Madison Avenue Blog

1. Investigate the negative affects of consumerism, mass culture and advertising on society; socially; psychologically and environmentally.
2. Highlight the impacts that manipulative advertising and marketing have on society and social development. In particular, research and call attention to the ethical concerns associated with marketing to children and the implementation of psychoanalysis (creating and exploiting false needs).
3. Discuss and identify ‘the consumer’ as an aggregate commodity and as a construct of advertising/marketing.
4. Translate a complex and serious topic using sophisticated satire (utilizing sarcasm and wit) to communicate a message that can be easily understood.
5. Utilize the Internet as a powerful tool for mass-communication.

Primaevally, humans have always consumed at some level to fulfil fundamental physical needs (i.e. air, water, food) as well as psychological needs (i.e. sustenance, safety and security; competence, efficacy and self esteem; connectedness; autonomy and authority [1]). Historically, as civilizations capacity to produce material goods has expanded, so has societies ability to consume these goods. Ultimately at the turn of the 20th century — as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution and particularly subsequent line production — industries expanding capabilities to mass-produce goods outstripped societies ability and psychological desire to consume these goods.

Modern machinery… made it not only possible but imperative that the masses should live lives of comfort and leisure; that the future of business lay in its ability to manufacture customers as well as products [2]

During the 1920s, in an attempt to close the growing disparity between supply and demand, philosophy and psychology professor Walter Pitkin identified a need for a broad scaled advertising strategy aimed at selling a way of life — pointing marketeers “to go beyond institutional advertising to some new kind of philosophy of life advertising” [3] . Pitkin’s call was largely realised, and advertising content transformed from focusing on use and exchange value towards that of commodity fetishism. Williams (1980) best summarises this transformation, concluding that:

Advertising, in its modern forms, then operates to preserve the consumption ideal from the criticism inexorably made of it by experience. If the consumption of individual goods leaves the whole area of human need unsatisfied, the attempt is made, by magic, to associate this consumption with human desires to which it has no real reference. You do not buy an object: you buy social respect, discrimination, health, beauty, success, power to control you environment [4]

Purely in terms of market economics, this model of advertising has been overwhelmingly successful in promoting growth. However, the methods employed by Madison Avenue have at times been morally objectionable with effects considered by many as socially destructive. Of particular ethical concern is the implementation of psychoanalysis to manipulate the decision making of the subconscious and unconscious mind (those which influence purchasing motivations and preferences [5]) and the social conditioning of generations of better consumers through marketing to children. Advertising has aided the creation of unity and national character formed around a tradition of consumption.

Money is increasingly deployed by consumers… to define a lifestyle if not a persona itself. You are what you eat, where you live, what you drive, what you drink… [6]

In an age where people are defined by their ability to consume, one ubiquitous person has been constructed within social discourse as a representative of a newfound social homogeneity — ‘the consumer’.

The project will present a satirical perspective on the advertising industry by constructing and presenting a fabricated scenario — utilizing its own devices, both in content and form, to expose its social short fallings. The constructed scenario will act as a platform for the project, a context for it to exist within and around. However, the final manifestation of this project has a real-world audience, purpose and intended future.

Constructed Scenario

With corporate managers under enormous pressure to control costs and maintain liquidity in the current credit crisis, advertising budgets often appear to be a dispensable luxury in the struggle to survive [7]

Feeling the effects of an economy moving in the direction of a recession, Madison Avenue has incorporated as an industry-wide public relations strategy to re-sell itself to the corporate world. The newly formed Madison Avenue Group will engage in an aggressive advertising and marketing campaign to justify its worth and encourage continued spending during these difficult times. This marketing strategy requires a visual identity, with the brand further developed by an accompanying advertising campaign and product guides that details the main product the industry manufactures and sells — ‘the consumer’.

Real-World Implementation
The resulting campaign will be launched for communication to a real world audience using strategies selected from those often employed by marketeers, namely: guerrilla advertising, viral marketing and delivery through the mass media.

• Guerrilla Marketing entails less capital intense, innovative initiatives that push the boundaries of conventional advertising; often in the form of unexpectedly placed advertisements or stunts. These actions should be developed conceptually and could materialise in any number of ways. As an example, printed advertisements could be placed inside library books in response to imposition of advertising within educational institutions.
• Mass Media is generally the conduit for paid advertisements, an avenue largely beyond the limits of this assignment. As a substitute, print advertisements will be submitted to Adbusters Magazine . Based in Vancouver, this reader-supported and not-for-profit magazine has an international circulation of 120,000. The publication welcomes artistic and literary submissions as well as culture-jamming ‘subvertisements’. As described by Adbusters founder Kalle Lasn, subvertising occurs “when you are selling ideas that are trying to subvert advertising” [8].
• Viral Marketing, a recently popularised term, circulates a campaign using existing social networks (online and offline) to independently generate interest. Initial interest will be catalysed through the aforementioned steps, and assisted by the creation of online content to create an exponentially larger potential audience.

The imagined client has specified a set of deliverables with an outline of proposed methods and motivations for development based on common advertising and marketing practices.

1. Visual Identity & Brand Development
   1. Brand Strategy
      1. Investigating current attitudes towards Madison Avenue and the industry zeitgeist, hunt for a fresh image for the brand— an appropriate version of ‘cool’ possibly sourced from a external cultures or subcultures. Reduce and sanitize it into a marketable ethos
      2. Write a mission statement which presents the brands motives, ideals and future views
      3. Transform this into a marketing tagline
   2. Visual Identity
      1. Hunt for an aesthetic of ‘cool’ which is appropriate to the brand. Reduce and sanitise it into a marketable and dynamic identity; include logo design, secondary mark, limited colour palette, etc.
      2. Develop a basic brand guideline which has a wide range of applications
2. Advertising Campaign
   1. Keeping the brand strategy as a central focus, develop an advertising campaign concept which will exploit corporate insecurities for financial gain
      1. Use the campaign to elevate the ‘intangible qualities’ of the brand and the product — transcending what the brand can physically deliver
      2. Highlight how advertising to children and the implementation of psychoanalysis is an essential part of a solid long-term financial strategy — securing continuing profitability.
   2. Translate the campaign concept into a print campaign to be featured in relevant industry publications (i.e. Forbes, Fortune — in reality Adbusters, etc.)
      1. Implement the advertising campaign in a way where it may infiltrate other aspects of the visual environment (i.e. online, street advertising , light projections), showing little regard for context or social appropriateness.
3. Product Guide
   1. Produce a promotional product guide (online and in print) which details the primary product manufactured by Madison Avenue — ‘the consumer’
      1. Manifest the consumer as specific individuals (i.e. Consumer John, Consumer Jane).
      2. Describe how Madison Avenue transforms a child to become ‘the consumer’
      3. Present the consumer as a manufactured commodity; best expressing itself through the buy/not buy decision.
      4. Break ‘the consumer’ down into a series of potential marketable and saleable needs and insecurities available for commercial exploitation

Before identifying the needs of the end-user, it is important to first identify who that end-user is:

The Adbusters Reader:
This readership largely consists of creative’s, often-unwilling participants in the advertising industry themselves . They are (or at least perceive themselves to be) well educated, cultured and sophisticated; capable of understanding and decoding satire and sarcasm. Based on their reading Adbusters, it is assumed that this audience is already well informed on social issues regarding the implications of advertising and corporate globalisation and may be sympathetic to the motives of this campaign.

Unknown Audience:
Although the Madison Avenue campaign has this well-defined and specific target audience, like most advertising campaigns, the limitations of mass-communication imply that the message will leak into other aspects of the visual environment. Enhanced by guerrilla advertising and viral marketing, an unintended and unknown — yet equally important — general audience will be created. This general audience encounters vast amounts of marketing on a daily basis , often unrequested and unwanted visual clutter. Likelihood of certain personality traits can be enhanced by the context in which advertisements are placed, but fundamentally, this end-user is intentionally ambiguous.

Needs:
The pivotal requirement for the campaigns success is for the end-user to have a first point of contact. This intercourse must rouse the curiosity of the end-user by combining a well-devised concept with interesting stimulus to encourage a subsequent visit to online content. Ultimately, the users interest must then be sustained and, granted that a portion of users will be favourably disposed to the rationale of the project, the work must present a fresh perspective on the topic.

Academic
A strong foundation based on academic research is essential for this project to be relevant. Noteworthy academic writings on the sociology, psychology and economics of advertising are numerous, and as such a comprehensive list is beyond the scope of this brief. However, I would like to make reference to three texts that have been particularly influential in the development of this project:

• Helm, Jelly (2000) Saving Advertising, Emigre, no 53. (Winter 2000)
  An introduction to ethical issues associated with advertising, over-consumption and marketing to children and an overview of the social responsibilities of advertisers.
• Ewen, Stuart (1976) Captains of Consciousness, New York: McGraw Hill Books.
  A discussion on the development of advertising into its modern form, its role in the transformation of western daily life and the manufacture of ‘the consumer’
• Packard, Vance (1957) The Hidden Persuaders, New York: Ig Publishing.
  Delivers insights into the history of the internal workings of the advertising industry and the methods sometimes deployed for social and psychological manipulation

Adbusters
In relation to this project, Adbusters Magazine contains a wealth of inspiration artistically, academically and conceptually. The magazine describes itself as:

“(Offering) incisive philosophical articles as well as activist commentary from around the world addressing issues ranging from genetically modified foods to media concentration.” [9]

Founded in 1989 based on themes of anti-advertising, anti-consumerism and anti-corporate-globalisation, the radical magazine held particular influence during the 1990s. An influence that has deteriorated in recent years. Adbusters relatively high-price-tag and its appropriation of the corporate aesthetic has been the cause of some unfavourable comparison with the high-end commercial ‘glossies’ that it stands against. This alongside a number of seemingly capitalist initiatives (i.e. calendars, flags and sneakers for sale) has seen the organisation come under criticism for selling anti-consumerism. Although these acts could be viewed as acts of self-referential post-modernism (similar to proposals for Madison Avenue), many consider Adbusters as just another brand.

Christoper Doyle Identity Guidelines (view here)
Sydney graphic designer Christoper Doyle’s self-promotional booklet “Christopher Doyle: Identity Guidelines”, although produced under a different premise, shares conceptual similarities with the proposed Madison Avenue product guide. The publication presents Doyle as a product, using the identity guideline format as a medium for communication. The design playfully dehumanizes Doyle using visual devices that reinforce the person as product — primarily by photographing him in identical, expressionless positions that are akin to conventions in product presentation.

They Live (view here)
The plot of John Carpenters 1998 cult classic They Live, although unconventional, involves the protagonist (George Nada) exposing a ruling class of extra-terrestrials who keep the masses sedate and indifferent through subliminal advertising. George — with assistance from special sunglasses — is able to ‘see’ the subliminal messages embedded into all printed matter. Although mostly inappropriate, aspects of the films concept and particularly visual representative techniques used in the famous sunglasses scene may have their place in this project.

[1] Kasser, T (2002) The High Price of Materialism, Massachusetts: MIT Press. p. 23-24

[2] (1938) Printers Ink: A Journal for Advertising, Fifty Years: 1888-1938 (Special Edition) In: Stuart Ewen (1976) Captains of Consciousness. New York: McGraw Hill Book. p. 53

[3] Stuart Ewen (1976) Captains of Consciousness, New York: McGraw Hill Book. p. 53-54

[4] Williams, R (1980) Problems in Materialism and Culture, London: New Left Books.

[5] Packard, V (1957) The Hidden Persuaders, New York: Ig Publishing. p.35

[6] Fine, B & Leopold, E (1993) The World of Consumption. London: Routledge (p. 3)

[7]  Wharton University (01/12/2008) Don’t Skimp on Ad Budgets, Forbes Online. Accessed 2^nd of March 2009, <http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/01/advertising-recession-wharton-ent-sales-cx_1201whartonadvertising.html>

[8] Lasn, K (04/03/2009) Kalle Lasn: Clearing the Mindscape. Lurzers International Archive & Adbusters. Accessed 10^th of March 2009, < http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters_blog/kalle_lasn_clearing_mindscape.html>

[9] About Adbusters. Adbusters. Accessed 14^th of March 2009, <http://www.adbusters.org/about/adbusters>