Aims

This module aims to:
1. enable students to develop a core base in the field of advertising, culture, and consumption.

2. allow participants to develop specialisms on the basis of specific interest (e.g. advertising and language; advertising and globalisation; consumption in cross-cultural settings; consumption and identity).

3. encourage students to consolidate methodological and critical skills in studying practices (e.g. shopping/consumption), texts, and qualitative and quantitative material in the spheres of communication, culture and advertising.

4. explore and apply interdisciplinary approaches to the study of consumer society now and in the recent past.

5. examine the rise of global and cross-cultural consumer cultures and advertising.

6. investigate and understand the cultural context of specific consumer groups, and to develop case studies of specific commodities, practices or cultural contexts.

Cultural consumption is one of the key activities of everyday life. All consumption occurs in relation to advertising, promotion or communication. This module will examine the cultural politics of advertising and consumption in relation to the perspective of cultural studies. It will provide a critical map of the field and bring together work on consumer culture in anthropology and sociology with work on media audiences within media studies and sociology. The rich and idiosyncratic features of local consumption practices will be illustrated through cases from different parts of the world.

Through such cases, the module will show the varying balance between constraint and power and creativity and resistance, making links between consumption and production, and the patterns that shape access to symbolic and material resources. Consumption takes place in the context of everyday lives, in urban, rural and domestic zones: questions of place and identity, poverty, the privatization of the home, and the linking of local everyday practices with broader, global processes are explored. Particular attention is given to the media and new communication technologies as points of overlap and exchange between the local and the global, between domestic consumption and the public sphere. Specific attention will focus upon the various communication strategies used in advertising including semiotics, branding, 'shockvertising', humour and music as rhetorical devices, and social media campaigns.

Outline Of Syllabus

Syllabus may be subject to updates/change but will typically include:

Classical and Contemporary theoretical perspectives on Advertising & Consumer Culture

Semiotics & Branding in Advertising

Gender & Consumption

Consumption of Cities & Place Marketing

Fashion Advertising, Style & Identity

Humour in Advertising

‘Shockvertising’

Digital Advertising Online Consumption

Social Media & Viral Campaigns

Consumption & Sustainability

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The module aims to encourage the development and comprehension of contemporary issues and ideas in culture, consumption, advertising and everyday life. Theories of the economy, identity, and culture will be discussed in relation to advertising content, consumption and production, and mass media texts. Lectures introduce and develop ideas and both online and present-in-person group work allows students to consider material in more practical detail. A mixture of lectures, small group sessions and online seminars will be combined with private study and essay writing which investigates key aspects of advertising and consumption in everyday life.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The Essay/Campaign allows students to consider social and cultural theories of advertising and consumption, production & regulation and cultural identity or engage with a more practical/professional focus by conceptualising an advertising campaign. This formative assessment and associated reflective activities allow students to gain feedback on ideas/plans for the summative assignment and think critically about what they are being assessed upon prior to completion.

These assessments allow students to establish practical, theoretical, critical and evaluative skills and stress the importance of working to deadlines and goals.