ADVERTISING AND DEMOCRACY IN THE MASS AGE

Transcription

1 ADVERTISING AND DEMOCRACY IN THE MASS AGE

2 Advertising and Democracy in the Mass Age Terence H. Qualter Professor of Political Science University of Waterloo, Canada Palgrave Macmillan

3 ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Terence H. Qualter, 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y First published in the United States of America in 1991 ISBN Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Qualter, Terence H. Advertising and democracy in the mass age/terence H. Qualter p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN I. Advertising-Great Britain-History-20th century. 2. Advertising-United States-History-20th century. 3. Advertising, Political-Great Britain-History-20th century. 4. Advertising, Political-United States-History-20th century. 5. Advocacy advertising-great Britain-History-20th century. 6. Advocacy advertising-united States-History-20th century. 7. Democracy-History-20th century. I. Title. HF5813.G7Q '0941'0904-dc CIP

4 Contents Preface Vll 1. The Birth of the Mass Age 1 The Changing Order l Emergence of the Masses 4 Liberalism, Democracy and Capitalism 7 The Demand for Advertising II The Quality of Life The Changing Face of Capitalism 21 A Perception of Human Nature 21 The Puritan Ethos 23 Decline of Consumer Sovereignty 30 Strength of the New Capitalism The Consumer Society 37 The Ideology of Consumerism 37 Socially Determined Value 44 Advertising and the Promotion of Materialism 46 Democracy and Materialism The Social Role of Advertising 56 Contending Positions 56 Advertising as a Social Authority 61 Advertising Consumerism 65 Needs and Wants 68 Stereotypes of Class, Race and Sex 69 Advertisers and Media Control The Advertisers' Perspective 84 Economic Arguments 84 Rational Choice and Human Nature 88 The Psychology of Persuasion 95 Assessing Effects 101 Truth in Advertising 105 v

5 VI Contents 6. The Liberal Democratic Ideal 109 Liberalism and Democracy 109 Theories of Democracy 115 The Psychological Perspective Democracy and the Market 131 Democracy and Elections 131 Rational Choice Models 133 The Political Marketplace 136 Contrasting Political and Commercial Advertising Conclusions 150 The Democratic Dilemma 150 Imperfections of Information 154 Image Politics 155 The Outlook 158 Notes and References 161 Bibliography 175 Index 187

6 Preface Advertising has become an all-intrusive, all-pervasive aspect of life in modern industrial societies. It is a concept wide enough to embrace everything from the hand-lettered poster in the village store window announcing an upcoming church bazaar, to the prime-time, continentwide television commercial for a soft drink or a new car, involving the talents of hundreds and costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to produce. Advertising, which can be all things to all people, can take as many forms as there are products or services to be sold. But this book is not concerned with every manifestation of advertising. It does not, first of all, pay any attention to the classified or small ads which appear in the newspapers, or on bulletin boards in store windows: announcements of situations vacant, apartments to rent, or bicycles for sale. Nor is it very much concerned with the fliers distributed by local stores, hair-dressers or taxi companies. I am not greatly interested in the curious and eccentric forms advertisements sometimes adopt - balloons, sky-writing, novelty hats, T-shirts, and so on. These may be quite important economically, but they do not cast much light on advertising as a social or political problem. This book focuses on large-scale advertising in the mass media, and primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States. The greater part of this advertising is for consumer goods - automobiles, deodorants, appliances, or soft-drinks - often without any reference to any specific place where these goods may be purchased. Other important advertisements look less to the specific product and more to the purveyor- generalised advertisements by department store chains, or fast-food franchises, and perhaps even the enticing advertisements from the tourist departments of vacation resorts. Attention is mainly on the general public advertising of consumer goods and services as distinct from the trade and technical advertisements aimed at experts and professionals. These, though they may sometimes appear in the same media as consumer advertising, avoid most of the alleged 'sins' of the former, often being highly informative and useful to the purchaser. There is one other form of advertising which is of very special interest, and that is the political campaign advertising of parties and candidates, often undertaken by the same agencies as are promoting the sale of consumer products. This treating of politics as a saleable vii

7 Vlll Preface commodity is a matter of deepest concern - the principal preoccupation of this whole study. Closely related to the political advertising is what might be called prestige, business or financial advertising - a general category of advertising promoting the good citizenship of the corporate world, and extolling the virtues of a capitalist enterprise economy. The associated field of advocacy advertising- advertising on behalf of various causes and interests - anti-abortionists, environmentalists, seal hunters and so on, is encompassed within the general area of political advertising. The purpose of this book is to explain the relationship of a number of contemporary phenomena. The first of these is the emergence, from about the middle of the nineteenth century, of what came to be called the 'mass age', arising from population growth, urbanisation, and industrialisation, together with the assertion of the legitimating authority, if not the real power, of the opinions of the many. In this same period, and more rapidly in the late twentieth century, capitalism itself underwent a major transformation from a system based on production and prudent saving to a system dependent upon everexpanding consumption. The promotion of consumption in turn stimulated an all-pervasive mass media advertising environment, which has had a devastating impact on both the theoretical assumptions and the operational climate of the liberal democracies. The changing structure of capitalism, where production so easily outstrips consumption, demands that an increasing share of resources be absorbed, not in the creation of new wealth, but in supporting the marketing process. As long as it is easier to make than to sell, capitalism can flourish only by an ever-expanding consumption of material goods and services. And if the economic system is sustained by the advertising effort, the social character of the mass age shapes the format of that effort. The alienation and isolation of individuals in mass society, cut off from old loyalties and former group ties, spawns a need for new guides to behaviour and new clues to identity. Advertising must therefore sell, not only goods and services, but also definitions of life and of status, images, hopes and feelings. In turn, the very universality of advertising, and its acceptance as a mode of communication, have forced the political system into the same mould. Politicians and would-be leaders increasingly adopt the tactics and strategies of commercial advertisers and, more importantly, advertising's definitions of the good life and the criteria for success. The consequences, examined in detail here, have on the whole been unfortunate. The institutional arrangements of modern liberal demo-

8 Preface IX cracy and the selling of images demean democracy and obstruct the realisation of its own ideals. Liberal democracy in the age of mass advertising is not as de Tocqueville or John Stuart Mill envisaged it, nor even as its modern apologists pretend it still is. The main body of research for this book was completed during a sabbatical leave, spent largely as an Academic Visitor at the London School of Economics. There, through the generosity of the Department of Government, I was provided with office space, library facilities, and a great deal of invaluable social and intellectual contact with other members of the School. I would also like to acknowledge the substantial co-operation and assistance of the staff of the Advertising Association Library in London. My colleague, Professor Richard Nutbrown, read and commented on the manuscript at various stages throughout its preparation. The manuscript was prepared with the aid of the computer facilities of the University of Waterloo, and especially the Arts Computing Office. My wife, Shirley, as with previous books, patiently assisted with the final proof-reading. For all this support I would like to make public my sincerest thanks. TERENCE H. QUALTER