Discussion question 4

  1. According to Berger, advertisement persuade consumers they can transform themselves by buying something more. These models represent glamour and “the state of being envied” to make people acquired their products. These publicity images are different from the reality of their product but they show people what they want to see in order to sell their products.
  2. Oil painting shows an image as it is, it shows the real feeling of the artist, real possessions and mood in which this painting was made. However, publicity photograph sells something way different than the reality. Publicity as its definition, wants to get the attention from consumes in order to sell. It provides visual attraction to get the consumers attention.
  3. The concept of “the dream” makes us envy other for their possessions and also their money. Publicity make it look as if money magically appears to make us consume their products and look “glamorous”. The more a person consume the more enviable will be, the more power will posses. The use of this advertisement images manipulates consumers. An image of a women selling a face cream with a radiant skin will make other women consume their product because they envy her flawless skin.

Discussion #4

1.According to Berger, publicity proposes to each of us in a consumer society that we change ourselves or our lives by buying something more. Besides, publicity is a process of manufacturing glamour. But what is that kind of glamour? The glamour he mentions in this situation is constituted by the state of being envied. Publicity or advertising-images is a sort of effective way that the producers and companies promote or sell their products by stimulating our eyes. For costumers, publicity is a creative way to combine our illusion with realistic world.

2.The difference between oil painting and publicity is their final purpose. Oil painting is a media that the owners show their wealth and their real lives. The objects in those oil paintings are what they already have. The oil paintings picture their present lives. “Oil painting, before anything else, was a celebration of private property. As an art-form it derived from the principle that you are what you have.” Berger said. On the contrary, advertising-image we see on the street is to encourage us to buy something what we don’t have or what we desire. So the publicity is a kind of image or word to present our future life after we buy the products.

3.Berger says that publicity images always depict one of three dreams. First, the dream of later tonight. You are part of the good life they smile at and they are part of the good life you smile at. Everyone is surrounded by what brings pleasure, but it is you who will bring the greatest pleasure of all and next morning you will feel the same about it. Second, the skin dream. The surface you can touch without a biography. Third, the dream of a faraway place: Is to lie down on the bed alone, to allow one’s thoughts to pass through the light of the window and to travel elsewhere, conjuring images. When we buy a bottle of orange juice in the supermarket, we can see the image of a smiling farmer who lives in Brazil. He stands in front of the orange tree holding a freshly picked orange. Through this image we can imagine a beautiful orange plantation in the distance which produce the fresh juice and sell it to our market.

 

 

Discussion #4

  1. Berger describes publicity as a strategy to lure  the consumer by being all about “the future buyer”.Publicity can’t rely on present.Publicity is an manufacturing process.Publicity cause people to spend more through the transformation of which cause envy.Publicity is a tool to propose products by causing envy of others glamour. It forces people to spend more to achieve those glamour.

Q2. Berger argues that oil painting celebrates  the principle “you are what you have.” Oil paintings’ owners already have money that they have made by providing goods or services to consumers. The spectator-owner of oil paintings and the spectator-buyer of advertisements are different audiences. Oil paintings are designed to show a standard of living their wealthy owners already enjoy. Advertisements are designed to show a potential buyer what their life lacks and to offer them a better life.Berger mentions  publicity celebrates consumerism.He views advertisements as the last form of post-Renaissance Europe’s visual art. Since advertisements must “sell the past to the future, they have to use the language of the past. Publicity relies on “the fear that having nothing  will be nothing.” Publicity can’t rely on the present. It must use the future to suggest that the spectator-buyer will have a better life with the product. These advertisements works well because “the power to spend money is the power to live.” Those without money become “faceless” or invisible to advertisers, to themselves, and  those with money are “lovable.”Often Production of images for publicity reveals  anxieties  about money and desirability.

Q3.The   image which are publicized of beauty  cream where the image have “perfect skin” and are stereotyped as what all other women should ideally look like.Consumer begins to envy the promise of having beautiful flawless skin.Now publicity influence women to be hopeful and experience the glamour that they promise.Now days Social media has popularized the concern as “fear of missing out” if you are not good looking.

discussion 4

 

 

  1. According to Berger, how do “publicity”–what we would call advertising–images influence consumers and why is this significant?

According to the Berger “publicity” proposes to each of us in a consumer society that we change ourselves or our lives by buying something more. Advertising  is the act of persuading and informing others of a more desirable way of life. It is the people  and the object within the images that we see that are purposefully placed with the desired consequence that we will  make a purchase to improve our lifestyle and become more desirable.

2. As he compares oil painting to publicity (advertising) photography, Berger argues that oil painting “showed what the owner was already enjoying among his possessions and way of life;” “it enhanced his view of himself as he already was.”  Whereas publicity pictures, “appeal to a way of life that we aspire to or think we aspire to.” Why are these differences important? What do they reveal to us about the production of images for publicity?

 Berger illustrates that publicity and oil painting use many of the same visual language and same ideals. He argues oil painting “showed what the owner was already enjoying among his possessions and way of life;” “it  enhanced his view of himself as he already was.” Whereas publicity pictures, “ appeal to a  way of life that we aspire to or think we aspire to.In the video Berger presented the differences of oil painting to publicity side by side  the oil painting showed what its owner was already enjoying among his possession and his way of life.  Oil painting is the possessions and way of  Life of the owner, his own value and it enhanced view of himself  as he already was it began  With facts which it didn’t take into account . oil painting shows the owner corresponds to  the condition of his own life. Moreover,oil painting, before anything else, was a celebration of private property. 

 On the other hand, Publicity images rely on viewers having a certain reaction. It is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. It convinces the buyer to buy a product to have a better life and gets some people before and after getting this product of whatever they are trying to sell and show how happy they become after buying this product. Publicity speaks in the future tense and yet the achievement of this future is endlessly deferred.

3. Choose one of the “dreams” he offers or think of your own. How does this dream offered by advertising use imagery to manipulate consumers?

Berger highlights that the publicity images always depict one of three dreams. “ The dream of late tonight you are part of good life they smile at they are part of the good life you smile it everyone is surrounded by what brings pleasure but it is you will bring the greatest pleasure and next morning you will still fee; the same about it. Such publicity works on the imagination but it does something else too because publicity pretends to interpret the world around us and to explain everything in its own terms. In this type of dream people  manifest their class level, prestige  and action. Moreover, it feels good around other people and their company. It feels pleasure and signs of love. Consequently, such dreams “ envied”  people to be the part of the glamour world and glamour lifestyle in which we live, the things we own and the things we wear all in which show this type of “glamour” or “envied” lifestyle. In today’s society what we see we believe. So, this kind of  materialistic life influences others’ lives to dream. Imagery such as dresses,style, alcohol, cigarettes etc help to sell  the product and if one does not show up or publicity the product then other will not achieve this type of dream. Without envy, there is no glamour.

 

Discussion Questions #4

Discussion #4

1.According to Berger, how do “publicity” –what we would call advertising–images influence consumers and why is this significant?

According to Berger, publicity influence consumers by advertising pictures of people who have been transformed.  As a result of transformation, they look enviable in the eyes of public. The state of being envied includes glamor. When we see Marilyn Monroe, it is her glamour that attracts her fans. Therefore, the main purpose of publicity is to promote glamour that attract consumers. It is significant in a way how it helps to develop a hope in an individual. Berger mentions, “Glamour is for everybody who believes they can be glamorous or perhaps more accurately, for everybody who finds that they cannot afford not to be glamorous”. He is telling us that people aspire to achieve glamour like they are promoting. It entices people so much that it forces people to achieve that glamour. So, transformation of people helps generate hope in the public, that they wish to go through the same process of that transformation. In a way, the glamor they are trying to sell is successfully sold to the public.

2.As he compares oil painting to publicity (advertising) photography, Berger argues that oil painting “showed what the owner was already enjoying among his possessions and way of life;” “it enhanced his view of himself as he already was.”  Whereas publicity pictures, “appeal to a way of life that we aspire to or think we aspire to.” Why are these differences important? What do they reveal to us about the production of images for publicity?

These differences are important because each aspect of these imagery, oil painting and publicity photography maintains its own uniqueness and purpose. Berger tells us that oil painting has the idea of grace, elegance and authority and portrays what the owner already has which only adds more to his own views of himself whereas publicity pictures inspire people to the way of life that they wish to attain. It is the aspect of glamor that is missing in oil painting. It is the glamour that drives the whole notion of publicity photographs. Berger argues that a publicity picture “suggests that If we get what it is offering, our life will be different from what it is.” So, in a way it puts forward a promise in an individual, but a promise that can be only attained if we have money. Therefore, the production of these images for publicity reveals our anxieties about money.

3. Choose one of the “dreams” he offers or think of your own. How does this dream offered by advertising use imagery to manipulate consumers?

The dream of faraway places where the images created for different destinations are so eye catching that we tend to delve into the realm of that unseen place which produces an imagination within us. The advertised photographs are exotic enough that it tends to manipulate a consumer’s mind. It delivers the promise of a beautiful experience depicted in the photograph. The consumer begins to envy the promise of a beautiful experience in a faraway land. They wish that promise to be fulfilled, so they do whatever they can do to experience that advertised image. Now that the consumer is influenced, it encourages them to live the experience promoted by the publicity photograph. So that is how the dream, or the promise offered by advertising use of imagery to manipulate consumers.

Discussion Questions #4

Question 1.  According to Berger publicity influences consumers by telling all of us that we are not adequate in the way we are and the way our lives are.  It also suggests that by buying a product we can change that and make our lives richer.  The mechanism it uses to do this is to show people who have been transformed as a result of a product, and are now envied.  And as Berger indicates, this state of being envied is called glamour and publicity is the process of creating glamour.  This is significant because it is a very effective way of selling products.  You make someone feel inadequate and then create an illusion that a certain product can produce the ideal life or lifestyle and thus curing this feeling of inadequacy.

Question 2.  These differences are important because in oil paintings they are not trying to sell something.  The paintings reflect what someone has or had in the present, while publicity is representing a future possibility with a means to achieve it.  The method in which publicity attains this goal is by showing scene after scene of people changing their lives as a result of buying certain products.   And the changing of their lives includes themselves, their homes and even their relationships.  Publicity also uses another method in which to sell products and that is to play upon people’s fears.  Specifically the fear of not being desirable or to be unenviable.

Question 3.  Berger provides three examples of dreams that are used to sell products and one of these he calls, The Dream of later Tonight.  This type of dream shows people greatly enjoying each other’s company with all the participants being good looking and very well dressed.  It also shows certain individuals who appear to be greatly envied, which plays upon the desire to be the life of the party and the most glamorous.  This type of imagery is very effective for selling products like clothing, jewelry, perfumes, alcohol and cigarettes, because if one does not own the finest of these products, one can not even begin to achieve this type of dream.

Discussion question #4

 

 

  1. According to Berger, how do “publicity”–what we would call advertising–images influence consumers and why is this significant?
  • Publicity is the manufacturing process. Publicity persuades us that when we buy something more, it transforms both us and our lives. Publicity or advertising persuades us to spend money by telling people that there would be such a great transformation by showing us people who have apparently been transformed and are, as a result, enviable. It offers the buyer a glamourous image of themselves before buying the product. John Berger said: “The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for others, an envy which will then justify her loving herself.” The state of being envied is what constitutes glamour. Glamour is created in ads by showing people who doesn’t have a specific something that it’s very important and that those people cannot live without it in which its envy is created. Berger also mentioned: “The happiness of being envied is glamour. Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance. It depends precisely upon not sharing your experience with those who envy you. You are observed with interest but you do not observe with interest – if you do, you will become less enviable.” Berger states that personal envy did not exist in old times, therefore glamour did not exist, because status was determined by birth. In the present, personal envy was propagated by models or well-known public figures in publicity images.
  1. As he compares oil painting to publicity (advertising) photography, Berger argues that oil painting “showed what the owner was already enjoying among his possessions and way of life;” “it enhanced his view of himself as he already was.”  Whereas publicity pictures, “appeal to a way of life that we aspire to or think we aspire to.” Why are these differences important? What do they reveal to us about the production of images for publicity?
    • “Oil painting, before anything else, was a celebration of private property. As an art-form it derived from the principle that you are what you have.” Berger said. Oil painting and ads share the same visual language. In the video he showed us oil paintings and ads side by side. There are a lot of similarity between them. Berger then states that the point of difference between oil paintings and publicity images or ads. The oil painting showed what its owner was already enjoying among his possessions and his way of life. It consolidated his own sense of his own value. It enhanced his view of himself as he already was. It began with facts of his life. On the other hand, publicity images rely on viewers having a certain reaction. It is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. It convinces the buyer to buy the product to have a better life and gets some people before and after getting this product of whatever they are trying to sell and shows how happy they became after buying this product. Publicity speaks in the future tense and yet the achievement of this future is endlessly deferred.
  2. Choose one of the “dreams” he offers or think of your own. How does this dream offered by advertising use imagery to manipulate consumers?
    • Berger says that publicity images always depict one of three dreams. First, the dream of later tonight. You are part of the good life they smile at and they are part of the good life you smile at. Everyone is surrounded by what brings pleasure, but it is you who will bring the greatest pleasure of all and next morning you will feel the same about it. Secondly, the skin dream. The surface you can touch. The skin without a biography. Finally, the dream of a faraway place: Is to lie down on the bed alone, to allow one’s thoughts to pass through the light of the window and to travel elsewhere, conjuring images. Distances without horizons. To be in two worlds at the same times, just where Europe ends. The other world, violent, infidel, full of unknown passions. Wearing your own clothes next to your own skin, you join the nomads or to go north next to the ancient castles, an age of chivalry of romantic love. Publicity pretends to interpret the world around us and to explain everything in its own terms, it adds up to a kind of philosophical system. The things which publicity sells are in themselves neutral, just objects and so they have to be made glamourous by being inserted into contexts which are exotic enough to be arresting, but not close enough to offer us a threat. Publicity abuses the realities of public figures and events and struggles in other parts of the world. This reality and unreality confronts each other and then people are faced by contrast which is incomprehensible.

Blog Post #3

1.     Briefly answer these questions from Chapter 2.2 Prewriting in English Composition: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate:

  • Is the purpose of the essay to educate, announce, entertain, or persuade?

The purpose of this essay is to persuade, that is where the argumentative portion of the thesis comes from.

  • Who might be interested in the topic of the essay?

Black Lives Matter activists and people interested in historical photography might be interested in this topic.

  • Who would be impacted by the essay or the information within it?

The essay impacts the many protestors demanding justice for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among many others.

  • What does the reader know about this topic?

The reader is my English Professor who specializes in African American Literature, I presume he is very knowledgeable about this topic.

  • What does the reader need to know in order to understand the essay’s points?

The important background information is that Ieshia Evans was at a protest and that she is being arrested in the photo.

  • What kind of hook is necessary to engage the readers and their interest?

The hook will be an appeal to the reader’s emotions in relation to the death of Alton Sterling.

  • What level of language is required? Words that are too subject-specific may make the writing difficult to grasp for readers unfamiliar with the topic.

College level language is required, use of the elements of art we’ve learned about.

  • What is an appropriate tone for the topic? A humorous tone that is suitable for an autobiographical, narrative essay may not work for a more serious, persuasive essay.

The tone will be serious and educational, making an effort to convince the reader that Ieshia is fearless.

 

2.     Write a draft of your opening paragraph based on Chpter 3.2 Opening Paragraphs from English Composition: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate

The death of Alton Sterling sent shockwaves through Baton Rouge, Louisana. Sterling was shot and killed in an act of police brutality outside of a store where he regularly sold DVDs. He was known affectionately as “CD Man” in his community. Sterling’s shooting was one of many racially charged incidents that gave rise to protests across the nation in 2016. Among these protests, one image rose to the top and became synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement. In Baton Rouge, protestor Ieshia Evans was photographed standing alone in the middle of a road while being arrested by two officers advancing from a line of police in riot gear. She stands completely still, one arm tight around her waist while the other is slightly extended to the officer running toward her. This is not a photo of a scared woman. Evans is not frozen with fear, she is rooted in her courage. Her arms at her waist and her shoulders pushed back show a woman with patience and confidence. Although her body language is stiff, Iesha Evans is fearless due to her unshakeable strength in the face of arrest.

“Fast draft” assignment

By Thursday, July 9th, I would like you to post a rough draft of your paper to Blackboard. In a face-to-face class I would have you write a “fast draft” similar to what the textbook describes in Chapter 2.3, Drafting, but it is difficult to simulate this exercise online.

Rather than doing this, I would like you to submit your work on your draft in whatever state it is in by this Thursday. This is a firm deadline because the only requirements are that you submit the document and that it represent the stage of the process your draft is in on that day. Your draft can be rough, unpolished, even ugly. Just submit some form of your draft by the due date.

To submit your draft, go to the Paper 1 folder in Blackboard.