Image Based Culture

This week our readings were about how images affect peoples’ interpretations of media. Images have a strong impact on how people few a certain product because images produce a visual representation of what the product does, or what the product could do for you. People are visual learners in general, so introducing images to the advertisement game completely reshaped how companies advertise their product. Companies target peoples wants and expectations and create them and put them in their commercials. The companies are basically saying “we know what you want and this is what your wants look like. You will achieve this if you buy our product.” The author, Jhally, quotes Tony Schwartz calling the advertising business “partipulation” which I agree with completely. The companies advertising are manipulating you into buying their product, but they are only able to do so with your participation. Your participation is your wants such as a comfortable financial future or a nice relaxing time on the beach. The advertisements manipulate your participation into thinking that you can get these wants.

I think that it is crazy how companies have basically worked the advertising business down to a science. They have figured out how you brain works and target it. The article talked about how if you watch a music video, you will associate the images in the video every time you hear the song regardless of whether or not you are watching the video. I find this to be very true because there have been plenty of songs that I have listened to and not really formed an opinion of how it makes me feel, but after watching the video, the song makes me feel how to video made me feel. I had recently found a music video that was all happy images from various cartoons in my childhood and now every time I hear that song it reminds me of my childhood when originally I did not associate the song with my childhood whatsoever because the lyrics did not really relate to my childhood.

I feel though that this can be dangerous because music videos, specifically rap song music videos, contain a lot of images of sex and drugs. People could watch these and think that just because they listen to this type of music means they can have sex with anyone, or they can do all the drugs that these rappers are doing, which is a very unsafe game to be messing around with.