Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Marketing Ideology and Mass Media

  • Chapter
Marketing in Context

Abstract

From a consumer perspective, marketing stands for color, creativity, and cunning; it is glitzy, ritzy, dirty, fl irty, and fun. But, it is also an important subject of study in view of its economic impact and pervasive social infl uence. Popular understanding of marketing’s ideas has permeated through to political, public sector and policy bodies, and in this role marketing’s assumed value often seems unquestioned and beyond critique. I want to make a case here for a contextual approach to understanding marketing techniques and effects, on managerial, policy, and also educational grounds. As part of this effort, I also want to promote a critical and demystified understanding of this enigmatic topic. To try to do this I will touch on a selection of ideas from literary theory and cultural studies that are not typically invoked in how-to marketing books.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. For a review of the role of Andrew Wernick’s idea of promotional culture, see H. Powell (ed.) (2013) Promotional Culture and Convergence, London, Sage, available at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Promotional-Culture-Convergence-Markets-Methods/dp/0415672805/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368105577&sr=8–1-spell&keyword s=promotional+cultuire+and+convergence

    Google Scholar 

  2. One of Bernays’s many initiatives involved the promotion of eating bacon, and he got a large number of medical experts to endorse its value as part of a healthy breakfast. It is thought that the iconic culinary status of bacon in the USA today owes much to Bernays’s PR on its behalf.

    Google Scholar 

  3. See the IMDB website for the full quote http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/quotes (accessed 28.02.2013).

  4. See, for a recent paper on this process, B. K. Loo, and C. Hackley (2013) “Internationalisation Strategy of Iconic Malaysian High Fashion Brands,” Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 16(4), 406–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Marxist literary theorists Terry Eagleton has written much on ideology, e.g. T. Eagleton (2007) Ideology: An Introduction, London, Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  6. I discuss this in Chapter 7.

    Google Scholar 

  7. So taken am I by this show, I led a Saturday evening “research project” that resulted in a journal paper: C. Hackley, S. Brown, and R. A. Hackley (2012) “The X Factor Enigma: Simon Cowell and the Marketization of Existential Liminality,” Marketing Theory, 12(4), 451–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. I genuinely enjoy the show, and I’d audition with my guitar, if I was braver. I’m a fan of open mic formats and talent shows, and I auditioned for the X Factor of the 1970s, Opportunity Knocks. I failed the audition, and became a professor instead.

    Google Scholar 

  9. For my take on “content marketing” see my blogpiece http://www.chris-hackley.com/2013/05/marketing-andmedia-content-new-frontier.html (accessed 9.5.2013).

  10. I know, “parasitic” doesn’t even begin to cover this, but, in my defense, I’d claim that my role in this marketingmedia machine is one of keen amateur. I’m fascinated by the way publicity works. Our X Factor research (later published in Marketing Theory ) was the topic of several media features, for example this one in Advertising Age in October 2011, http://adage.com/article/global-news/understanding-x-factor-simon-cowell-arch-shaman/230402/, (accessed 6.3.2013), along with lots of shorter references in the national press, such as this one in the Guardian’s media supplement http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2011/oct/13/simon-cowell-high-priest-x-factor (accessed 6.3.2013).

  11. My academic interest in the show resulted in a moment of liminality for me too. During a radio interview about our research in which I tried and hopelessly failed to explain our theory in everyday language, I was declared the first professor of X Factor by a popular radio host. It is my personal tragedy that I was proud enough of this to put the clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvK0EazWlLg (accessed 6.3.2013). This is far from being my only venture into the quicksands of media exposure. Another one that illustrated the currency of propaganda theories of media concerned an opinion article I wrote for the UK university academics’ trade magazine, Times Higher (aka THES). The article expressed my concern at a school education reform proposed by the UK Government’s Education Secretary. In my innocence, I didn’t see it as a party political issue at all, but the Education Secretary’s paid assistants (known as SPADS–special advisors) went to the trouble of trolling me online over the issue. The whole story is here on my blog http://www.chris-hackley.com/2013/02/w.html (accessed 6.3.2013) and the original article that caused the fuss, with the online comments is here http://www.timeshighereducation. co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=422594 &c=1 (accessed 6.3.2013). The argument was then picked up by Private Eye magazine (Eye 1334, February 21, 2013, p. 8) giving me my other Proudest Moment.

  12. Please see my comment on Adorno’s term in the notes for the previous chapter. Adorno did seem to take the view that popular culture had no merit at all other than as a tool of capitalism, which seems a little one-dimensional to me. You decide: T. W. Adorno (2001) The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, Ed. J.M. Bernstein, London, Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  13. You can see the Coca Cola content marketing strategy here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LerdMmWjU_E&featu re=youtu.be (accessed 28.02.2013). Part two of the video is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwIq-8GWA8.

  14. See the story and the movies here http://twistedsifter.com/2009/08/bmw-films-the-hire/(accessed 6.3.2013).

  15. See the story, and the movie in Advertising Age http://adage.com/article/news/jaguar-s-12-minute-film-starringhomeland-s-damian-lewis/241063/(accessed 9.5.2013).

    Google Scholar 

  16. For more on TV product placement as branded content see C. Hackley and Hackley née, R. A. Tiwsakul (2012) “Unpaid Product Placement: The Elephant in the Room in the UK’s New Paid-For Product Placement Market,” International Journal of Advertising, 31(4), 703–718.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. See D. Holt (2004) How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding, Harvard Business Press.

    Google Scholar 

  18. See another of our papers on product placement, R. Tiwsakul and C. Hackley (2009) “The Meanings of ‘Kod-sa-nafaeng’–Young Adults’ Experiences of Television Product Placement in the UK and Thailand,” in A. L. McGill and S. Shavitt (eds), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 36 Duluth, MN, Association for Consumer Research, pp. 584–586.

    Google Scholar 

  19. T-Mobile “Dance” flash mob on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM (accessed 7.3.2013).

  20. V. Packard (1957) The Hidden Persuaders, Ig Publishing (reissue 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  21. E. Herman and N. Chomsky (1988), Manufacturing Consent–The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  22. 2.7 million was a circulation figure reported on some media sites in early 2012 e.g., http://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/02/10/circulation-gains-sun-daily-mirror-daily-star-and-daily-record-january-2012 (accessed 6.3.2013).

    Google Scholar 

  23. A. Ehrenberg, N. Barnard, R. Kennedy, and H. Bloom (2002), “Brand Advertising as Creative Publicity,” Journal of Advertising Research, 42(4), 7–18.

    Google Scholar 

  24. J. Williamson (1994) Decoding Advertisements, Marion Boyars publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  25. W. Leiss, S. Kline, S. Jhally, and J. Botterill (2005) Social Communication in Advertising; Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace (3rd edn), Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Routledge, Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  26. My Amazon review of Liz McFall’s book is here: http://www.amazon.com/Advertising-Cultural-Economy-Representation-Identity/dp/0761942556 (accessed 7.3.2013).

  27. There are other arguments about the lineage of visual representations of St Nicholas/Santa Claus, some drawing on the green man of English mythology, which I cannot arbitrate. My point here is just that Coke adapted and popularized one version of the image, identifying it with their brand.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Marcel Danesi has written some accessible and readable works on the semiotics of advertising–his general introduction to semiotics is Of Cigarettes, High Heels, And Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics (Semaphores and Signs) (1999, 2nd edn 2008), New York, Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  29. I attempted a short introduction to advertising semiotics myself, some time ago in C. Hackley (1999) “The Communications Process and the Semiotic Boundary,” chapter 9 in P.J. Kitchen (ed.) Marketing Communications, Principles and Practice, London, International Thomson, pp. 135–155. Umberto Eco wrote a much longer, and better one (1978) A Theory of Semiotics, 2nd edn, John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  30. It is, I confess, a long time I read up on semiotics, but I think this phrase came from work by J. Umiker-Sebeok (1987) Marketing and Semiotics: New Directions in the Study of Signs for Sale (Approaches to Semiotics), Mouton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  31. .I have discussed this in the context of an introductory treatment of other theories of advertising interpretation in this book chapter that is available on the web http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/32952_02_Hackley_2e_CH_02. pdf (accessed 7.3.2013).

    Google Scholar 

  32. G. Cook (2002) The Discourse of Advertising, London, Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  33. See G. McCracken (2005) Culture and Consumption 11: Markets, Meaning and Brand Management, D.U.M.M.Y. Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  34. S. O’Donohoe (1997) “Raiding the Postmodern Pantry: Advertising Intertextuality and the Young Adult Audience,” European Journal of Marketing, 31(3/4), 234–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. One of the Frizzell ads can be seen on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-e8Wr4xXuw (accessed 7.3.2013).

  36. I gather that the plural for mise-en-scéne can be either misesen-scéne or mise-en-scénes. If you know better, please just humor me, don’t write in.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Chris Hackley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2013 Chris Hackley

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hackley, C. (2013). Marketing Ideology and Mass Media. In: Marketing in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137297112_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation