Commodity Self and Commodity Culture
Link to movie trailer for 2 Fast 2 Furious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyCtnA15PRc
The commodity self is the self that is ideologically constructed from the ownership or coveting of certain commodities. Commodity culture is a culture constructed of people who construct their personalities and egos under this basis of ownership of things, and dividing those into the haves and the have-nots. This creates the basis for social status. If you have, you are high on the social scale, while if you do not have, you are out of luck.
This produces the prime conditions for movies like The Fast and the Furious franchise, having about four incarnations thus far, all about fast cars and macho sophomoric testosterone-soaked 20-something males who are for some reason either ever trapped in the lower-middle class (and yet have really nice cars) or are in the upper class and also have really nice cars. The lower middle class males seem as though they might have money to pull themselves out of the lower middle class if only they didn’t buy these really nice and expensively personalized cars which their egos demand they need—but then who would they be without these really nice cars? Just lower middle class males.
Also in these movies are upper middle class males who can be either helpers to the lower middle class males or antagonists in their equally mandatory racing to determine social worth by who the winner is. Generally the antagonists have the visually stimulating lower middle class girl on their arm and don’t treat her as well as the lower-middle class male will obviously know how to, because he’s a good little Everyman. This lady of dubious repute is generally the prize in these races determining the moral superiority of the lower middle class male against that of the upper class male.
Anyway, the point is that these characters, and the people who are consumers of these movies, base at least some part of their personalities on the ideology presented in them. Whether it be the street racing, the nice cars, or simply the macho lower middle class Everymen, they find something either comforting or affirming in such stories, and strive to be like the characters in the movies by also buying nice cars and acting like macho lower middle class Everymen portrayed by them.
Culture Jamming & Anti-Ads
http://www.con-scious.co.uk/pages/Blog_Main_2/blog_main_2.html
http://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/bulimia_ad.jpg
Anti-Ads are advertisements that have been changed to portray a company in a negative light or show a negative company practice. Culture Jamming consists of advertisements that have been modified to portray a cultural change. These two types of advertising modifications are very similar and often used together. In the Calvin Klein ad shown, a perfume ad is parodied showing a hairy, overweight man in the ad instead of a sculpted, muscular torso. By changing the name of the perfume to ‘Reality” it reminds us that very few people really look like the models in perfume ads and we are more likely to be or wind up with the person in the ‘Reality” ad. In the “Obsession” ad a severely thin woman appears next to a toilet bowl. It is implied that she is bulimic, reminding us that many of the people who appear in the real ads are partaking in unhealthy lifestyles. And that the companies behind them are encouraging the behavior.
Marketing Coolness
Source: http://www.theadmad.com/2009/03/07/converse-shoes-faces-print-campaign-in-poland/
The marketing of coolness involves the trends that particular cultures have created due to their sense of having an oppositional attitude against the mainstream which make them “hip” and innovative. For example, certain brands such as Converse Shoes, are developing advertising campaigns to attract the counter culture of individuals that embrace tattoos. In the ad above, the advertising goal of Converse is utilizing a skull motif to attract individuals with tattoos who consider themselves “edgy” and against the norm.
Source: http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2010/02/just-add-pink.html
This is an example of using a social issue to help sell a product. In the fall of 1991, Susan G. Komen for the Cure handed out pink ribbons to participants in its New York City race for breast cancer survivors." Even though it only began with a pink ribbon, anything pink has become a symbol for survivors. Pink ultimately is known to raise awareness of breast cancer in women. Marketing techniques using pink during the month of October is widespread because October is now known as breast cancer awareness month. Based on the date of the picture, the company is also using the "pink" holiday, Valentine's Day in February, to promote its issue. As the quote in the above picture says, "You can sell anything to women, the old idea goes - as long as you make it pink!" So the idea of using pink for marketing comes around twice a year and it promotes the company as being concerned about the issues surrounding women. Controversy exists around the fact that men also get breast cancer. Nonetheless, the technique works well for marketers.
Quotes are taken from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer) and the above link.
