Media Audiences Are Manipulated, Passive Audiences. Art and Branding - Essay Example

? Media Audiences Are Manipulated, Passive Audiences Introduction Fashion advertising represents a perfect instance of the creation of identity by the media. The nature of product is associated with a form of cultural identity and style. The field of fashion advertising the major fashion institutions such as Gucci, Prada and media such as Allure magazine produce the desired effect by the use of people that are talented to the most in creating the most persuasive and emotional images which can be attained by the media (Merskin, 2004, pp. 119-129). Fashion advertising makes use of signifiers in the creation of an identity, which is usually through the portrayal of fashion through high status, youth; high-sexual appeal, which is augmented by constant reiteration, intended to enhance the identity continuum. Discussion The intermix of images which has been fashioned by the most talented designers, artistes, models and photographers is intended to sell the fashion as a creation founded on image and to sell these images as the epitome to the society (Martin & Bush, 2000, pp.441-454). There is clear evidence of this in fashion advertising in which the products are restricted to a select few by their high prices yet the identity images are sold to the public in the media. This means of advertising is therefore effective in creating an image in the society through media as to stylishness and power through the portrayal of fashion in the cultural and socioeconomic perspective. This mode of advertising therefore offers predictability and enables marketers to control their customers since the product functions as a consumption of the promoted images and as enhances the very images in the general society (Adomaitis & Johnson, 2008, pp.182-192). Through fashion advertising, firms that sell similar products get the motivation of competing since they find unity in their common objective of advertising of life styles and standards of fashion. An analysis of high fashion therefore establishes the image identities that are constructed by the media and the fashion industry. W magazine is a classic example of the unity in advertising as shown in the print media. The magazine portrays a particular constancy in the depiction of images showing an alter-reality of sexy youthful women, high-priced products, and art. The magazine stresses more on advertising and editorials are limited as its April issue clearly illustrates. Over half of the 544 pages contain direct advertising while the remainder is filled with photographs of fashion, which may be from several brands yet are united in a particular aspect such as model or photographer. The photographs in most instances display the brands and the costs of the products. Advertisement in the magazine therefore serves to reinforce images and identity, which is the primary objective of the magazine (Phillips, & McQuarrie, 2011, pp. 99). The distribution of the magazine is also centered on promotion and selling of the same. The magazine is intended for the high-class society and those that look up to them. A large part of the magazine is dedicated to a discussion and analysis of the life styles of the consumers of its high fashion products. The magazine has sections, which are dedicated wholly to the exploration of the lifestyles of their high-end clientele such as artists and directors. The W magazine is available for subscription at a price of two dollars fifty and has a bout a million subscribers. The remaining costs of production are met by the sale of advertisements, which are priced at 44000 dollars for a page. This means that the magazine is in the main financed by the purchase of its pricey product offerings by a very small number of high-end societies (Phillips, & McQuarrie, 2011, pp. 99). Art and Branding An analysis of the print media brings out a unity in attributes in artistic expression such as the variety of the color, sense of fashion, and the gorgeousness of the forms, which is responsible for the creation of the identity of a brand. For instance, a study of the Gucci and GAP logos show little difference yet it is the identity and images they conjure which differentiate the two brands. “Pictured” an advertising magazine, asserts that brands will find it impossible to exist in isolation since it is hard to get clients to put any emotive value in a marquee. Still photography has however been proved to evoke emotive responses in clients if they are crafted in such a manner as to portray a certain identity. A right portrayal of image may be so important as to represent the identity of the brand other than the logo. The creation of images, which promote emotive values and identification with a brand, is similar to what is employed in the promotion of art in art galleries. Kelly (2002, pp.18) asserts that advertising by the use of logic and language is losing appeal since it is not as effective as well crafted advertisements which have more impact on emotions and identity. The objective of branding is thus geared at the evoking of identity and emotion while other drives such as confrontation and education are not taken into account. The W magazine strives in every way to portray fashion art in the same manner as the arts in the gallery. The April Issue of W magazine shows the selection of works by Chuck Close, Takeshi Murakami, and Lucien Freud, which Kate Moss portrays. These works are given in the first thirty pages and are shown in a manner that imitates a gallery walk. The association with gallery art is intended to conjure up images of identity, which the clients can relate to as they are familiar with art galleries. Thus the art is employed in order that it may evoke images with which the viewer can relate with and thus what they aspire to be. Identity of the Alter Ego The advertising in the fashion industry is modeled upon the formation of alternate identities, which has been compared to the Freudian concept of the ego and also to the Mirror Stage as propounded by Lacan. Carroll, (2009, pp. 146-158) asserts that in film, the images seen do not bear any resemblance to the natural world since it is totally a work of fiction. Film is therefore comparable to the mirror although it is distinguished from the elemental mirror in that film may never come to reflect the body of the viewer as the mirror does. The lack of a reflected body of the viewer brings into question on why the cinema continues to hold sway over so many people. Cinema theory assumes that the primordial non-distinction of the ego and non-ego has been conquered. According to Auty and Elliot (1998, pp. 109-123) cinema does not only portray a non-subjective portrait of other. He postulates that while the viewer still has the need for an identity, the need is no longer primary and the viewer for identification thus uses cinema since he would have no social life outside of it. Gonzalo and Julia (2010, pp. 72-87) posit that the media experience takes place from a what is considered to be a less important mirror phase in which the subject forges an identity which is an intermix of the other and the self rather than having the identity within the mirror. The concept of the other formed is the new identity acquired by the subject, which means that the self and other identities are incarnations and not contradictions of each other. Identity is thus perceived from the perspective of the self as looked at from the identity of the other just like in Lacan’s mirror stage. A state of having neither the self nor other may be compared to Freud’s alter ego in which the person wishes for secondary experiences of identification. The subject of such an experience thus fantasizes and identifies with these secondary experiences, which are deemed transcendental. The mirror experiences I film thus reflect everything in the human life but not the subject since the subject is outside it. According to Demzal and Kernan (2003, pp. 1), the experience is in the main secondary since it is dependent upon the separation of the ego and identity in the mirror phase. A differentiation in the mirror stage results into the rise of the alter ego or supra ego. Once the person searches for the presupposed attributes of the ego for instance strength, status, and beauty and finds them to be absent, the fantasy takes over and results into the creation of the alter ego identity. The personal identity of the person is thus not made up of the societal conceptions but rather a personal conception of societal identity and a fantasy. Merskin (2004, pp. 119-129) observes this in her analysis of the differentiation of the identity in the mirror stage. Recognition of the person’s identity makes the person develop a desire for physical unity necessary for the formation of the ego. This desire leads to the person feeling a lack of originality in himself since the personal identity is an intermix of genetics which have been obtained from parents. Since there is a lack of a stable concept of bodily identity, the individual will fill that void with Lacan’s dispersed body, which derives its identity from what is written upon it from the outside world. The new bodily identity, which is unaware of the imagery it is exuding, makes the case for subjectivity in the twenty first century even more interesting. The differentiation results into unease since the ego, identity and the alter ego have differences in what is considered to be lacking in identity. According to Martin & Bush (2000, pp.441-454) the differences in the perspectives based on the three concepts of identity, creates a fertile ground for psychosis. According to Freudian psychology, paranoia is an important means via which a comprehension of the power of the image may be attained. Lacan makes the assertion that paranoid psychosis may be traced to the period before the conception of imaginary reality in the person. This stage even comes before a person starts to fashion his image upon the mirror identity. Since the threat of losing the unified identity and going back to the former differentiated body is always present, the process of the formation of the fantasy identity is always fraught with uneasiness (Adomaitis & Johnson, 2008, pp.182-192). The paranoid feelings of unease may occur at any moment and have been observed to occur in different forms. A variety of female related afflictions such as hysteria and anorexia are deemed to be as a result of a desire to regain the unified identity. These reactions to the loss of the unified identity are expressed through the differentiations as portrayed by the semiotic square. A reaction to the desire to regain the unified identity in which there is a struggle to make the alter ego and identity conform to the ideal leads to extreme psychotic reactions. For instance, the absence of the desired model like slenderness, which corresponds to the magazine alter ego, makes the person engage in activities that would make the alter ego merge with the ego and produce the desired mirror identity in the ideal ego (Phillips, & McQuarrie, 2011, pp. 99). The realm of high fashion advertising has been said repeatedly to be responsible for the instance of anorexia among women. Fashion advertising portrays archetypal images, which much of the times are fictitious to the public. Since these images are portrayed as the ideal, many women are forced into extreme reactions in the quest to attain the prototype. Media advertising of fashion is intended towards the creation of the alter ego. In theory then there is a connection of the alter ego, ego and the self. The public is bombarded with glorified images by fashion advertising, which eventually become ingrained in the individual and become a component of the ego (Kelly, 2002, pp.18. Since many people do not see the characteristics that they have had ingrained in them in their mirror identities, they are forced to find recourse by going back to the media wherein they are fed with new alter ego images which result to a finding of a new identity again. Since the fetish is in a constant mode of change due to the dynamism of fashion, the alter ego becomes so differentiated and fragmented with the passage of time that the person loses all sense of identity. Fashion advertising in the media is founded upon the glorification of the alter ego identity via an alternation between the self and fantasy and the promotion of fantasy as real. Most advertisements and media representations portray images that are too narrow as to make the public identify with them (Caroll, 2009, pp. 146-158). A majority of fashion advertisements are of sensual and sexy youthful women who are endowed with class sophistication and leisure, which makes them perfect in a manner that is unattainable in one person. The images of the ideal woman is supposed to act as a benchmark for what a woman should be and are therefore have the objective of forging alter ego identities. An analysis of the of the character of the alter ego in which the self and other are annulled and united in flights of the imagination it is logical to come to the conclusion of the dominance of sexual identity (Auty & Elliot, 1998, pp. 109-123). Sex is thus the means through which advertising may communicate with the self and forge the other to form an identity. Since the dominance of sexual overtones in advertising is a wide area, this analysis will simply focus on the semiotic analysis of high fashion advertising and how it manipulates the public. The semiotic square in high fashion advertising delineates a continuum of female sexuality. The word sex, which entails the range of sexual experience, is contrasted with notions of innocence. From these positive and negative notions we obtain the four sexual identities of pervert, wife, slut and virgin. The four are further divided into lesser segments such as homo sexuality, sexual deviance, abstinence and standoffishness. Many advertisers and especially advertisers of high fashion such as teen, homemaking and wedding magazines usually make use of these delineations in their advertisements (Gonzalo and Julia, 2010, pp. 72-87). In the advertising of high fashion however, the images of wife and virgin are quite limited if present. Most of the time if present they are meant to limit the other two concepts. High fashion advertising normally makes use of the slut and pervert in trying to set out the boundaries of the tolerable. They usually use these terms in setting up the limits of how much a person may go before they reach the extreme ends of the continuum in which their actions are no longer socially acceptable. Since there is constant modification of the alter ego the advertisers are given more room to expand their continuum. Advertisers have come to realize that to make their audience react and buy into new alter egos, they have to keep on continually producing images which are better than the previous ones (Demzal and Kernan 2003, pp. 1). Evidence of this may be gleaned from the pages and advertisements of the lesser magazines, which are constantly trying to place themselves at the very limits of the socially acceptable. The more established magazines however do not need such kind of advertising and they normally do not go to the extremes o9f the continuum. These magazines are likely to be more subtle in their approach in the advertising of high fashion. The incessant drive for shock value within the high fashion industry results into hysteria among the audience who are incessantly exposed to new identities of acceptability and non acceptability. The advertising of fashion thus has two functions. It provides clients with the limits of sexual identity while at the same promote its products. The use of fashion is normally influenced by high fashion advertising through the conceptions of sexuality mentioned above. A good example of this is the many award ceremonies in which the high fashion industry promotes some type of dressing (Merskin, 2004, pp. 119-129). During academy awards for instance, dresses that are considered socially unacceptable are introduced to the public through the celebrities. Since celebrities are put on a pedestal by the fashion media, this type of dressing does not raise eyebrows and is even seen as the ideal. The fashion media would thus be successful in shifting the alter ego of the general public to fit what they would like to sell. The shock value that is introduced by the celebrities is subsequently translated into sales of the product as the general public strives to attain their new fantasy which they have acquired from the new image identities developed by the fashion media. By this kind of machinery fashion advertising comes to have quite a significant effect on the culture of the society. With new shocks being brought up by the industry and being accepted they soon become the advertisers have to keep up with new means of shocking the public through subtle introductions of taboo and socially unacceptable which are dependent upon the alter ego formation processes of the audience (Martin & Bush, 2000, pp.441-454). Fashion advertising as such affects the formation of a society’s identity both qualitatively and quantitatively. Conclusion The fashion industry is a highly sophisticated means of creation of social identities through alter ego manipulation. The high fashion industry has a very select clientele that provide it with money through purchasing it s expensive products. In order for the products of the industry to retain their appeal, the fashion industry has devised a way of psychologically using the identity differentiation processes in humans to create a unique identity in the society. The high fashion industry thus manipulates the general society by creating alter ego fantasies through advertisements of the ideal. These advertisements portray perfection and what every person in the society should aspire to be. The portrayal of this ideal therefore creates a need for the society to unify their mirror image and alter ego into their ego in order to be achieve the desired ideal. Most of the general public is at the mercy of the high fashion advertisers who promote their products with the society as the audience yet the only clientele of fashion advertising is the high end market which can afford the expensive fashion promoted. High fashion marketing is thus an act of manipulation of the public while only benefiting the clientele that is capable of paying for high fashion. Bibliography Adomaitis, A. & Johnson, K. 2008, "Advertisements: interpreting images used to sell to young adults", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 182-192. Auty, S. & Elliott, R. 1998, "Fashion involvement, self-monitoring and the meaning of brands", The Journal of Product and Brand Management, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 109-123. Carroll, A. 2009, "Brand communications in fashion categories using celebrity endorsement", Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 17. No.2, pp. 146-158. 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