Analysis : ' The Dissent ' By Thomas Frank

What does an ad say about a society? When viewing a product advertisement, many people never stop to think why the ad and product appeals to them. However, when a more critical look is taken, it’s easy to see precisely how ads are carefully tailored to appeal to trending values of a targeted demographic, and how that makes it easy to examine the society of those whom the ad is targeted at. In the analytic writing Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin provides an excellent example of this, as she crafts a logical and clear analysis of a 1950’s Coca-Cola magazine ad which thoroughly explains how advertisements can reveal quite a great deal about the society in which they were created.

By adding historical context into her writing, Rubin explains the attitudes and conditions that were present during the 1950s, and how Coke used these attitudes and conditions to promote their product and symbolize it with optimism and energy, as well as target their product towards the highest valued group of people at that time. For example, Rubin points out how the vast majority of people in the ad are white males dresses as service men, blue collar workers, and business men. Also, Rubin points out that because of the war this was the largest, and highest valued group of people in America. By including this information into her writing, it helps support her claims about how Coke uses the ad to effectively promote its product to the most profitable demographic in the

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of

Coca-Cola’s confidence in its domination over the soft drink industry eroded, and its advertising slogans began to recognize industry competition: “No Wonder Coke Tastes the Best”. While Coke’s slogans have always centered on the product, Pepsi’s advertisement emphasized the users of the product. Rather than targeting every market, Pepsi focused on the demographic environment. Pepsi foresaw the mass appeal of the youth generation for soft drinks and in 1961 divulged the successful slogan “Now, It’s Pepsi, for Those Who Think Young”. The campaign was such a success that Pepsi’s sales growth outperformed that of Coca-Cola.

In her article “Advertisements R Us,” Melissa Rubin notes that Coke’s message in the ad she analyzes is that “Coke will refresh and unite working America” (249). Her evidence for this is based on several things—for instance, right in the middle of ad sits a large Coke machine and the bottom of the ad explicitly states, “A welcome host to workers—Inviting you to the pause that refreshes with ice-cold Coca-Cola” (249). She concludes her article with the insight that “Coke ads helped shape the American identity,” pointing to the underlying message of the ad that Coke can provide the carefree, joyful life it never fails to portray in its ads to everyone who takes a sip (250).

Through various examples, Harold demonstrates culture jamming as an active role against growing capitalism. Harold notes that society has adopted a consumer-based culture and is no longer moral or value motivated. The author uses the words ‘culture jamming’ to describe the objective of marketing rhetoric of multinational corporations through sabotage, media hoaxing and billboard liberation. Culture jamming is used to disrupt mainstream media institution used by individuals who value anti consumerist social movements. The article begins by discussing Adbusters Blackspot anti ad campaign, which emphasizes the counteracting of popular advertisements. They create popular parody’s, making fun of marketing and advertisement campaigns, throughout magazines in hopes to expose the truth about the large advertisement corporations. Harald believes that parody’s are a form of critique of the advertisement and do not influence change to solve the issue of the ad. Harald views parody’s less effective than pranking, a subset of culture jamming, a change in the ad, producing new shapes and different effects, that attempts social change. Pranking in comparison to culture jamming has the ability to relate stronger messages more clearly against the system of capitalism. It is capable of relaying informational, funny, or insulting messages to a larger group of individuals through analogies. The author also points out Michael Foucault and Gilles Deleuze idea of the disciplinary control of culture. Disciplinary control of culture is seen that as consumers we are constructed as an assembly line style production. Advertisement companies view our beliefs and custom products to fit our needs to maximize their efficiency and profit from the product. Advertisement companies benefit from the anti

The average United States Citizen views about 5000 advertisements a day (Johnson). Advertising is everywhere. Billboards on the way to work, ads on the internet, and paper products such as magazines or newspapers display a sale or a promotion of a good or service. Usually, the ad will give a brand or company name, and uses the product’s merits to draw the consumer closer. This has grown exponentially as advertisements in media in 1970 were estimated to be 500 a day, a ten percent increase in the last 48 years. (Johnson). This is due to the rise of technology, as the computer has become a household gadget within the new millenium. These advertisements are meant to give a synopsis of the product or service’s purpose, quality, and efficiency. If a consumer views 5000 advertisements in a single day and assuming the commercials do not repeat, 5000 goods or services are introduced. With more options to choose from in such little time, the consumer has a harder time differentiating the quality and perhaps necessity of the product. The marketers rely on the quick, impulsive decision making of consumers. With the misleading nature of many infomercials or radio broadcasts, the people of American society are bombarded with constant propaganda, thus making seemingly harmless promotions more potent to filling industries’ pockets and lessening the common population’s

Advertisements are an extremely prominent part of American society. Very few places exist that an individual can go without being exposed to some form of ad. From product placement to billboards, advertisements exist in nearly every facet of life. Marion Nestle discusses what she considers to be one of the more heinous forms of advertisement in her essay, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate.” Nestle uses several persuasive techniques to convince her audience of the evils of supermarkets. Her use of emotionally charged phrases paired with her more logical assertions help to drive her point home while her clear bias and lack of supportive source detract from her overall argument

In today’s mass media, it is quiet common for advertisers to assimilate class into their commercials. These advertisements portray a certain level of elegance because of the sophisticated choice to use classical background music and thick European accents. On the contrary, other advertisers take the common-folk approach by structure these commercials around the western concept. Both of these advertising tactics supports an American paradox. As argued in Jack Solomon’s “Master of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising”, the contradiction lies in the desire to strive above the crowd and the quest for social equality.

The commercial also incorporated a presentation of the country's varying sprawling landscapes and metropolitan areas, along with Americans of different ethnicities, races, and families partaking in real life activities. With these elements: a patriotic song, playing on emotion, and an invocation of profound imagery, we see several of the tactics mentioned in both articles tackled in Coke's commercial. So why did Coca Cola receive such monumental uproar, if it made use of some of the fifteen basic appeals that make ads effective?

In “Commodify Your Dissent”, Thomas Frank insists that marketing no longer promotes conformity but, rather, promotes “never-ending self-fulfillment” and “constantly updated individualism” (para.6). I totally agree with the author. America is all about the idea of rebellious, finding different and being different. The idea of counterculture exists even early 1960, and it was never to stop. For example, jeans were made for the mine-workers; and it not suppose to wear outside of the house. However, the baby boomers decided to make a different, made jeans to be a trend fashion and wear it everywhere. American are always aiming differences and make it to be the trend, especially young people. Therefore, the producers create commercial, advertisement

The intended purpose of this commercial advertisement is to try and encourage the audience to drink the product Diet Coke. Connecting, a readily available soda beverage to a popular, well- known singer is a powerful tool used by Coca-Cola. The advertisement persuades the audience to drink diet coke by including kittens and Taylor Swift, both objects that a large population finds appealing. Not only does the advertisement attract new customers, but it encourages

I disagree with Frank’s notion regarding that marketing is no longer promotes conformity but, rather, promotes “never-ending self-fulfillment” and “constantly updated individualism” (para. 6). Businesses advertise their products as much as possible to gain sales for their company. Many companies use different software to know the spending of every consumer. For instance, Amazon gives each user a suggestion on what they should purchase next. They are able to do this from previous purchases of each consumers or from their browsing history. Once they have this data they release it to the customer to utilize it for advertisement. It it’s the most powerful and easiest way of advertisement. Humans are easily driven to confirm to what the beauty perceives.

The Diet Pepsi print advertisement “Forever Young” is quite creative and thought provoking. The print advertisement shows the front of a businessman’s body, from his nose down to his midsection. This most likely belongs in a magazine, in a place such as a doctor’s office or barbershop, or whatever any day place that the average person would visit. He holds a “Diet Pepsi” cup in the center of the advertisement, with the intention of immediately bringing the cup attention to the reader. He blows bubbles through a straw into the beverage, overflowing the cup and making quite a mess. It is a serious, black and gray formal background. This is meant to be ironic, because a businessman does not typically partake in childish behaviors like in the picture, in such a serious, adult-like atmosphere. The main message this is trying to convey is non-conformity, through its ironic picture of a relatable businessman, and its “Forever Young” caption on the bottom right. “Forever Young” could also suggest that drinking Diet Pepsi can make one feel young and like a kid again and how humans have a basic necessity for having fun, which can be explained by blowing the bubbles in the drink.