Photography and Consumer Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Photography and Consumer Culture - Essay Example (Lury 2011, p.112-119). Consumer culture propagators believe that the buying and selling of goods and services is a cultural activity, affected by the cultural perceptions of people and not just the economical and political factors (London & stone 2012, p.298-306). By saying so, we mean that what effects one individual affects the whole cultural community. In other words, we can say that consumer culture is strongly influenced by consumerism; this concept promotes that the desire for goods generates and fosters the bases of a social and economical culture. This theory of consumer culture believes that social cultures are based on the demand of goods and services in a particular community. This joint demand of commodities brings together the people of a geographic area and ties them in a community. Consumer culture is tightly bound with advertising and globalization since the limitation of geographical boundaries has been rendered useless by the integration of world markets. To unders tand it better we must look at the features of consumer culture: 1. The founding idea of the concept is that people’s identities are defined by the commodities that they own and the services they can afford to purchase. 2. It bases on the premise that the attainment of happiness is dependent on the accumulation of things and objects. 3. Leisure time is also an important factor in consumer culture; the free time in which people go and shop the products/commodities which define their status. People are tied together in a culture through the products they own and the services they utilize. This concept is particularly useful in marketing and advertising where creating an ad for every individual in the target market will be impossible and very expensive, consumer culture concepts lets marketers create an ad that grabs the attention of a large market share (London & stone 2012, p.298-306). A point to be considered here is that although an individual may belong to a culture but he/ she also has some individual opinions, thoughts, and way of perceiving things and objects. So what should an ad comprise of to generate the desired results in all consumers, or at least in a major segment of the target market? Taking a look at our ad, the happiness factory ad shows explicit and colorful images to support and strengthen its underlying message so as to attract the attention of its target audience immediately. The ad is different in its creativity and approach; it is not saying anything, there are no words used, but still the message is loud and clear and evokes the desired results. It explicitly indicates a way of living, a particular and differentiated life style that is only for those people who drink coca cola. What coca cola is trying to do is create a culture, a brand tribe of coca cola across the world, in all areas where coco cola is operating. It wants to create the impression that people who drink coca cola are united by a unique experience that others are fa r too unlucky to get or understand. (Wolman 2006, p.48-57) They want to convey the idea that coco cola delivers