McCloud's comics are the type that most people see everyday. When we think of comics, we usually see images that are drawn on newspapers and have some kind of comedy aspect to them, hence the word "comics." However, McCloud talks about how we use images to identify sounds and other items, but they aren't really that. In simple terms, we call these images icons. "Icons are anything used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea." There are many categories of icons, one example being those used for literature, science, and communication. McCloud asks the question "Why would anyone, young or old, respond to a cartoon as much or more than a realistic image?" Which makes sense, I even do the same thing. When I see comics, I don't believe that these drawings aren't real people, but that they are live beings inside the drawing. Cartooning is "an amplification of simplification." Cartooning is something that is completely acceptable in today's culture, but the detail behind why it works is quite complicated.
Jhelly's article on "Image Based Culture" talks about how we focus mainly on images to represent our culture. Jhelly begins with how the phrase "diamonds are forever" got its meaning overtime, and how diamonds were actually seen as "scarce stones" when they were first discovered. We use diamonds to represent everlasting love, and this a prime example of how images define our culture. An inanimate object is a representation of a strong human emotion that is real. In earlier times, getting your point across about why a product was so successful was "purely textual based." But we've moved on from that, as more effective advertisement could come through colored images that are more appealing to the human eye, and are meant to draw your attention to them. Since "the marketplace is the major structuring institution of contemporary consumer society" having an image-based culture is a relatively smart idea in my opinion. Jhelly refers to advertising as "a discourse through and about objects." This is true because advertisements don't necessarily tell us the bad about a product, but more-so focus upon how that object is connected to important things in our lives that make it seem more wanted and appealing. The goal of an advertisement is to make the consumer feel that they will be happier once they have the product. Let's face it, nobody wants to be depressed. So, why not buy this $3,000 product that makes absolutely no sense factually, but looks pretty darn amazing when you put it in an image with really happy people using it?
The "Image Based Culture" actually addressed a question that I had: Why do people buy things that seem unnecessary? For me it was specifically fashion fads. Vineyard Vines is a brand that I would categorize as unnecessarily expensive. Yet people still buy it and justify it by saying it is "cool" or it makes them feel good. Similarly the advertisements capitalize on this "cool" feeling and makes a product that is seemingly pointless to a necessary requirement for a happy life. The article's explanation about connecting these objects to ideas as opposed to the actual product explains why some ads have nothing to do with actual product. Like you said, it doesn't make sense to buy an object that costs so much money (such as jewelry) on an impractical object, so we justify buying it by saying that "this is the the product that will satisfy our needs, when in reality it might not be the case.
ReplyDeleteWhile advertisements use images (often photos/videos) to make a situation more believable, comics over simplify the images to get across a message. It also, makes you focus on the message rather than a character and places you in the characters place.