new phenomena is enough to attract advertisers anyway,bringing ad men and women into the consumers' worlds--empowering socialmedia users. The terms consumer culture and promotional culture have much to bear onthe study of advertising. 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