IAM 305 Cultural Dimensions in Advertising

Advertising in its varied forms is a pervasive and dominant influence in contemporary societies that informs and structures our choices, penetrating the mundane and intimate spaces of our lives. Living in a consumer culture has significant implications for our values, lifestyles, social relations and other aspects of culture. This course offers students an opportunity to delve into a critical examination of the parameters and meanings of the culture of consumption. Students examine the different ways in which advertising influences, informs and reproduces our culture of consumption. Through a cultural-historical studies approach, they explore contemporary advertising practices and their explicit and implicit impact on aspects of the cultures of the consumer societies, including children's culture, pharmaceutical marketing, globalization, political communication, and new media. Students trace the ways in which advertisements “speak” to us, promising to satiate our desires and shaping the very nature of those desires. They investigate how people become and perform as ‘consumers’, and the subsequent repercussions of advertising and consumerism on cultures.