Advertising, Values and Social Change : A Sociological Analysis [1 ed.] 9781527538085, 9781527536401

Citation preview

Advertising, Values and Social Change

Advertising, Values and Social Change: A Sociological Analysis By

Maria Angela Polesana

Advertising, Values and Social Change: A Sociological Analysis By Maria Angela Polesana This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by Maria Angela Polesana All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-3640-8 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-3640-1

To my mother Gillia and my sister Elena

CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 I.................................................................................................................... 9 Advertising, Consumption and Values I.1 Brief history of advertising in Italy ................................................... 9 I.2 Values: some attempts at a definition ............................................. 17 I.3 Italian values: from individualism to the rediscovery of relationships ................................................................................... 25 I.4 An oxymoron only in appearance: values and advertising ............. 30 II ................................................................................................................ 45 The Changing World of Advertising: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis II.1 Old and new media ........................................................................ 45 II.2 Television is not dead, on the contrary ......................................... 51 II.3 Is advertising in tune with the Zeitgeist? ....................................... 57 II.4 Gender and advertising ................................................................. 89 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 103

INTRODUCTION

The financial crisis of 2008 was a global crisis, and was so prolonged and intense that, in the long term, it caused deep economic as well as social and cultural changes in our lives. In Italy, the crisis has led to a fall in employment, the fragmentation of labour relations, industrial decline, the contraction of household budgets, as well as an income distribution that is clearly unfavourable to the working classes and to a large proportion of the middle classes. The progressive impoverishment of families, from 2001 to today, has translated into a significant reduction in consumption, a reduction whose implications reach far beyond the mere containment of expenses to overcome temporary financial difficulties. The duration of the crisis has made the downsizing in consumption almost a structural phenomenon, in other words it has had a maieutic effect to the extent that it has raised the consumer’s awareness of the actual value that consumption has in his or her life, with the realization that consuming does not make us happy. The euphoric and consumption addicted ’80s seem very distant today. What prevails is a widespread awareness of the false promise of capitalism: it is not true that higher private consumption leads to greater democratisation of public wellbeing, and much less to personal happiness. Rather, as Lipovestsky argues, we seem to be faced with a paradoxical happiness, since material goods are in no way able to guarantee it. This is illustrated by the social inequalities experienced in an increasing number of countries, including the U.S. itself (which is no longer the home of the American Dream now that its social elevator has been stuck for quite some time). A dramatically relevant phenomenon in our time is the Easterlin paradox, which states that the increase in economic wealth goes hand in hand with an increase in the level of individual life satisfaction or wellbeing only up to a certain point. After that the latter starts to decline, creating an inverted U-curve, so that wealth and, with it, the possibility of consumption, can no longer generate happiness after a certain point. Happiness then needs to be found in different dimensions (for instance, in relationships with friends, romantic relationships, or our relationship with nature) that cannot be exclusively identified with our work or our consumption. The deep disappointment or disenchantment with the big promises of capitalism and with the utopian conception of our planet as an

2

Introduction

inexhaustible supplier of resources are now giving way to an awareness of the need for a radical change in our lifestyle. Thus, new value systems are emerging that attribute importance to the local area, to respect for the environment and nature, and to ethics and transparency as key drivers of the actions of manufacturers – all values that are translated into new and different consumption choices. Therefore, the crisis in consumption has been not only quantitative but has also affected the beliefs, desires, needs, and values of all individuals. Besides, consuming does not mean merely, or simply, taking possession of a good in order to satisfy a need (in actual fact, mere need has long been replaced by desire) and using it until it is completely worn or depleted, but it means much more than that. Consumption is a social action imbued with meaning: it is a tool through which the individual defines his or her own identity. Goods are becoming increasingly de-materialised as their plain functional value is enriched with a strong symbolic component, which is a means not only to define our identity, as mentioned earlier, but also to build our relationship with others and the world. To the point that the symbolic dimension of goods – their meaning – effectively constitutes a language of its own: the language of consumption. This language, however, is not static and unchangeable, and therefore incapable of telling the individual’s story, but acquires a historical dimension, that is to say, it changes with the individual and with society. In fact, in recent years, green, ethical and critical consumption is gaining momentum (see, for instance, Ethical Purchasing Groups, urban vegetable gardens, farmer’s markets, fair trade, etc.). A sharing economy, that is, a cooperative economy based on the concept of sharing (take Uber, Airbnb, swap parties, bike sharing, etc.), in a multiplicity of forms, is gradually developing. At the same time, we are seeing an explosion of social networks driven by the logic of giving, and all these new consumption patterns together are shaping the profile of a new consumer, an actor who feels like someone not only with rights but also with duties towards others and towards the environment. We should also remember that, thanks to the Web, this new consumer has access to a vast amount of information that was absolutely unthinkable in the past. This leads to the consumer’s empowerment or, put differently, it reduces the information asymmetry between enterprise and consumer to the advantage of the latter, who can count not only on a greater amount of knowledge, but also on the possibility of taking concrete action online by participating in conversations that have concrete consequences on the actions of businesses themselves. According to the logic of Societing,

Advertising, Values and Social Change

3

these businesses are “social actors cast in a social context”.1 Consequently, its actions cannot be driven exclusively by profit maximisation. Companies cannot entirely disregard their customers and their feelings, since brands - which are the symbolic interfaces between the companyproduct and the consumer - are built through a dynamic process of production and reception that involves both parties. This implies the brand’s capacity to tap into and then communicate the current Zeitgeist to ensure it remains in tune with the contemporary culture and thereby guarantee its communicative power and empathy. In our society, the phenomenon of slow living is acquiring increasing momentum, citizen associations and volunteering are showing great vitality, waste is becoming a negative social value, and the “I want everything” attitude is being replaced by the “I have everything” mindset. Helped by the Web, new communities are emerging, based on passions and interests, emotions and the like. We are thus witnessing a co-evolution of consumption attitudes and behaviour that are consistent with the emergence of new value systems. A good example in this respect is hedonism. While still one of the characteristic features of consumption, hedonism now takes on new forms, and stripped of its more materialist components, it now focuses more on the quality than on the quantity of pleasures. It takes on social values and finds fulfilment in experiences that take others into account and attribute importance to relationships, to the environment, and to nature. This reflection is based on the question of whether, in view of these important changes that our society, culture, and economy are undergoing, advertising – as one of the key tools of corporate communication putting the consumer into contact with the product featured in its messages – can truly absorb, and therefore effectively convey, the new value system that is currently becoming established. Is advertising in tune with the spirit of the times or do its narratives belong to a past which, with its values, is now far removed from the present and from the sentiment that characterises it? On the subject of values and advertising, we can refer to the wellknown positions on this presented by two scholars, Richard Pollay and Morris Holbrook, one being “apocalyptic” and the other “integrated”. According to Pollay,2 advertising is not responsible for the creation of new

 1

Bernard Cova, “Societing ovvero la piccola storia di un grande concetto tra marketing e sociologia”, in, Societing reloaded. Pubblici produttivi e innovazione sociale, eds. Adam Arvidsson and Alex Giordano (Milan: Egea, 2013), 1. (Our translation) 2 Richard W. Pollay, “The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising”, Journal of Marketing 18 (April 1986): 18-36.

4

Introduction

values, but for the promotion and enhancement of those values that could be considered negative from a social perspective, such as materialism, cynicism, anxiety, social competitiveness and lack of self-respect. Holbrook,3 in response to Pollay, takes a different view and claims that positive values can also be found in advertising, such as social relations, affection, generosity, health, patriotism, ecumenism, and so on. This study accepts and sets out to test the validity of the latter of the two reflections mentioned above in light of the referentiality that needs to characterise the advertising text, which, in order to be heard by its interlocutors and in order for the communication to succeed, needs to represent ways of living and lifestyles which the latter can identify with. Based on a detailed analysis of the literature on the topic, we will argue that advertising does not have the power to impose any values on individuals, unless these values are already present and shared in the society that advertising draws from to build its narratives. We are naturally aware of the partial vision of the advertising message, which, obviously, builds stories that can highlight the product it intends to promote and, to that end, selects those “portions” of reality that are most useful for pursuing that goal. In order to ascertain the presence or absence of the new set of values within advertising messages, we have carried out a qualitative and quantitative study. The research project started in 2012 and then continued in 2014, and uses data made available by Sponsorshop4 for the period from 5 April to 4 July 2012, and then from 1 January to 3 March 2014.5 The quantitative part of this study involved identifying the spot ads broadcast by Italian television networks over a 24-hour timeframe on the following television channels: Rai 1, Rai 2, Italia 1, Canale 5, Rete 4, Sky Fox, Sky Cinema, SKY Sport, La 7, and MTV. 6 As we well know, advertising is spread across a broad set of media that have grown enormously since the advent of the Internet, that is, after what has been correctly identified as the digital revolution, which has produced a new way of communicating. It has often been pointed out, in the rather

 3

Morris Holbrook, “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall. What’s Unfair in the Reflections on Advertising?”, Journal of Marketing 51 (July 1987): 95-103. 4 Advertising monitoring agency located in Milan. 5 It should, however, be noted that during the time frame between the two periods for which Sponsorshop provided the data, we continued to analyse TV as well as newspaper advertisements that we considered particularly significant and relevant for our study. 6 This data was kindly provided by Stefania Andrello, Managing Director of Sponsorshop, an advertising monitoring agency located in Milan.

Advertising, Values and Social Change

5

copious literature on the topic, that the advent of a new medium does not, however, imply the disappearance of those that preceded it. Rather, it triggers a process in which, as McLuhan claimed, “the content of any medium is always another medium”.7 Hence, the expression “new media” can be understood as marking the temporal border with respect to the printed press, radio and television, since, in reality, the advent of digitalisation processes and the convergence between computers and Web technologies has led to the change or integration of traditional media within the new media. We therefore considered it important to analyse the new media landscape and highlight how technologies are confronting us with a rapid and constant change which also involves the very structure of society. New digital media and mobile technologies in fact do much more than offer us the possibility to access a greater quantity of information and promote the empowerment of the individual-consumer. They also help us to develop and maintain relationships thanks to, for instance, social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, which we can access anywhere and at any time to post content related to the experiences, feelings or emotions we have in our daily lives, thus doing entirely away with the distinction between online and offline. Communication technologies and their related practices allow us to achieve a different social balance in which we are no longer passive recipients of communication: we are no longer the objects, but rather the subjects of communication. This role is also fostered by the very nature of almost all online services which are characterised by being interactive, i.e. by allowing/stimulating/requesting the participation of individuals. We are living in a “state of continuous connection”, 8 in an increasingly mediated reality in which the presence of screens in our daily lives is on a massive and growing scale, to the point that we could actually say that they invade every moment of our existence. And an “old medium” like television, has been able to reinvent itself as part of this convergence. Not only is television not dead, but it has fully adapted to the new digital environment, so much so that it provides material for conversation on social media. Television content has always supplied material for conversation, but this social dimension now draws new strength from the fact that these conversations are spread across social



7 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Routledge 1964), 8. 8 See Giovanni Boccia Artieri, Stati di connessione. Pubblici, cittadini e consumatori nella (Social) Network Society (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2012). (Our translation)

6

Introduction

media triggering immediate and widespread participation. Social TV seems to set itself up as a particular form of television experience, a “phenomenon born from the ‘spontaneous’ encounter between technological innovations and the audience’s social habits”.9 Television seems to adapt perfectly to the new habits developed by contemporary individuals and is increasing viewers’ engagement thanks to second-screen applications (especially Twitter), which, in many ways, improve the television experience for viewers and advertisers alike. More and more viewers of television shows are in fact connected to the Internet while watching their favourite shows. It therefore seems clear that the choice of studying television commercials needs to be connected to the space that Italians still reserve for television in their media-diet. The contents of television not only continue to be the object of everyday chats and conversations, but are now also attracting growing audiences on social media networks, thereby turning television into ‘social TV’ (drawing on the concept of “spreadability” developed by Jenkins, Ford and Green,10 it should be noted that we are referring to active audiences who select and spread content, and not to passive audiences as in the concept of virality). The material analysed in this study also includes advertising messages published by the printed press (another “old medium”, albeit, as mentioned, only from a temporal point of view), since they are particularly interesting for the purposes of our research. The author firmly believes that effective and relevant creativity generates positive results regardless of the medium through which it is conveyed. The qualitative part of this study uses content analysis to examine a series of spot ads, together with the analysis of the value representation they convey, based on the value model proposed by Schwartz and his colleagues,11 which constitutes the most recent and interesting contribution to the theoretical as well as empirical



9 Fausto Colombo, “Introduzione: la social tv nell’era digitale”, Social Tv. Produzione, esperienza e valore nell’era digitale, ed Fausto Colombo (Milan: Egea, 2015): 7. (Our translation) 10 See Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford and Joshua Green, Spreadable media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2013). 11 Shalom H. Schwartz and Wolfgang Bilsky, “Toward a Psychological Structure of Human Values”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53 (1987): 550562.; Shalom H. Schwartz and Wolfgang Bilsky, “Toward a Theory of the Universal Content and Structure of Values: Extensions and Cross-cultural Replications”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58 (1990): 878-891.

Advertising, Values and Social Change

7

study of human values. Their study is in fact the result of an extensive and rigorous research programme, carried out in more than 60 nations worldwide and on more than 200 samples, which gives it a high degree of validity and general applicability. According to the results of our research, it is possible to identify a series of “languages” employed increasingly frequently in advertising messages which show that advertising seems to actively listen to and absorb the social, economic, and cultural changes that have taken place. These languages are underpinned by the same values that are acquiring growing importance in society today and which, in Schwartz’s circumplex system, are identified as Universalism and Benevolence – which can be ascribed to the area of Self-Transcendence – and whose representation is predominant in the sample we have analysed here. According to Schwartz, Universalism can be identified in the values that inspire attitudes of understanding and protection both of the wellbeing of humanity and of nature. These values include justice, equality, global peace, altruism, and respect for the environment, for example. Benevolence, on the other hand, sums up the set of values that encourage individuals to take care of the people with whom they have frequent interpersonal relationships. According to Schwartz, these values are: faithfulness and loyalty, honesty, being helpful, being responsible, knowing how to forgive, the ability to establish strong and sincere bonds of friendship and stable and mature sentimental relationships. This does not imply that we should not acknowledge the presence, especially in narratives referring to certain product categories, of values such as Achievement and Power, which belong to the area of Self-Enhancement. However, we should point out that in the sample we have considered here, these types of narratives are fewer in number compared to the ones inspired by the values falling into the area of Self-Transcendence. This study ends with a section dealing with the thorny issue of gender representation in advertising messages. It is a delicate issue because, even within society itself, in our everyday life, different genders are subjected to a series of more or less tacit, more or less widely shared, rules that govern their different roles. Advertising cannot therefore be asked to take on a pedagogical task which is not its responsibility and which should instead be performed, first of all, by the big agencies of socialisation, namely the family, schools and institutions. It is however right and proper to expect that – as the Art Directors Club (which represents the “ethical” heart of advertising) has in fact pointed out – advertising should stop its abuse of stereotypes (using a silly alibi, which is also in bad taste, which claims that advertising basically reflects whatever is happening in society)

8

Introduction

that demean women and relegate them either to being exclusively identified with their body as an object of pleasure from a male dominated perspective, or to the role of a brainless housewife who gets excited about a new detergent or kitchen appliance. The same could be said for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) world, which deserves to be represented in all its richness and “normality”, and not only portrayed in its most transgressive and deviating aspects in the name of a prevailing heteronormativity. Advertising, in fact, cannot – and should not – forget that it also has responsibilities towards the social fabric it addresses whenever it spreads narratives that strengthen discreditable attitudes and behaviours. Advertising can avoid being stupid, banal and vulgar. Advertising can stage beautiful and useful stories, creating narratives that speak about emotions and are realistic, not in the sense that they adhere faithfully to reality, but in the sense that they are capable of portraying the guiding sentiments and values of this century.

I. ADVERTISING, CONSUMPTION AND VALUES

I. 1 Brief history of advertising in Italy We will not attempt to trace the entire history of Italian advertising here; others have done so effectively and we refer the reader to their works for a more detailed account.1 However, it is useful for our purposes to recall some of the main features of advertising in Italy relating to the time of its birth and evolution, which it is essential to be aware of in order to fully understand its specific nature. “Advertising does not have a clear date of birth. It is actually an extremely complex and multifaceted form of communication, which has changed its skin several times throughout its history”.2 We could say that modern advertising in Italy was born with the second industrial revolution in the 19th century. The first advertising posters in Italy were true works of art and their production involved great artists like Dudovich, Cappiello, Metlicovitz, Mataloni, Nizzoli, Depero, Mauzan, Terzi, Villa, Mazza, De Carolis, Hoenstein, and many others. While these first ads, known as réclames, were exclusively advertisements for stores, restaurants and pubs or companies, in the second half of the 19th century, the change that had taken place in the methods of product manufacturing, distribution, and marketing, “that went hand in hand with the new phase of industrialisation – made of large enterprises, and of widely available and just as widely advertised products – caused advertising to move from the store to the product, which could now be found everywhere and needed to differentiate itself from other similar products and have more visibility. These advertisements, now no longer featuring the places but rather the

 1

Among others: Gian Luigi Falabrino, Pubblicità serva e padrona. I protagonisti, la storia e i retroscena del mondo della comunicazione (Milan: Il Sole24 Ore, 1999); Vanni Codeluppi, Storia della pubblicità italiana (Rome: Carocci, 2013); G.P. CESERANI, Storia della pubblicità in Italia, /Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1988); Daniele Pitteri, La pubblicità in Italia. Dal dopoguerra a oggi (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2002). 2 Codeluppi, Storia della pubblicità italiana, 9. (Our translation)

10

I.

products that customers could find in their nearby store, thus started to become much larger in size”.3 The urban landscape became literally invaded by posters. The relationship between art and advertising was one of mutual influences “which continued to expand also into the years that followed, when futurism discovered the revolutionary reach of advertising and fell in love with it, a precursor of many more future flirtations that advertising had with artistic movements, from impressionism to expressionism, to art nouveau and deco, to surrealism, right through to its great, and reciprocated, love for pop art”.4 In particular, futurism discovered advertising as an “art form”, so much so that Depero wrote: “The art of the future will be a powerfully advertising art form. […] Art, too, should [in fact] proceed side by side with industry, science, politics, and the fashion of the time, and glorify them […] the art of advertising is a highly colourful art that is forced to be concise – a fascinating art that boldly places itself on walls, on the facades of buildings, in shop windows, on trains, on the pavements of the streets, everywhere […].”5 Depero goes on to say: “although I paint freely inspired paintings every day, with my imagination I nonetheless exalt our industrial products with equal harmony of style, with the same love, with no less enthusiasm and care”.6 This statement sums up the contradictory condition of advertising as a form of artistic communication which, due to its hybrid nature (bastard art7) that feeds on the most diverse materials and communicates them by drawing on the language of all media, has been the object of prejudice that has downgraded its creative/artistic dimension while seeing it exclusively as a professional reality. The politics of economic and cultural autarchy imposed by fascism led to the so-called “two black decades of advertising”.8 Although Mussolini

 3

Elio Grazioli, Arte e pubblicità (Milan: Bruno Mondatori, 2001), 8. (Our translation) 4 Giampaolo Fabris, La pubblicità. Teorie e prassi (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 1997) 29. (Our translation) 5 Fortunato Depero, Numero unico futurista Campari 1931, omaggio della ditta Davide Campari&C. Milano (Rovereto: Tipografia Mercurio); the text of the poster appears in a previous short version in “La città futurista”, a. I, no 2, Turin, May 1929; then with the title “Manifesto dell’arte pubblicitaria futurista”, in Futurismo, a I. no 2 (Rome, June 1932) 15-30. (Our translation) 6 Ibid., p.21. (Our translation) 7 Giuseppina Elisa Bussi Parmiggiani, L’arte bastarda. Analisi del linguaggio della pubblicità inglese (Bologna: Pàtron, 1988), 20. (Our translation) 8 Codeluppi, Storia della pubblicità italiana, 71. (Our translation)

Advertising, Consumption and Values

11

skilfully used the techniques of rhetoric and persuasion to impose the myth of imperial Rome, the language of advertising was only tolerated in order to exalt Italian made products. Advertising messages were also subjected to an “ideological type of censorship” and, for instance, rejected the image of the independent woman which had come to be a strong feature in the posters of the early 20th century when women’s progressive emancipation had developed across society.9 The situation in Italy, ravaged by two world wars, was well behind with respect to the development taking place elsewhere in the world and, particularly in the United States. As it emerged from the devastations of the First and then the Second World War, Italy was a poor country, still essentially made up of peasant farmers strongly tied to the land. “If we look back, it becomes clear that we would need to write two parallel and contrasting histories: on the one hand, the history of growing consumption from 1955 on, or rather, of how Italians rushed to embrace the new lifestyles; and, on the other, the history of the intellectual condemnation of and political protest against those new lifestyles, and those new consumption patterns”.10 As is well known, advertising has never really had a good reputation anywhere. This is particularly true in Italy, where the two major and dominant subcultures – Catholicism and Marxism – have always negatively influenced people’s view of advertising. In the Catholic culture, advertising, as one of the main drivers of consumption, is seen as guilty of drawing individuals away from moral and spiritual values, and, consequently, from the aspiration to an afterlife, since it promotes the pursuit of material goods and the pleasure deriving from them. From a Marxist perspective, on the other hand, participating in a consumer society automatically involves the legitimation of capitalism, which has produced that kind of society, as well as to the homogenisation and potential disappearance of social classes as they all pursue a single goal: consumption. Almost as if to counter, or at any rate limit, the role played by leftwing parties,11 which at the time were directly linked to the Soviet Union, those same years saw the arrival in Europe and in Italy of numerous American agencies promoting American culture and the American way of life. So side-by-side with Italian agencies, which were more like craftsmen’s workshops that revolved around the owner’s personal charisma, American agencies, inspired by a specific marketing culture

 9

Ibid., 79. Falabrino, Pubblicità serva e padrona, 12. (Our translation) 11 See Pitteri, La pubblicità in Italia. Dal dopoguerra a oggi. 10

12

I.

strongly based on market research, gradually became firmly established in Italy. At that time, advertising fulfilled the important function of generating socialisation around consumption, of improving people’s material living conditions, and of female emancipation from domestic chores. This was no simple task, since it was experienced – particularly by women, who until then had been the “queens of the home” and “angels of the household” – as a kind of dismissal of the female role. And this is where the reassuring function of advertising came in, as it offered the new products as “subordinate” helpers. The changes in consumption in fact became a vehicle and a sign of transformation for Italian women (despite the many drawbacks). Alberoni points out that “female consumption, more than any other behaviour or political declaration, was the ultimate expression of women’s achievement of equal value to men”.12 And this did not refer exclusively to the alleviation of domestic chores. “For a girl from the decade 1950-1960, wearing the night gown seen in a movie instead of her traditional attire meant refusing the austerity of marital duties, it meant asserting her right to a different sexual life, to the enjoyment of pleasure and to a family with other freedoms”.13 In this sense, therefore, advertising had a positive function, as an agent of modernisation including in terms of values, but this is often overlooked, since the fact that it tempts people to buy often superfluous goods makes it the object of suspicion. This is why advertising in Italy was made to “wear the meek clothing” of Carosello,14 starting from 3 February, 1957, in order to make the phenomenon more acceptable to the Italian public. Carosello is a short show, offering one minute and forty seconds of entertainment, which was meant to have no explicit link to the product, followed by a thirty-five second advertising message: the so-called ‘codino’ (a sort of tagline). This hybrid form of entertainment was invented to overcome the widespread diffidence towards consumerism mentioned earlier, by offering a national-popular show with a simple narrative structure featuring the most famous singers, actors, and comedy stars of the time. It was a show that spoke the language of fairytales, presenting the world of consumption to the Italian public as an authentic paradise. Unconsciously, Carosello turned into a piece of entertainment and gripped the average Italian with its magical stories, educating him about new lifestyles and leading him towards a new and more tolerant

 12

Francesco Alberoni, Consumi e società (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1964). (Our translation) 13 Falabrino, Pubblicità serva e padrona, 27. (Our translation) 14 Ibid., 198. (Our translation)

Advertising, Consumption and Values

13

relationship with the world of commodities. Paradoxically, the rather “forced” structure of Carosello, in which no reference could be made to the advertised product during the show, with the consequent and necessary difficulty experienced by advertisers in finding some link between the product promoted in the tagline and the story preceding it, turned out to be a winning strategy. First of all, because it allowed the consumer to approach the product in a pleasant and entertaining way, and secondly because the programme seemed to grasp, albeit unconsciously, how important it was for advertising to move beyond the purely referential dimension and become an actual “show”, a moment of relaxation and fun for the viewer. The entertainment in Carosello was conveyed by Italian celebrities such as, to mention a few, Totò, Rascel, Aldo Fabrizi, Gino Bramieri, Macario, Vianello, Mondaini, Tognazzi, and so on. “[With them] advertising harnessed […] the theatrical heritage [of TV] and easily transferred the variety show acts, the sketches and solo performances, the character actors, the jokes [...] into the episodes of Carosello. All these things were considered as being too close to comedy by the television variety show, which in Italy was clearly inspired by the American model”.15 The ’60s witnessed the final affirmation of advertising in Italy. Large sections of the Italian population attained a state of relative prosperity, and the “lifestyle that emerged focused on the consumption and enjoyment of goods that became the distinctive signs of belonging to a community and of recognition and esteem for its other members”.16 The favourable attitude towards advertising in the ’60s came to a sudden halt with the student revolt of ’68, the birth of feminism, the economic crisis, the energy crisis, mass unionisation, and so on. All these factors had significant negative consequences on advertising. Advertising stood accused of manipulating consciousnesses (think, for instance, of David Riesman’s book The Lonely Crowd,17 and about Vance Packard’s publication The Hidden Persuaders18) by underhandedly creeping inside the individual’s subconscious. It was also criticised for generating false needs by driving people to adopt consumption patterns that were a source of alienation (under the influence of the Frankfurt School, an important point of reference for the young protesters of ’68), it was accused of cultural colonisation, and so on. It was therefore a cultural crisis as well as

 15

Katia Ferri, Spot Babilonia (Milan: Lupetti&Co, 1988), 7. (Our translation) Fabris, La pubblicità, teorie e prassi, 526. (Our translation) 17 David Riesman, Natan Glazer and Reuel Denney, The Lonely Crowd: a Study of the Changing American Character (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956). 18 Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders (New York: D. McKay Co., 1957). 16

14

I.

an economic crisis. This led to the proliferation of advertising messages that tried to react to this criticism by producing long rational messages in which the written text prevailed over the visuals. Alongside this less “brilliant” production, however, there was also a stream of advertisements that attempted to translate the rebellious and politicised ideologies of the time in their messages and embraced the sexual revolution of the young generation. Take, for instance, the two ads for Jesus Jeans created by advertiser Emanuele Pirella and photographer Oliviero Toscani, with their transgressive claims bordering on the blasphemous, such as “Thou shalt have no other pair of jeans before me”, and “If you love me, follow me”. In the first case, we see a topless girl in the foreground emerging from a pair of buttoned-up jeans, and in the second case the behind of a girl dressed in a pair of mini shorts that leave very little to the imagination. The early Eighties, by contrast, saw a significant decline in criticism of advertising. The consumer had matured by then, so that, as Fabris would say, he had completed his apprenticeship in the world of consumption and developed a more pragmatic/realistic attitude towards advertising communication whose mechanisms he now knew quite well. In that advertising, the consumer increasingly expected to see the formula of entertainment. Advertising thus needed to be entertaining and to know how to be liked. The logic, as Fabris claims, is that of “do ut des”, whereby the viewer/reader lends advertising his attention provided that advertising awakens his interest and offers him a pleasant and relaxing break from everyday life. This increase in goodwill towards advertising reached its peak just when, with the advent of the first private television channel created by Berlusconi, a new benchmark for Italian television was set, one supported entirely by advertising funds. The 1980s thus mark a shift from “paleotelevision” to “neo-television”,19 in other words, from a model of public television (with didactic aims) that aimed to “show reality just as it was” to a “commercial and consumerist model [responding to the viewer’s need for escapism] that could make people dream of a world of wellbeing [without] any reference to concrete reality”.20 The liberalisation of the airwaves and proliferation of private television channels, together with the economic boom of the ’80s, led to a rich advertising output, mainly in quantitative terms and not, however, matched by the same degree of qualitative energy. To sum up, we could state that

 19

Umberto Eco, Sette anni di desiderio (Milan: Bompiani,1983); Francesco Casetti, ed., Tra me e te. Strategie di coinvolgimento dello spettatore nei programmi della neotelevisione (Turin: Rai-Eri,1988). (Our translation) 20 Codeluppi, Storia della pubblicità italiana, 124. (Our translation)

Advertising, Consumption and Values

15

while advertising in the ’50s and ’60s was more referential and informative, and therefore focused on the benefits of the product, the advertisements of the late ’70s, by contrast, enhanced the emotional and spectacular dimension of goods, while those of the ’80s focused on personal gratification and on individual achievement, linked to an increasing emphasis on narcissism, expressed in the scenarios that act as a backdrops to the featured products. The ’90s, a period of multiple financial crises, put everyone’s feet back on the ground. The economic crisis also hit Italy and forced Italians, who saw their incomes fall, to consider what they were buying more carefully and to be more selective. While in the ’80s “objects gained significance by being displayed, in the ’90s their importance was once again associated with owning them, with an increased level of awareness in people’s choices and the fulfilment of their dreams”.21 Italian advertising in the ’90s proved its backwardness compared to other countries “above all in the massive use of what could be considered as genuine communication ‘shortcuts’: endorsers from the world of show business, particularly attractive soundtracks, and both male and female nudity. That is, all those tools that have always been used in advertising to conceal a shortage of ideas”.22 There were, however, also some exceptions, such as Diesel and Benetton. The former used irony in a clever and effective way to create an original kind of communication, 23 while the latter embraced social issues in an often provocative manner. Those years gave rise to “advertainment”, a communication strategy derived from British creativity. Advertainment consisted in “selling a product or service ‘by telling stories in episodes’”.24 Thus, after 1998 a new strategic line started to be adopted in Italian advertising agencies, which started to produce spot ads structured in episodes. These included, for instance, the ads by Omnitel with Megan Gale, and the ones for Lavazza coffee, set in Paradise, first with Tullio Solenghi, then with the Bonolis-Laurenti duo, and finally with Brignano.



21 Donatella Cannizzo, Le vie infinite della comunicazione pubblicitaria, in Fabbriche del desiderio: manuale delle tecniche e delle suggestioni della pubblicità, ed. Daniele Pitteri (Rome: Luca Sossella editore, 2000), 105. (Our translation) 22 Codeluppi, Storia della pubblicità italiana, 149. (Our translation) 23 See Maria Angela Polesana, La pubblicità intelligente: l’uso dell’ironia in pubblicità (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2005). 24 Patrizia Musso, “Advertainment. La comunicazione pubblicitaria alle soglie del Duemila”, Comunicazioni Sociali, no 2, XXI, Vita e Pensiero (April-June 1999), 246. (Our translation)

16

I.

The year 2000 saw the publication of Naomi Klein’s book No Logo, an all-out condemnation of brands, which she blamed for outsourcing their production, employing child labour and adopting manipulative strategies. The big scandals that shook the business world (Enron, Worldcom, Vivendi, Baring, Parmalat and Executive Life) considerably diminished the trust of a substantial part of public opinion. Scandals concerning food safety (mad cow disease, pesticides, GMOs and carcinogenic products), as well as the raising awareness about a series of health related issues (such as child obesity and active and passive smoking), started to undermine the credibility of brands and led to their loss of legitimacy. Brands could no longer count on the almost uncritical and positive attitude people once had towards them, which equated the brand with quality, service, safety, innovation, and trust. They now had to deal with increasingly critical, demanding, selective, and unfaithful consumers. And above all, they had to address an individual for whom the company’s ethical dimension was playing an increasingly important. Advertising, which is one of the brand’s voices, suffered under this climate of disappointment and disillusion, exacerbated by a growing sense of insecurity and precariousness that became more and more tangible and widespread after the attack on the twin towers in New York in 2001. To this we should add the process of audience fragmentation which affects the entire world of media. Mobile advertising (2009, in particular, was a key year for mobile marketing) is rapidly increasing its sales volume and it estimated to have grown by 49% between 2013 and 2016,25 due to both the increase in the use of smartphones and tablets and the consequent explosion of searches and media consumption on mobile devices, and thanks to the use of apps. Internet, mobile phones, laptops, MP3 readers, satellite and digital televisions have thus made it more difficult for advertising to reach large numbers of people at the same time.26 People are not only increasingly “interactive”, but also have different “media diets”. So-called digital natives, in particular, are multi-taskers in the sense that they use several media simultaneously.27 All this in fact fits in with the idea of convergence which, as Jenkins points out, not only indicates the communication of content on all possible channels, but also points to an increase in consumers’ desire to play an active role in the production and communication of content. And this is why advertising, in view of this changed and increasingly rich media scene

 25

Engage –Contemporary Marketing & Media”, 16 June, 2014. Codeluppi, Storia della pubblicità italiana, 158. 27 John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, Born Digital. Connecting with a Global Generation of Digital Native (New York: Perseus Publishing, 2008). 26

Advertising, Consumption and Values

17

and the ever more active consumer, has felt the need to become integrated. Integrated marketing communication reflects a kind of marketing communication planning that acknowledges the added value of a coherent and global plan. This plan must assess the strategic role of a set of communication disciplines, from general advertising to direct response, promotions, sales and public relations, and puts all of them together for more clarity and consistency as well as to maximise the impact through the continuous integration of messages.28 Integration here is effected through a series of mutually supportive actions in order to achieve the so-called “multiplier effect”. Furthermore, today’s integrated advertising is characterised by a higher degree of participation by the recipient who, in fact, often becomes a producer of content. In this respect, among the various forms of digital interaction, it is worth mentioning blogs, chat rooms, forums, photosharing websites (Flikr, Instagram), video uploading sites (YouTube), online communities, social networking sites (Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace), and finally Twitter, which combines the features of a social media network and a microblog. It thus becomes necessary to integrate online and offline communication. “The central role of the TV spot ad [which requires visual synthesis and is a dense and powerful centre of gravity] does not require the other supporting technologies to passively replicate its creative mechanism”.29 It is a question of “making the best of the opportunities offered by each specialisation”. 30

I.2 Values: some attempts at a definition In everyday language, values are identified with the ideals to which people attribute importance and which inspire their choices. In the social sciences, on the other hand, the concept of value is more complex and problematic: it lies at the crossroads, so to speak, between various disciplines (from philosophy to psychology, sociology, political sciences, anthropology and economics). However, despite the variety of disciplines and the different theoretical and methodological approaches used in the study of values, there seems to be absolute agreement among scholars on one point: the

 28

See Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller, A Framework for Marketing Management (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2012). 29 Marco Lombardi, La creatività in pubblicità, Manuale di linguaggio multimediale: dai mezzi classici al digitale (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2010) 265. (Our translation) 30 Ibid., 267. (Our translation)

18

I.

study of values is a prerequisite to understanding human behaviour, the individual and his/her relationship with society as well as his/her social interactions. Concerning values, Gabriele Pollini reminds us of the etymology of the term “symbolic”, which comes “from the Greek ıȪȝȕȠȜȠȞ, from ıȣȝȕĮȜȜİȚȞ, meaning to place, put together, join, as opposed to dia-ballo, devil, which means to separate and divide”, and he goes on to point out that values “allow individuals to recognise each other and make social interaction and relationships between them possible”.31 The sociologist then stresses the more immediate and direct relevance that values (understood as evaluative symbols allowing us to select among the alternatives of orientation, attitude, and, consequently, action imbued with meaning and behaviour, which a given situation presents to the social actor) take on with regard to social interaction and social action. Values act as “interfaces” or “mediators” between the symbolic-cultural system they are a part of, as symbols, and the system of social interaction they are a constituent of, since they are institutionalised elements shared by all social actors as they play a given role. It is undoubtedly of fundamental importance for the social sciences to study the values that characterise a given society and culture, to understand how they are generated, how they influence behaviour, how they spread and change, to analyse the mechanisms that induce individuals to adopt some of them rather than others, and the reason why individuals are prone to let themselves be guided by them. The concept of value holds within it an individual as well as a social and cultural component. Durkheim underlines that every moral has an objective and a subjective character.32 The former refers to the moral principles of a people during a specific historical period, that is to say, the moral principles shared by all individuals who are part of a community. This morality, however, is accompanied by a so-called subjective morality, that is, an undefined number of other morals and therefore ways in which individuals experience the norms of morality. The concept of value belongs both to the sphere of the individual and personality (since each individual interiorises and assimilates values in an absolutely subjective way) and to the social and cultural sphere (since our hierarchy of values is also a result of our education and of the process of socialisation).

 31

Gabriele Pollini, “La sociologia dei valori: teoria e analisi”, in L’Italia nell’Europa: i valori tra persistenze e trasformazioni, ed. Gabriele Pollini, Albertina Pretto and Giancarlo Rovati (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2012). (Our translation) 32 Emile Durkheim, Les Règles de la Méthode Sociologique (Paris: Alcan, 1895).

Advertising, Consumption and Values

19

The notion of value as an assessment criterion and benchmark for every choice was developed above all by Max Weber.33 Weber believed that values are of primary importance for the character of a society and its members, and he set out to investigate their effect on people’s choices and behaviour. In Weber, values take on a normative connotation, in the sense that they have the power to strongly condition social actions, since they are convictions linked to a sense of duty, to an actual moral imperative in which, however, the individual has freedom of choice: values are thus the fruit of human decisions. According to Talcott Parsons,34 values perform a regulatory function for individuals as well as a function of social cohesion when they become part of the motivational structure of human beings. In fact, it is through the process of socialisation that shared values in a given society are assimilated and transformed into an individual’s character traits. Consequently, values perform a fundamental bonding function in social life, which would be impossible if those values were not shared. As Daniela Barni has pointed out, in the abundant psycho-social literature on the subject, a recurrent definition of value is that of “stable conviction” and the value-action dyad is one of its constants. Among the many scholars, we would like to refer to Schwartz and Bilsky in particular,35 since they highlight another feature of values, which many scholars seem to agree on, i.e. that values concern desirable purposes and behaviour. “Value refers to that which is desirable: it brings along an evaluative dimension (what is and what is not desirable) and, since the desirable – what the person must or should do – does not always coincide with the desired – what the person wants – it also has a normative connotation”.36 Essentially, if we analyse the psychological literature, it would be possible to identify some qualities of values on which the majority of scholars seem to agree, which are that values: - are long-lasting beliefs concerning the desirability of a given status or a behaviour;



33 Max Weber, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftlehre (Tübingen: Verlag Mohr, 1922). 34 Talcott Parsons, “Values, Motives, and Systems of Action”, in Toward a General Theory of Action, eds. Talcott Parsons and Edward A. Shils ( Cambridge, Mass: Harward University Press, 1951), 45-275. 35 Schwartz and Bilsky, “Toward a Psychological Structure of Human Values”.; Schwartz and Bilsky, “Toward a Theory of the Universal Content and Structure of Values: Extensions and Cross-cultural Replications”. 36 Daniela Barni, Trasmettere valori. Tre generazioni familiari a confronto (Milan: Unicopli, 2009), 22. (Our translation)

I.

20

- guide, but do not determine, actions and assessments; - are embedded in priority systems.37 These priorities can be found, and have been studied in depth, in Schwartz’s Universals in the Content and Structure of Values.38 As a reference for our reflection, we will use the model posited by Schwartz and his collaborators,39 which is also the most recent and stimulating contribution to the theoretical study on human values as well as to their empirical investigation. This work is the result of an extensive and rigorous research programme, carried out in more than sixty countries worldwide and on more than 200 samples, which gives it a high degree of validity and general applicability. The table below illustrates the classification of values according to Schwartz. Value domain Power Achievement Hedonism Stimulation Self-direction Universalism Benevolence

Definition Social status, prestige, control of resources and dominance over people (authority, social recognition) Achieving personal success by proving our competence in accordance with social standards (ambition, skill, success) Personal pleasure and gratification of the senses (entertainment, pleasure, gratification) Excitement, novelty and search for stimulating challenges (risk, audacity) Independence of thought and action: choosing, creating, and exploring (creativity, freedom, curiosity, independence) Understanding, respect, tolerance and protection of the wellbeing of the people we are in direct contact with (help, honesty, forgiveness) The motivational goal of benevolence values is preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact (helpful, loyal, forgiving, honest, responsible, true friendship, mature love)

 37

Ibid. Shalom H. Schwartz, “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries”, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 25 (1992), 1-65. 39 Schwartz and Bilsky, “Toward a Psychological Structure of Human Values”; Schwartz and Bilsky, “Toward a Theory of the Universal Content and Structure of Values”. 38

Advertising, Consumption and Values

Tradition Conformity

Security

21

Respect, commitment and acceptance of the customs and ideas that belong to the cultural and religious tradition (faith, respect for traditions, modesty) Limitation of actions, inclinations, and impulses that could disturb or damage others and violate expectations or social norms (obedience, education, respect) Safety, harmony and stability of society, of interpersonal relations and of self (national security, stability of interpersonal relations, order, health)

According to Schwartz, values are the product of the cognitive representation of three requirements that apply to all individuals: biological needs, the need for coordinated social interaction, and the need for the functioning and survival of groups. From these three needs the scholar identifies ten value domains according to the expressed motivational aim.40 For instance, as shown in the table above, the value domain of Hedonism is connected to the organic needs of high levels of activation and personal pleasure. The value domain of Conformity, which includes values such as obedience, respect, and education, responds to the individual’s need of interaction; an interaction which must however avoid actions that could be harmful to others or disappoint social expectations. The domain of Universalism, which includes the values of tolerance, justice, peace and harmony, performs an important function for the survival of groups and the cultivation of good relations between them. Research has often stressed the “universal” nature of this typology, a universal nature which Schwartz traces back to the fact that values have their origin in needs that are common to all human beings: what varies, from individual to individual and from culture to culture, is the importance that is assigned to each value. The value system is conceived as an integrated system and a set of dynamic relations has been identified and specified among their ten domains.41 Values make up a continuum that can be represented in a circular structure in which the adjacent values are compatible with each other, while the ones opposite to each other are in conflict. The intensity of the relations between the different domains decreases as their distance



40 Shalom H. Schwartz, “Value Priorities and Behavior: Applying a Theory of Integrated Value Systems”, The Psychology of Values: The Ontario Symposium 8, eds. Clive Seligman, James M. Olson and Mark P. Zanna (Hillsdale: NJ Erlbaum, 1996), 1-24. 41 Ibid.

22

I.

increases and reaches its highest negative value for those domains that are represented in opposite positions in the system, a system which is graphically represented by means of a circular figure. Therefore, for instance, certain actions that are the expression of hedonistic values can enter into conflict with others which, on the other hand, are the manifestation of values linked to tradition. Also, actions that are related to values of self-direction can be in conflict with actions based on the values of conformity, and so on. The “almost circumplex model of values” represents the dynamic relations of compatibility and conflict between the ten basic values.42

Fig. 2 Source: Shalom H. Schwartz, “Value Priorities and Behavior: Applying a Theory of Integrated Value Systems”, The Psychology of Values: The Ontario Symposium 8, eds. Clive Seligman, James M. Olson and Mark P. Zanna (Hillsdale: NJ Erlbaum, 1996), 1-24.

 42

See Schwartz, Universals in the Content and Structure of Values.

Advertising, Consumption and Values

23

The circular structure is divided into four large areas, each of which encloses some of the ten basic values, that is: - openness to change, values of self-direction and stimulation; - self-enhancement, values of achievement and power; - conservation, values of security, conformity, and tradition; - self-transcendence, values of universalism and benevolence. Establishing dynamic relationships between values offers us the chance to operate on the level of value systems in which the relative importance of each value, i.e. its priority, is read and interpreted in the light of the importance attributed to all other values. Consequently, considering the overall value profile of the individual implies considering that his/her behaviour is not guided so much by single values, as it is by their mutual relations of compatibility and conflict. It is thus possible to put the entire value system into relation with other variables, such as attitudes and behaviour, in a coherent manner.43 “The discourse on values continuously intersects with other concepts, which are at times parallel and often ambiguous […] needs, aspirations, desires, interests, attitudes and norms, and each of these position themselves either at the source of the value or as its consequence.”44 However, unlike motivations, desires and objectives, which refer to an individual in a state of deficiency or tension, values are “evaluative dimensions that transcend what the individual feels an immediate lack of. This means that values contain motivations, desires, and objectives, but are not exhausted in them. […] In short, the specific nature of values seems to assert itself mainly in the high level of abstraction and the fact of being constant principles of evaluation”.45 There is no need to stress how important values are in the construction of the individual’s personal and social identity. An identity which they do not build alone, isolated from their peers, but within a system of relations that define their social environment, relations that express values and orientations. Schwartz proposes a cultural classification of values subdivided into the three needs he believes they should satisfy:  regulation of the relationships between the individual and the group (“how attached are people to the group?”);

 43

Ibid. Francesco Cacciaguerra, Il secondo sangue. La circolazione dei valori nella famiglia (Troina: Oasi, 1990), 8. (Our translation) 45 Barni, Trasmettere valori, 31, 33. (Our translation) 44

24

I.

 supporting socially responsible behaviour (“how to promote behaviour that is compatible with wellbeing and interdependence?”);  managing social and natural resources (“what type of relationship should be established with the environment? Submission, adaptation, or exploitation?”). Schwartz thus identifies a series of bipolar value dimensions along which, depending on the answers given to these questions, different cultures are placed (Conservatism versus Autonomy; Hierarchy versus Egalitarianism; Command versus Harmony). There is no direct relationship between personal and cultural values. There is, on the other hand, a cultural context within which individual values are developed, which, in their turn, contribute to defining the perceived forms of the context. The connection to social values returns, that is to say with the perceptions that subjects have of the group’s values, which mediate between the personal and the cultural. From the individual, and through social values, we open up to the cultural, the effects of which reach the individual by means of his/her social perceptions.46 At this point, it seems useful to briefly recall that the family is a fundamentally important agency of socialisation and that among its many tasks it also conveys values to its youngest members. In actual fact, this particular function of the family is currently being questioned.47 It is not, in fact, a one-way process, where adolescents are the passive recipients of their parents’ values, but a reciprocal and two-way process. It is “an exchange based on different, but equally active, roles for both generations, involving a dialectic process of adhesion, resistance, choice, and innovation. […] Relations between generations are characterised by the presence of a dialectic process between continuity and novelty, production and reproduction, and in this context transformation processes leading to the construction of new values are inevitable”.48 The above situation has always existed, but it has now been further fuelled by two phenomena in particular: the “fraying” of the traditional family and the influence of mass media. Alongside the family – which is the institutionalised agency of socialisation and which has decidedly changed its physiognomy in recent years, now taking the form of a series of alternative arrangements that were unthinkable until a short time ago,

 46

Ibid., 47-48. See Paolo Donati, Manuale di sociologia della famiglia (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2006). 48 Barni, Trasmettere valori, 58, 60. (Our translation) 47

Advertising, Consumption and Values

25

with a consequent weakening of its ethical and normative aspects –,49 there is now another agency of socialisation that is making its task even more difficult. This second agency, the mass media, has progressively reduced the relative importance of the role played by parents in conveying values to their children. Countless studies demonstrate the major role played by the mass media in shaping the identity of teenagers. They include, among other things, investigations into gender roles and the relational models between men and women. Research on the subject shows that adolescents gather information about what it means to be a man or a woman largely from the media. The media portray ideal and well-defined models for both genders, from a physical and a behavioural point of view.50 These models convey specific values and lifestyles associated with being men and women. Undoubtedly the mass media constitute an important element in the process whereby teenagers acquire their behavioural models, beliefs and values of the society in which they live. Indeed some scholars claim that the new communication agencies today “play a replacement role and are a response to the alienation from formal socialisation”. 51

I.3 Italian values: from individualism to the rediscovery of relationships52 We have defined values as “long-lasting convictions about the desirability of a state or a behaviour; they guide, but do not determine, actions and assessments, and are embedded in priority systems”.53 Values are thus important and useful to understand human behaviour, the individual, and his/her relationship with society and its social interactions. They perform a guiding and bonding function within society, understood as a system of interrelations connecting individuals to each other,54 a system in which the structure of interpersonal relations is never closed or final, but is, rather, a

 49

Ibid., 70. See J. D Brown., K.M. Childers, C.S. Waszak, “Television and Adolescence Sexuality”, Journal of Adolescents Health Care 11 (1990), 62-70. 51 Mario Morcellini, Passaggio al futuro. Formazione e socializzazione fra vecchi e nuovi media, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2000, p.34. (Our translation) 52 From www.censis.it. 53 Barni, Trasmettere valori, 22 (Our translation) 54 Anthony Giddens and Phlip W. Sutton, Essential Concepts in Sociology (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009). (Our translation) 50

26

I.

source of mutual influence: “adapting to the other always means readapting at the same time”.55 And the social character of human action, as Durkheim stresses, derives from the fact that that action is not “personal”, but obeys the collective ways of acting, thinking and feeling, which are external to people and have a constraining power over their conduct. In order for our action to be accepted in the society in which we live, it therefore needs to be inspired by those norms and rules. This is the normative orientation towards action, i.e. the guided action that complies with collective norms and rules (in other words, the social constraint mentioned by Durkheim).56 “Without us being aware of it, our behaviour is almost always inspired by norms that act as our guide or model”.57 In the search for the normative foundations of social action, we could speak of a “first level of abstraction”,58 with reference to the analysis of models and their sanctions as well as of social roles. It is thus possible, for an external observer, to identify the existence of models and roles by observing the concrete condition of a number of people or groups: the constants, repetitions, similarities that can be observed over a period of time allow us to establish the existence of models that these people or groups are inspired by. The models, as well as the values, are not unchangeable and absolute, but are characterised by relativity. “In the eyes of a sociologist, the only real values are always the ones of a particular society. They are the ideals that a society creates and adheres to. Values are thus always specific to a society and a historical time, since values can vary over time just like they vary from one society to the next”.59 And the impact of new technologies, globalisation,60 as well as the economic crisis has no doubt deeply affected Italian values. It is therefore worthwhile considering the survey conducted by the Italian research institute CENSIS, entitled I valori degli italiani. Dall’individualismo alla

 55

Guy Rocher, Introduzione alla sociologia generale. L’azione, l’organizzazione sociale e il cambiamento sociale (Gallarate: Sugarco Edizioni, 1992) p.21. (Our translation) 56 Emile Durkheim, Les Règles de la Méthode Sociologique (Paris: Alcan, 1895). 57 “Our hairstyle, the way we dress, the language we use, our culinary or aesthetic tastes, our way of expressing joy, pain and anger, and even our most intimate thoughts, these are all suggested, provided and taught by the environment in which we have grown up or in which we are developing”. Rocher, Introduzione alla sociologia generale, 36. 58 Ibid. 59 Ibidem, 64. 60 On globalisation and consumption, see Roberta Paltrinieri, Consumi e globalizzazione (Rome: Carocci, 2004).

Advertising, Consumption and Values

27

riscoperta delle relazioni (Italian values: from individualism to the rediscovery of relationships),61 which points to the decline of individualism in favour of a “rediscovery of the other […] who is seen, above all, as a ‘subject’ with whom to establish a relationship in order to complete oneself”.62 The way in which the value system shared by Italians has evolved becomes clear when we consider how socioeconomic trends have developed over time, that is, how the Italian way of life and production methods have changed in the 150 years since Italian Unification. The CENSIS survey shows that, since the end of WWII, and especially during the period of the so-called economic miracle in Italy, some “radical processes of change took pace, which deeply and permanently influenced the everyday life of Italians and contributed to changing their way of thinking, feeling, and, more generally, their entire value system and ethical references”.63 This was the beginning of a change characterised by an increasing assertion of the individual and an emphasis on subjectivity and subjective values. With growing assertion of the individual, the archetypical figures of authority – from the father to the priest or the teacher – disappeared, particularly with the 1968 protests. The so-called external sources of ethical guidance, first and foremost the Church, lost their influence: ethics no longer come from “outside”, but rather from inside, from the individuals themselves as they planned their own lives. At this point, it is worth considering that while it is no doubt true that individualism has a negative connotation,64 when it results in a narcissistic focus on the self, in pleasure-seeking behaviour that is best indulged through consumption, it nonetheless also has a positive connotation that can be identified with the refusal to conform, the rejection of stereotypes, and the search for personal growth and self-fulfilment including through the search for deeper and more meaningful relationships. The warning that society is slowly breaking up and is in danger of disappearing as it becomes a society of individuals loses meaning if we consider the new kinds of bonds being generated (beyond the traditional forms of volunteer work, association membership, and so on) by the sharing of similar interests, experiences, and relationships. These are forms of association supported by emotions, feelings, and passions. “Over

 61

CENSIS, I valori degli italiani. Dall’individualismo alla riscoperta delle relazioni (Venice: Marsilio, 2012), see www.censis.it. 62 Ibid., 8. (Our translation) 63 Ibid., 14. (Our translation) 64 See Giampaolo Fabris, Societing. Il marketing nella società postmoderna (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2008).

28

I.

time, [moreover], we could say that we have gone from the slogan ‘I want it all’ to ‘I have it all’”.65 A less compulsive relationship with consumerism is gradually developing. There are many signs of a new value system characterised by a redefinition of the relationship with one’s social and environmental context. “Just like the child who, as he/she grows up, starts to face the principle of reality, also the great liberating potential of spreading a culture of pleasure is dampened and humbled by the acceptance of the principles of order that allow for the development of society. Now the principle of reality can be (im)posed by external planetary phenomena, like environmental phenomena”.66 And this is why the hedonism of the past decades has changed and is now aimed at “seeking: - the quality rather than the quantity of pleasures; - a controlled consumption rather than excess; - a less and less materialistic gratification. Think of the role played by experience; - increasing levels of service; - avoiding wasting time and effort; - multiple sensory experiences, the involvement of all senses; - deferred gratification”. 67 We are seeing the emergence of a series of social trends that signal a “turning point in consumption attitudes and behaviour”. 68 There is a sift from authenticity, understood as a synonym of truthfulness, transparency, consistency, reliability, ethics, and honesty which the consumer expects from companies and brands that need to communicate in a clear and consistent manner, to the importance of roots, i.e. the importance attributed to the bond with the local area (with its products and craftsmanship), to the rediscovery of dialects, the need for a community, and the desire of being together. And this, all the way through to slow living, the desire to slow down time (an emblematic example of which is slow food,69 based on the philosophy of Good, Right, and Clean), which is increasingly identified with the awareness of the weaknesses of fast living, a way of life that is draining our lives of what is truly important, that is, to have time for others, for those we love.

 65

CENSIS, I valori degli italiani, 55. (Our translation) Giampaolo Fabris, La società post-crescita. Consumi e stili di vita (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2010). (Our translation) 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid., 338. (Our translation) 69 See Carlo Petrini, Slow Food Revolution. Da Arcigola a Terra Madre. Una nuova cultura del cibo e della vita (Milan: Rizzoli, 2005). 66

Advertising, Consumption and Values

29

Furthermore, there is a growing awareness that multitasking has more negative than positive effects on our brain activity. In this respect, we should consider the research carried out by Sandra Bond Chapman, founder of the Center for Brain Health at Dallas University, which shows that multitasking, i.e. mental hyperactivity, increases our levels of the stress hormone cortisol, since our brain is actually designed to do only one thing at a time. Another trend we are seeing in a growing variety of forms concerns the selective recovery of the past.70 In this respect, it is interesting to consider how the concepts of old and new are being revisited. With the establishment of the industrial society, the new became a value in itself, with a significance stretching beyond the product itself. A semantic space related to the living, the clean, the recent, the young, the rich, the pure, the strong and the superior was organised around the concept of the new and created a “mystical experience of merchandise”.71 However, in recent years we have witnessed an important change whereby “the new for the sake of the new, the new that challenges and wins against the old, new as a synonym of better […] seems to be losing appeal. It is counteracted by the recovery of artefacts from our even distant past to which we attribute higher performances and which time has perhaps enriched with appeal and desirability”.72 The economic crisis has triggered a new era. There are plenty of examples to this effect, from bike and car sharing – found in more and more Italian cities,73 consistently with a new trend identified by the economist Jeremy Rifkin,74 which involves replacing possession with use, purchase with lease and ownership with access – to cohousing (the website www.cohousing.it has ten thousand members) which literally involves living together, sharing facilities/homes and concerns a growing number of buildings. Other examples include: urban gardens,75 which allow an ever-

 70

See, Fabris, La società postcrescita. Francesca Setiffi, La mistica della merce, relazioni, oggetti e costruzione della realtà sociale (Verona: QuiEdit, 2009). (Our translation) 72 Fabris, La società postcrescita, 364 (Our translation) 73 Cecilia Gentile, “Bici. Sorpasso sull’auto, l’Europa ora pedala”, La Repubblica, 5 December 2013, 41. 74 Jeremy Rifkin, The Age of Access: the New Culture of Hypercapitalism. Where All of Life is a Paid for Experience, (London: Penguin, 2000). 75 On this subject, we should mention the case of the city of Bologna, which hosts the first experiment of land cultivated directly by its inhabitants, individuals from the most diverse professions, from physicians to construction workers, who invest their money and work to take home a box full of harvested products every week. Jenner Meletti, “La comune dei contadini di città, “Addio spesa al supermercato, 71

30

I.

growing number of individuals to work side by side; bartering systems, involving a non-individual use of objects, i.e. a use based on reciprocity; couchsurfing (literally “surfing on couches”), enabling young kids who love to travel to exchange couches, beds or apartments; carpooling, which makes it possible to go online to find a ride with someone and share petrol and motorway toll expenses; Swap Day, now no longer merely an American phenomenon but also popular in Italy; and coworking, which involves sharing a work environment (an office and its services without the ties and costs of a long-term contract and without having to deal with the fixed costs of utilities and maintenance) between professionals, freelance workers, and start-ups.

I.4 An oxymoron only in appearance: values and advertising The juxtaposition of the terms values and advertising in the title of this section would appear to be an oxymoron. Advertising is in fact a tool used by companies with the aim of boosting the appeal of a product or a service. Therefore, it sounds paradoxical to speak of the possibility of combining a phenomenon like advertising – which flirts with the most hedonistic-materialistic side of the self – with the concept of values, namely those moral imperatives that are identified with the ideals to which people attribute importance and which inspire their choices. And yet we will show that this is not the case, while obviously trying to maintain the right balance between the apocalyptic and the integrated approach.76 As we outlined in our brief history of advertising, we mentioned the great debate that advertising has been the object of; a debate in which advertising has often being put on trial for its “materialistic” nature and for being “the most powerful and tangible expression of man’s subjugation to the designs of a capitalist society, the most powerful tool available to the latter to perform a sort of cultural rape, a manipulation of consciousnesses, the creation of a ‘false consciousness’”.77

 adesso produciamo noi”, La Repubblica, 9 March 2014, 21. See also the book (written by two sociologists, who have worked and are working extensively on the topic) Mappare la campagna in città: immagini tra New York city e l’Italia, eds. Roberta Bartoletti and Pierluigi Musarò (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2012). 76 Although the cult essay of the same name written by Umberto Eco was published back in 1964, it is still effective in faithfully portraying the dialectic relationship between producers and consumers, with neither the passive optimism of the integrated approach nor the snobbish rejection of the apocalyptic approach. 77 Fabris, La pubblicità, teorie e prassi, 103. (Our translation)

Advertising, Consumption and Values

31

In this respect, it is worth recalling the article written by Pollay,78 which, as indicated by the very title, The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising, accuses advertising of being a ‘distorted mirror’ of real life: “the involuntary consequences of advertising result from its selective reinforcement of certain values that can be easily communicated and linked to products, while it fails to promote values of a higher moral order”.79 According to Pollay, advertising selects the lifestyle models and values that are easiest to accept, often second-rate but most helpful to the advertisers’ persuasive interests. It suggests behavioural models and lifestyles far removed from real ones. It is thus a “deformed”, altered, false, mirror of reality and, at the same time, a “deforming mirror” since it contributes to representing and strengthening certain attitudes, behaviours, and values over others. In fact, “the idea of the deformed and deforming mirror was later reiterated by Pollay in an essay written with Katherine Gallagher as well as by many other researchers, who insist on arguing that the values ‘reflected’ in advertising are only those that serve the interests of its promoters and that advertising moulds values and both reinforces and creates negative cultural stereotypes”.80 Thus, advertising fuels consumerism and pushes the individual into a kind of spiral without exit, by intensifying a desire that is continuously renewed thanks to the pressure of its messages, and which often drives people to spend more money than they own. “Consumerism can be achieved by boosting people’s expectations concerning material or in any case purchasable goods, effectively by creating the expectation that this object is more important than other values that cannot be bought”.81 And this is particularly true for an audience which – being less and less subject to traditional sources of cultural influence such as the family, the church, and school – is also less equipped with critical skills with respect to the seductions of advertising. Advertising, according to Adriano Zanacchi, proposes a system of values that guides our way of thinking and living. Zanacchi admits that advertising cannot avoid promoting consumption, and that it is the task of education and cultural study to “find the more or less effective antidotes to the consumerist influence of advertising”.



78 Pollay, The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising. 79 Adriano Zanacchi, Pubblicità: effetti collaterali. Riflessioni sulle conseguenze “involontarie” della pubblicità (Rome: Editori Riuniti, 2004), 12. (Our translation) 80 Ibid., p.15. (Our translation) 81 Gianfranco Bettetini and Armando Fumagalli, Quel che resta dei media. Idee per un’etica della comunicazione (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1998). (Our translation)

32

I.

However, he stresses that other consequences – the ones that Pollay calls “collateral” – can be “if not avoided, at least attenuated, by acting on the contents of the messages (truthfulness, respect for other people’s ideas and feelings, care for minors, and so on) and on the ways in which they are conveyed (intrusiveness, repetitiveness, quantity, and so on)”.82 But what values does advertising put forward exactly? It should be stated at the outset that advertising, as Giampaolo Fabris has pointed out, is an actual genre and, as such, it has very precise distinguishing characteristics, notably including brevity, repetitiveness and intrusiveness. While there may be some positive things to say about brevity, starting with Calvino’s lessons, it is obviously more difficult to be positive about repetitiveness and intrusiveness. It is undoubtedly an invasive and bothersome way of communicating. It is not just users who are aware of this, but also the professionals working in the business who, particularly since the advent of the Web, have worked hard to find alternative ways (take ambient marketing or guerrilla advertising, for instance) to catch the attention of an increasingly informed receiver who is consequently less and less easy to win over. This is why storytelling has become so important to ensure greater tolerance by consumers towards the repetitiveness of advertising messages, which they will only watch again if they are truly enjoyable. There have been many studies on the structure of the advertising message, which mimics that of the fairytale, i.e. a kind of narrative which was – at least originally – handed down orally. A story whose simplicity, from a morphological and structural point of view, makes it easy to memorise and, therefore, repeat, so that it can be passed on from person to person. Translated into writing, this type of narrative maintains these characteristics of comprehensibility and immediacy, which contribute to its diffusion and popularity. As Vladimir Propp has pointed out in Morphology of the Folktale,83 the tale is nothing but “any development proceeding from villainy or lack, through intermediary functions to marriage, or to other functions employed as a denouement”. In particular, the scholar identifies two classes of entities in the narrative syntax:  The characters with their names and attributes, which are variable entities and constitute the plot;

 82

Zanacchi, Pubblicità: effetti collaterali, 21. (Our translation) Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale (American Floklore Society and Indiana University, 1968), 92.

83

Advertising, Consumption and Values

33

 The actions performed by the characters, which are constant entities or functions and make up the composition. Therefore, starting from a finite number of functions – Propp identifies thirty-one of them – it is possible to create an almost endless number of plots. This means that it is up to the narrator to freely intervene on the characters’ attributes within a structure which, on the contrary, remains unchanged and is repeated over time. If we apply Propp’s theory, we could assert that each advertising message is based on variations created “according to general patterns, and just as tales always tell the same story with the same ending (every fairytale ends with “and they lived happily ever after”), advertising features human beings fulfilling their desire after purchasing what they desired. But the comparison could continue: the story of the fairytale always features the same characters (the bad guy, the hero, and so on) and advertising uses clearly codified stereotypical figures that have the advantage of making characters, situations, and consequently stories, come to life very quickly”.84 Fairytales are therefore a narrative form that satisfies three fundamental requirements of advertising communication, namely that they should be concise, clear and memorable. Advertising spots project us into an appealing world (Zanacchi points out that the model of the “good life” thrives in advertising, while Fabris speaks of advertising filled with “obsessively euphoria inducing” scenarios), in which good prevails and everyone is happy. In terms of their narrative structure, these stories follow the paradigm of Propp’s functions almost to the letter. In them, for instance, the product is the magical means that resolves a situation or helps to address issues and becomes the personification of the brand. It is the world of “happy endings”: the world of advertising. Advertising discourse almost always has a euphoric connotation (with the exception of social advertising),85 which finds its concrete realisation precisely in the happy ending of all the events it portrays. The product is thus strictly associated with the positive feelings/emotions of satisfaction and fulfilment that are part of the story’s development. The viewer is thus faced with an enjoyable and appealing situation and with the possibility of possessing the means, namely the advertised product, with which to translate it into reality and replicate it in their everyday life. But this is precisely where the “deceit of advertising” comes in. What advertising

 84

Francesca Romana Puggelli, L’occulto del linguaggio. Psicologia della pubblicità (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2000), 39. (Our translation) 85 Ugo Volli, Semiotica della pubblicità (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2005), 26.

34

I.

messages have in common is not only their structure, but also their content which can be seen as the “equation: consumption = value = existential goal, to favour over all others”.86 The advertising message presents an ideal condition to strive for, which generates a tension within the individual that can only be resolved by means of consumption and through “self-identification with that embodiment of emotional associations, symbolic representations and deep fantasies represented by the image of the product, thereby anthropomorphising the object in the situation of projection-identification, but in reality reifying the individual. […] The product thus becomes indispensable in order to have possession of ourselves”. 87 However, as Fabris points out, since the image of the product “is essentially a mystification (emancipation does not happen through sanitary pads, it is not possible to seduce someone by using eye drops, eau de cologne does not contribute to achieving success, the family will not be more united thanks to the panettone Christmas cake, and so on), the frustration and tension remain, the hallucinatory re-composition of the self is destructured into new uncertainties that we then try to resolve by favouring other consumer goods in a never-ending spiral”.88 Advertising in fact accelerates the loss of the product’s functions as a signifier; it speeds up the product’s semantic obsolescence by de-semanticising and resemanticising new goods in a cycle that generates a constant aging process which is not attributable to the exhaustion of product’s usefulness. This is the so-called “theory of the snake”,89 according to which advertising’s first communicative value is to persuade consumers to buy, regardless of the quality and actual usefulness of the product. The snake, as Marco Vecchia explains, is the “progenitor of persuaders[:] Eve behaves like any present-day consumer when she attributes the blame for her wrong action not to herself […], but to the devious message delivered by the cunning communicator, “the most astute of all”, the snake”.90 Marco Maggio takes up Marco Vecchia’s reflection from a philosophical



86 Giampaolo Fabris, “I valori della pubblicità”, in Sociologia delle comunicazioni di massa, ed. Giampaolo Fabris, (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1992), 220. (Our translation) 87 Ibid., 221. (Our translation) 88 Ibid.. (Our translation) 89 See Fausto Colombo, “Il rettile, il cantante, il seduttore. Tre ipotesi sul ruolo della pubblicità”, in I persuasori non occulti, ed. Fausto Colombo (Milan: Lupetti&Co, 1989). (Our translation) 90 See M.VECCHIA, Hapù. Manuale di tecnica della produzione pubblicitaria (Milan: Lupetti, 2003), 24.

Advertising, Consumption and Values

35

perspective. In his view, the biblical metaphor – where advertising is a tool of seduction that leads man to believe, through deceit, that he can overcome his limitations and achieve a happiness identified with “a pagan paradise rich in identity-building suggestions offered by an advertiser who is more and more like a modern sorcerer. […] Man, who proves to be first and foremost a desirous being (of being and in particular of being God) – is defined by a limitation (“Thou shalt not eat of that fruit”), and advertising is indispensable to him in order to convince himself that he can finally overcome that limitation”.91 And this has been the attitude of much of the literature on advertising, particularly between the Sixties and Seventies. However, this “harsh” view of advertising was later replaced by a broader vision of the phenomenon that began to consider not only the senders of the message but also the receivers. The supposed passivity of the consumer gave way to the awareness of their active role in a process of negotiation, based on the view that the communicative process is always the result of a negotiation between the sender and the receiver of the message”.92 Consumers do not simply and passively absorb the message (which does not function according to the behaviourist model of stimulusresponse). Rather, a series of so-called intervening variables come into play between the administration of the stimulus and the behaviour it triggers, such as intelligence, character, motivations, attitudes, opinions, perception and personality traits.93 Advertising thus needs to reckon with the individual’s needs, motivations, and expectations. Lazarsfeld and Merton have shown that an advertising message is always more effective if it is consistent with the attitudes and emotions of the consumer and in line with his inclinations.94 Also, more recently compared to the above-mentioned studies, which date back to the 1950s, the philosopher and neuroscientist Francisco Varela has pointed out that external stimuli account for only 20% of the information that reaches the retina of our eye, while the remaining 80% is made up by our pre-existing knowledge, merely activating something that already exists, such as the images of products and brands built up in our

 91

Marco Maggio, In principio fu la pubblicità. Critica della ragione pubblicitaria (Padua: IL Prato, 2014), 18. (Our translation) 92 Paola Righetti, La gazza ladra. Una visione socio semiotica della pubblicità (Milan: Lupetti&Co, 1993), 15. (Our translation) 93 See Fabris, Pubblicità, teorie e prassi. 94 Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton, “Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action”, in Mass Communications, ed. Wilbur Schramm (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1949).

36

I.

mind over time, for instance. This is why, if the advertising message is consistent with the individual’s vision of reality, it will be more acceptable to him and contribute to reinforcing what is already present in his mind. If, on the other hand, it is conflicting or discordant with the individual’s worldview, “a process must be activated during which the individual will try to change or adapt both what he has received and his vision of reality in order to make them compatible. He will compare everything he has previously registered: the brand and its competitors, the product and the merchandise category it belongs to, and so on […] In the end, there could be assimilation and consequent memorisation, but there could also be rejection”.95 It is essentially the same mechanism as selective exposure, whereby the consumer tends to expose him- or herself to communication messages that are in line with his/her attitudes and pre-existing interests. “Selective exposure thus, on the one hand, has the function of defending our acquired opinions and, on the other, it simultaneously prevents the individual from finding himself in a situation of conflict with information he disagrees with”.96 The Italian scholar Stefania Antonioni stresses the fact that advertising is associated with the idea of persuasion due to its simplistic representation of both interpersonal communication and communication mediated by new technologies. This could be identified with the metaphor of transference, which is based on Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver’s theory, where communication involves the transmission of information from sender to receiver giving rise to a communication circuit fuelled by reciprocal feedback.97 In actual fact, it is often the case that the actors involved in the communication do not understand each other, although they use the same language and belong to the same social and cultural context. Antonioni refers to Niklas Luhmann’s theory,98 regarding the “improbability of successful communication, since there is no guarantee that an apparently simple operation like communicating will actually be effective”.99 With reference to this, Antonioni notes that, since information is the result of the selections made by the listener who decides what is informative and what

 95

Vanni Codeluppi, Persuasi e felici? Come interpretare i messaggi della pubblicità (Rome: Carocci, 2010), 21. (Our translation) 96 Fabris, Pubblicità: teorie e prassi, 119 (Our translation) 97 Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1949). 98 Niklas Luhmann, Soziale Systeme: Grundriss einer allgemeinen Theorie, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1984. 99 Stefania Antonioni, Pubblicittà. Forme pubblicitarie del moderno (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2012), 76.

Advertising, Consumption and Values

37

is not, it is rather improbable, and certainly not feasible, to rely on planning for certain and guaranteed results in persuasive communication. It is therefore impossible to “define the effectiveness of advertising, which is so closely linked to the unpredictability of the communication produced by the different irritated cognitive systems”.100 Fabris rightly underlines that assumptions about the alleged omnipotence of advertising with respect to a passive receiver, are mitigated as we reassess the conscious activity involved in the process of choosing, and in the light of the discovery of the strong influence of interpersonal relations on consumption choices, on the consumer’s defence mechanisms, and so on.101 In short, not only is the consumer not as unprepared as a large part of the literature depicts him to be, but the media, first and foremost the Web, have actually given him new tools to make his voice heard. Going back to our “snake”, therefore, we could ask ourselves: can we be certain that the consumer, especially today, is willing to purchase a product again if it does not really possess the qualities vaunted by advertising? And, above all, we should remember that the consumers’ dissatisfaction, unlike in the past, before the advent of the Internet, will not be experienced in isolation, in the confines of their home and in conversation with their close circle of friends, but now it can explode, expand, and cross the borders of their neighbourhood, their city, and even their country and go around the world. A famous case in this respect is that of Kryptonite bike locks, which the company marketed as extremely safe products, a kind of unassailable defence for your bike, until a video was published on YouTube showing that they were quite easy to open with a simple ball-point pen. This was a true catastrophe for the company which, back in 2004, was forced to withdraw thousands of bike locks from the market and reimburse consumers, with an enormous financial loss. This is just one of the many examples of the power of word-of-mouth, an act of sabotage from “below” to counter a company’s false promises. This is not to deny that advertising produces languages and cultural models that can influence people’s behaviour. However, not much is known about these types of influences. We should point out, as Codeluppi reminds us,102 that practically no research has been carried out in Italy on the social models produced by advertising. The only existing research was conducted about forty years ago by Galli, Melchiorre, Rositi and Selinghieri. The authors found that the advertising message was organised

 100

Ibid., 78. (Our translation) See Fabris, “La pubblicità: il giudizio dei consumatori”, L’impresa. La pubblicità negli anni Settanta 2, (March-April 1970). 102 Vanni Codeluppi, Cos’è la pubblicità (Rome: Carocci, 2001). 101

38

I. .

according to a combination of hedonistic and normative precepts. Advertising, the authors claim, does not merely state what is pleasant to pursue, but also asserts the “socially moral [character] of the pleasures it recommends”. Furthermore, while on the one hand it inspires new desires, on the other it “sets these indications within a pre-existing or traditional ethical structure: the starting point of advertising is pleasure and seduction, but the lever is always a duty or a traditional value. [We are witnessing] a slow erosion of traditional values, and at the same time, a careful manipulation and a subtle drainage of the desires and libidinal instincts it evokes”.103 This process leads to a new behavioural model, which is no longer characterised by “the unstable balance between traditional duties and new pleasures, but rather by the destabilised balance between a new pleasure and a new duty; and based on this stability, the process can start anew”.104 Galli and his colleagues applied this reflection to a concrete example concerning advertisements for kitchen appliances. In the beginning, this type of advertising, precisely due to the process described above, complied with the values “in force” and presented kitchen appliances as useful tools that could help the housewife to best carry out her traditional duties of looking after her husband and children. Later, however, these advertisements changed their register as the model of femininity in society started to change. They now portrayed a new female model in which women had new duties and “a new zone of behaviour: being beautiful not just for their husbands, but also for their friends and passers-by, being free from hard work in order to devote themselves to more valuable activities. All these behaviours would have seemed unacceptable only a few years ago, but today they have become just as much a woman’s duty as in the past it was her duty to devote herself exclusively to her family”.105 This is an interesting analysis and, although it dates back some years, it is still relevant today since it provides such a valuable insight into the dynamic balance underpinning the dimension of values in advertising. As the authors pointed out when analysing “the world of the Carosello”,106 the optimistic realism pervading this show, its absence of negativity and conflict and the prevalence of the playful dimension, are all based on a precept which is no longer that of capitalism – according to which the goal

 103

Giorgio Galli, Virgilio Melchiorre, Franco Rositi and Fulvia Selingheri Pes, Modelli e valori nella pubblicità televisiva (Milan: Istituto Agostino Gemelli, 1969), 14. (Our translation) 104 Ibid. (Our translation) 105 Ibid., 14-15. (Our translation) 106 Ibid. (Our translation)

Advertising, Consumption and Values

39

of man is usefulness, to be achieved through an ascetic path of producing and saving. It is, rather, a precept of enjoyment and pleasure that is no longer synonymous with shame, and reflects the acknowledgement and legitimacy of hedonism in the life of human beings, as opposed to what Catholic moral principles and Marxist theory had claimed for so long. Furthermore, the authors noted, “if we focus our attention beyond the world of advertising, it is easy to perceive this radical change in values. In this sense, television advertising, rather than being an innovating element in itself, can once again consider itself as being at the service of a broader process of innovation.107 […]When it comes to values, the advertising message seems to be more of a response than an innovation”.108 In this regard, Paola Righetti uses a particularly effective metaphor to define advertising. She describes it as a magpie, a bird known for its compulsive urge to steal anything that shines.109 Similarly, advertising takes possession of anything that has or could have some kind of lustre in society. Creativity in advertising, in fact, lies precisely in this “playful recombination of signs taken from society: there is no creation of forms in advertising, but rather an act of combining and reusing all possible forms. The advertising magpie mixes together its social and cultural loot to reassemble it and create seductive and convincing messages. […] Advertising is essentially receptive: it is an attentive witness rather than a creator of reality”.110 And we should not forget that the final aim of advertising is consent and “psychologists teach us that the best way to obtain consent is by telling people what they want to hear, which is not far from what they already think and know. Whenever the main interest is obtaining the receivers’ acceptance, the simplest way to do it is by voicing their values (it would be much more difficult and uncertain to try to impose new beliefs and new languages)”.111 In fact, the time of advertising is the present, the relationship between advertising and society is all played out in the present, in the synchronic dimension. Advertising “establishes a passing

 107

Ibid. (Our translation) Ibid. (Our translation) 109 Paola Righetti, La gazza ladra. Per una visione sociosemiotica della pubblicità (Milan: Lupetti&Co, 1993). 110 Ibid., 12-13, 20. 111 Graziella Priulla, Vendere onnipotenza. Metafore pubblicitarie, tecnologie, miti del XXI secolo (Bari: Dedalo, 2002), 48. (Our translation) 108

40

I.

and transitory relationship with society and culture; a relationship that renews itself endlessly” .112 The advertising spot shows “traits of cultural recycling”, of a redevelopment negotiated between socially widespread symbolic and textual universes”.113 In this process, the stereotype plays a key role. The stereotype is actually a kind of crystallised cognitive map of reality, a simplification of the information overload coming to us from the outside world. Stereotypes, as simplified images of the world, allow us to make decisions in a state of information overload or, conversely, of insufficient information. The mechanism governing the creation of stereotypes is what we call classification, which allows an individual to select and group the information about the world in general as well as about different social groups. Based on the categories created by the human brain, the individual is thus assisted in recognising, understanding, and classifying the information. A form of communication like advertising cannot do without stereotypes due to its requirement to be immediately understood by a vast and diverse audience. As Paola Righetti observes, “precisely in view of its simplifying vision of the world, which nonetheless coexists with its multiple and polymorphous nature, advertising also becomes a parodistic showcase of society. As it captures its most exterior aspects, its most canonical and clear-cut features, advertising draws a caricature of society, mocks it, reduces it to its most typical traits, and, therefore, portrays it in its most ridiculous and grotesque aspects”.114 Righetti goes on to show how advertising, precisely through its characteristic drive for exaggeration, represents reality and the collective imagination by performing an “unintentional critical function”.115 Society is thus also reflected in its actual inauthenticity, its cult of appearances, its real stereotypical nature, and its vanities and futilities. Thus the non-standard, hyperbolic redevelopment of the stereotypes circulating in our social sphere, rather than reinforcing these stereotypes, often has the result of inducing the consumer to take note of them or in any case consider them in a different light, not overshadowed by habit.

 112

Righetti, La gazza ladra. Per una visione sociosemiotica della pubblicità, 20. (Our translation) 113 Aldo Grasso, La pubblicità come laboratorio linguistico, in La scatola nera della pubblicità. Il linguaggio, vol.I, ed. Aldo Grasso (Turin: Sipra, 2000), 25. (Our translation) 114 Righetti, La gazza ladra. Per una visione sociosemiotica della pubblicità, 2021. (Our translation) 115 Ibid.. (Our translation)

Advertising, Consumption and Values

41

In this respect, another technique commonly used by advertising is estrangement, a “tool” that allows it to remove the idea of habit from certain aspects of existence, or simply objects and their use, which are otherwise so overshadowed by routine that they would not be visible. As Aldo Grasso has pointed out, it is somehow necessary to “deform” situations in order for them to attract our attention. “Everyday life – especially today, since we live in a condition of ‘visual wealth’, of oversupply – makes every message blurred, and confuses every response. In short, we need to convince ourselves that advertising does not involve presenting new things, but rather representing them in an innovative way”.116 We could therefore argue that advertising has an almost maieutic role with regards to reality and society, since it pushes the recipients of the advertising message to reflect on aspects of their everyday life, which would otherwise remain invisible due to their familiarity. This is the rhetoric that the advertising message uses so abundantly, and which the receiver appreciates due to the narrative pact, or “tacit agreement whereby the reader partially and temporarily suspends his critical faculties and accepts a story he knows, to different extents, to be fictitious as if it were true”.117 The term “pact”, or agreement, refers to the awareness shared by both parties of the communicative act, of the terms that constitute this operation. There is a trick, and the audience knows it: unhappiness is kept well away from the page and the screen. The pact between sender and receiver is of a playful nature and is based on an ethical and cognitive disengagement. The substance of advertising is the same as the substance of films, i.e. a fantastical reverie. No one truly expects to see their problems solved thanks to the products featured in advertising messages. We know perfectly well that the product brings along an ephemeral satisfaction, but the playful dimension, the desire to escape from reality, prevails. But this is not a fault. Indeed, Morris B. Holbrook, in response to Pollay’s essay referred to earlier in the “Journal of Marketing”, published an article in the same journal asking the challenging question of what is “unfair” in the reflections on advertising.118 He raises a series of objections to the prevailing opinion on the adverse effects of advertising. Holbrook denies that advertising is an unfaithful mirror of reality and that it uses the values suggested in its messages for its own purposes. He also denies that



116 Grasso, “Introduzione”, in La scatola nera della pubblicità. Il linguaggio, XIX. (Our translation) 117 Hermann Grosser, Narrativa (Milan: Principato, 1985), 25. (Our translation) 118 Holbrook, Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, What’s Unfair in the Reflections on Advertising?

I.

42

it distorts the existing value system. On the contrary, he claims, advertising promotes many positive values that can be found in most advertising messages: “social wellbeing, affection, generosity, health, patriotism, ecumenism, personal enrichment, security and temperance”.119 And to this we could add the promotion of values that are considered important by society, such as those typically portrayed in social advertising or the ones that companies themselves promote when they embrace social goals. This does not mean absolving advertising entirely. As Annamaria Testa rightly stresses, we need to bear in mind the definition of creativity provided by the scholar Henri Poincaré.120 Poincaré identifies creativity with the ability to bring together existing elements, albeit distant from each other, into new combinations. However, Testa points out that Poincaré speaks of “new combinations that are useful”. And he adds that the most intuitive criterion to recognise the utility of the combination is its beauty. Obviously, he is not speaking of beauty in the material sense of beautiful appearance, but rather of something related to harmony and elegance, as mathematicians understand it.121 This is a complex process based on the premise that nothing is created from nothing, hence the need to be able to find existing elements and to select them appropriately. Creativity is essentially the product of a quantity x of novelty and a quantity y of utility. This, among other things, helps us to separate without hesitation that which, though new, is destructive, or simply transgressive or extravagant, but does not have any utility, from what we could define as genuinely creative. […] And it allows us to highlight the contextual component (historical, cultural, and social) of each creative phenomenon: the community recognises an idea or a theory as being useful, i.e. appropriate, accessible or fruitful in economic, aesthetic or ethical terms. […] The very fact that a work or a person are defined as creative or not consists merely in the crystallisation of a sum of subjective judgments on appropriateness, which are fostered and guided by the climate and by the shared beliefs and values in a given place and at a given time.122

 119

Ibid., 101. (Our translation) A mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and philosopher of science, a talented communicator, and the last great sage of the 19th century and the first scientist of the 20th century. 121 Annamaria Testa, La trama lucente. Che cos’è la creatività, perché ci appartiene, come funziona, (Milan: Rizzoli, 2010). 122 Ibid., 104. (Our translation) 120

Advertising, Consumption and Values

43

Thus, those who create must fulfil the requirement of freedom, but also of “negotiating with the spirit of the times and the style of the times”, the so-called Zeitgeist. This is sometimes a point where advertising fails because it gives in to vulgarity, banality and stupidity in order to obtain consent, but “aesthetics, like true creativity, is always ethical. And advertising communication is something different from what many people believe it to be. […] Good (and true) advertising does not offend, nor deceive, nor abuse its power. It does not impose”.123 So, although it is true that advertising does not create new values, it is also true that it can present those it perceives as existing in society and feature them in its messages in a way that is respectful of human intelligence and, as Testa says, of the Zeitgeist of its time. Failing to be in tune with the latter, and indulging in obsolete mythologies, does not pay off and, what is worse, could have negative repercussions on the brand reputation of the featured product.

 123

Massimo Guastini, “Il vero e il falso nella pubblicità”, in L’austerità creativa nella comunicazione di oggi, eds. Art Directors Club Italiano (Geneva-Milan: Skira, 2012), 18. (Our translation)

II. THE CHANGING WORLD OF ADVERTISING: A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

II.1 “Old” and “new” media “The Internet is a communication medium that allows, for the first time in history, the communication of many to many, in chosen time and on a global scale. As the diffusion of the printing press in the West created what McLuhan named the ‘Gutenberg Galaxy,’ we have now entered a new world of communication: the Internet Galaxy”.1 As Castells points out, through this effective comparison, the Internet has brought about an actual and epochal revolution. This revolution has not only affected the world of the media, but has also had social, economic and political repercussions, as we will see (albeit briefly) in due course. The possibility of “expanding” our existence, of extending it to a network of relationships and “opening it up” to an amount of information that was unthinkable before the advent of the Web inevitably has an extremely powerful impact on the life of every individual. Technologies now expose us to a rapid and incessant change that also affects the social structure. McLuhan was already highlighting the role of the media as tools of social change back in the ’60s. He actually coined the term global village,2 so widely known today, to show how electronic media and television would transform humanity so that it would be possible to see tribal forms of organisation occurring globally and no longer being confined to face-to-face relationships and encounters. McLuhan’s utopian vision goes even further and envisages the disappearance of differences between rich and poor. The same underlying enthusiasm can also be seen

 1 2

Manuel Castells, Internet Galaxy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 12. Marshall McLuhan, Gli strumenti del comunicare (Milan: Il Saggiatore, 1967).

46

II.

in the wave of techno-liberalism that can be summed up in the formula “Californian ideology”, which developed in the mid-’90s around Wired magazine and the personalities of Nicholas Negroponte, Chris Anderson and others. The magazine emphasised the hugely liberating potential of the Internet (which was expected to grant widespread access to knowledge and information, leading to the elimination of the power inequality between employers and employees, between manufacturers and consumers, and between the State and citizens) yet still captured the importance of radical movements and ideas in the development of the Web.3 It would thus be easy to define as “old” the media that McLuhan’s reflection refers to because they precede the advent of the Internet, and classify as “new” all those media that developed from the ’90s on and which were generated by the convergence between digital media and telecommunications. This definition is ambiguous, however, since all media are new when they are introduced, but the birth and diffusion of a new medium does not imply the disappearance of the ones that preceded it. If anything, there is a process of integration or a redefinition that affects both old and new media in a process of “mediamorphosis”.4 According to this process, “each act of mediation depends on other acts of mediation. Media are continually commenting on, reproducing, and replacing each other, and this process is integral to media. Media need each other in order to function as media at all”.5 In fact, McLuhan himself had stated that “the content of any medium is always another medium”,6 to show the relationship existing between media, in the sense that when a medium appears for the first time it does not have of its own content and needs to absorb the content offered by the media that preceded it. This reflection influenced the theory of “remediation” developed by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin who interpreted the new digital media as “the actors in a recursive and mutual process of incorporation and modelling that involves all media”.7 



3 See Adam Arvidsson and Alessandro Delfanti, Introduzione ai media digitali (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2013). 4 See Roger Filder, Mediamorphosis.Understanding new Media (California: Pine Forge Press, 1997). 5 Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remediation. Understanding New Media (Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2000), 55. 6 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Routledge, 1964), 8. 7 Francesca Pasquali, I nuovi media Tecnologie e discorsi sociali (Rome: Carocci, 2005), 73. (Our translation)

The Changing World of Advertising

47

In our analysis, we will therefore use the expression “new media” to indicate the temporal border in relation to the printing press, radio and television. We are aware, however, that, in actual fact, the advent of digitalisation processes and of the convergence between computers and network technologies has led to the changing or integration of “traditional” media, incorporating them within it. Besides, social relations have always been influenced by media technologies. Think, for instance, about the printing press, which made it possible to overcome physical distances and to preserve communications over time, thus fostering social relations that might have “suffered” under space and time limitations. The press, of course, also gave rise to the newspaper, “the first true medium that can be characterised as a tool of mass communication”,8 and promoted the sense of belonging to a nation by spreading the national language and creating a common culture and identity. The new digital media and mobile technologies have in turn re-defined spatial and temporal coordinates,9 furthering not only access to larger amounts of information – and consequently, as we will see, the empowerment of the individual-consumer – but also the development and maintenance of relationships. This is possible, for instance, thanks to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which people can access anywhere – including from their cars, the subway, the train, and so on – and at any time, to post content concerning the experiences, feelings and emotions they experience in their daily life, thus eliminating the distinction between online and offline. “Online activities are a part of people’s daily social life and their profiles on social media are a part of their overall identity”.10 Particularly so-called digital natives, i.e. those who were born when the Internet was already firmly established, unlike digital migrants, who were born before the advent of the Internet (and therefore had to migrate towards digital technologies at a certain point in their life) show a complete match between their online and offline identities. These new generations perceive and experience media as environments; they are “places” of contemporary experience, domains used to build paths of individual and collective meaning. They are



8 Vanni Codeluppi, Il ritorno del medium. Teorie e strumenti di comunicazione (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2011), 21. (Our translation) 9 See Marco Centorrino and Angelo Romeo, Sociologia dei media (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2012). 10 Arvidsson and Delfanti, Introduzione ai media digitali, 97. (Our translation)

48

II.

“worlds”, or rather “media-worlds”.11 And, as Giovanni Boccia Artieri has remarked, while it is true that we have learned to manage our relationships with others through “communicative mediation” using mobile phones, social media websites, and video chatting on Skype, what truly matters is not so much the construction of social relations that are “significant and stable over time”, but rather the “potential for contact, for connecting, for these relations to be available when they are needed”.12 Communication technologies and their related practices in fact change our idea of “friendship” and “social circle”. They allow us to establish a different social balance in which we are no longer passive receivers of communication, and are not the object but rather the subject of communication. This role is fostered by the very nature of most online services, which are characterised by being interactive, that is, by allowing/stimulating/requiring the participation of their users. Thanks to the ease of use of the platforms available on the Internet, even those who have no specific technical skills have the chance to create content. In this sense, today we can speak of user generated content, i.e. content produced by the users themselves. This phenomenon clearly illustrates the epochal change we have witnessed if we compare it to so-called broadcasting media, like television and the press, characterised by one-way communication delivered from the centre to the periphery. Today’s media, by contrast, are “participatory” media on which users can actively participate by creating and sharing content. As Jenkins has insightfully noted in one of his most famous works, Convergence Culture, participatory culture “contrasts with older notions of passive media spectatorship. Rather than talking about media producers and consumers as occupying separate roles, we might now see them as participants who interact with each other according to a new set of rules”.13 We are in the presence of the figure which Toffler identified in the ’80s with the term prosumer, i.e. a person who is both a producer and a consumer.14 The Web is thus clearly not a purely technological phenomenon, but is accompanied by the emergence of a culture based on free participation. Think, for instance, about Wikipedia – an online



11 Giovanni Boccia Artieri, I media-mondo. Forme e linguaggi dell’esperienza contemporanea (Rome: Meltemi, 2004). (Our translation) 12 Ibid., p.63. (Our translation) 13 Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide (New York and London: New York University Press, 2006), 26. 14 Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave (New York, William Morrow and Company, 1980).

The Changing World of Advertising

49

encyclopaedia that was born and developed thanks to the collaboration of thousands of users across the planet. “The main effect of the Internet is the birth of a much more complex and diversified media system, which can be accessed by non-commercial and non-governmental actors, a de-centralised and distributed system”.15 From a social point of view, the digital revolution has thus expanded relationships between individuals and generated a “relational wave” effect.16 Thanks to digital media, ever-growing numbers of people have the chance to participate directly in the production of knowledge and expertise, which increases the degree of pluralism. This means that individuals have the opportunity to access a larger number of sources, including sources that are independent from or alternative to those offered by the media system and therefore rarely fall under the control of government authorities or large information companies. This triggers a process known as dis-intermediation, that is, the possibility of obtaining news or cultural products without the mediation of professionals or those figures that traditionally function as intermediaries between the audience and information and knowledge. Added to this is the availability of easyto-use and widely accessible tools to publish content. This has led to new ways of producing information, such as citizen journalism, which consists in the production and dissemination of news by individuals who are neither journalists nor professionals, and through different channels from those used by communication and broadcasting institutions. Thanks to digital technologies and the Web, individuals have access to a vast amount of information which in the past was only available to experts, technicians or professionals. We should however point out that social networks are in fact controlled by the new gatekeepers, such as search engines or businesses. Furthermore, people with influential positions in social media often have equally important positions in the traditional media system: for instance, the most influential bloggers are often top journalists in traditional newspapers. We could thus argue that there are two sides of the coin: one, the more “optimistic”, can be identified with the “myth of the freedom of the Internet”,17 the other, by contrast, is a snapshot of “a new type of

 15

See Arvidsson and Delfanti, Introduzione ai media digitali, 77. (Our translation) Mario Morcellini and Barbara Mazza, ed., Oltre l’Individualismo. Comunicazione, nuovi diritti e capitale sociale (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2008). (Our translation) 17 From the title of a section (page 45) in the book by Vanni Codeluppi, L’era dello schermo. Convivere con l’invadenza mediatica, (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2013). (Our translation) 16

50

II.

capitalism that is transferred into the immaterial space of the Internet, although it continues to successfully perform its primary function, which is the production of economic value”.18 Connection networks involve a shift from the traditional model of industrialism to the innovative model that Castells has called informationalism, in which wealth is not based on the creation of physical products, but rather on the creation of information.19 The brand, which is increasingly a construction of intangibles, and which needs to nurture an ongoing and strong relationship with the consumer in order to live and develop, finds extremely useful tools in the Web and the many brand communities within it. These are used both to enrich the symbolic dimension of brand products (in order to remain culturally up to date through an ongoing dialogue with the consumer) and to enhance their material qualities by means of platforms that facilitate product innovation thanks to the exchange of knowledge between companies and prosumers. The term co-creation is now used as part of corporate jargon and can be translated into what Tapscott and Williams identified some years ago as Wikinomics, also the title of their book,20 marking the beginning of a new economic era based on knowledge sharing. The etymon Wikinomics is derived from the word Wiki, which in Hawaiian means fast, in this case referring specifically to a space in which every visitor can add content in real time and share it with anyone they choose, thereby contributing to the creation of epistemic communities. Wiki is also the acronym of “What I Know Is”, which emphasises the function of sharing and storing the knowledge we acquire. It can be seen as a socialisation of knowledge which goes beyond narrowly specialised fields to involve an enormous audience possessing no less important knowledge and which, until very recently, had not been given a voice. There are vast numbers of people consuming goods and services produced by technicians who no doubt have great expertise but whose frequency, experience and regularity of use are on a much lower scale than that of consumers. The latter have been able to accumulate a wealth of experience about possible product weaknesses, alternative uses, applications, manipulations and changes which is rarely catered to by the laboratories of manufacturing companies. In this respect we can mention the famous case of the Fiat 500 – although there have been many other examples since (from BMW to Lego, to

 18

Ibid., 47-48. (Our translation) Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996). 20 Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (New York: Penguin, 2007). 19

The Changing World of Advertising

51

Procter&Gamble, etc.) – which was created through the participation of about four million online visitors who actively contributed to its design with their suggestions.

II.2 Television is not dead, on the contrary “Television has succeeded in rethinking itself and conforming to the multiform scene. Those who thought it dead in view of the advance of new media were (once again) proved wrong. […] television has adapted to the new, it has expanded beyond its shell and set in motion a process of transformation [not only external but also internal]”.21 As Aldo Grasso has argued, television is not dead but, on the contrary, as we will see below, it supplies material for conversations on social media. And, ultimately, television has always been a “social” medium: although it was initially driven by the logic of broadcasting, which offered no opportunity for viewers to interact with the medium, its content was nevertheless socialised. They became the object of fantasies, discussions, and a reason for meetings/confrontations/discussions between individuals. “TV has always enabled and produced chats between family members and between friends, and in general a kind of social conversation that can be linked to that subtle art that Simmel defined as sociability”.22 Now this “social” dimension gains renewed strength from the fact that television content is disseminated on social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, triggering immediate and broad participation. In the early 2000s, the Italian television system saw “what we used to call ‘means of mass communication’ [overlap, mix, combine, fold into each other] with greater flexibility with respect to the uses that [individuals] decided to make of them, to [their] timeframes and [their] spaces”.23 Undoubtedly, the shift from analogue television to digital terrestrial television represents an epochal turning point: “the kind of innovation that the television system had only experienced with the introduction of colour TV (in the late 1960s)” 24. But the digital terrestrial platform is not the only one that provides basic access to TV; it is not the

 21

Aldo Grasso, Prima lezione sulla televisione (Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2011), XIII. (Our translation, our italics) 22 Colombo, “Introduzione: la social tv nell’era digitale, Social Tv. Produzione, esperienza e valore nell’era digitale”, ed. Colombo, 6. (Our translation) 23 Ce.R.T.A., Oltre la tv. Piccolo schermo e convergenza, Storie e culture della televisione italiana, ed. Aldo Grasso (Milan: Mondadori, 2013), 448. (Our translation) 24 Colombo, Introduzione: la social tv nell’era digitale, 7. (Our translation)

52

II.

only platform available to companies. Satellite, IPTV, mobile TV, and even the Web exist side by side with well-established forms of content access (such as DVDs). “Non linear” television services, which include digital video recorders (such as MySky) and on-demand websites like Hulu or Netflix are growing increasingly popular. More and more viewers, especially the youngest among them, watch their favourite shows on the Internet using their DVR or smartphone. This requires broadcasters to strategically exploit the multiplication of access points to television. And they must also adopt new strategies to retain their audiences in view of this new and highly fragmented context of television consumption. The television text itself, therefore, requires rethinking. With the advent of commercial television first, followed by the diffusion of broadband and then finally by digitalisation, television has gone from a limited offer with rigid schedules, adapted and specifically timed according to viewers’ daily routines, to a rich and fragmented offer in which the user plays an absolutely key role in the television system by means of his decisions, tastes and social interactions. The scenario taking shape is a multiplication of the television experience, in both quantitative terms (it is increasingly available) and qualitative terms (it adapts to the needs and demands of the individual). From “traditional” television, we have moved to hyper-television or, as Anna Sfardini and Massimo Scaglioni define it, MultiTV.25 In particular, these two scholars point out that in addition to the cultural convergence, which was posited by Jenkins – according to which the media environment is shaped from below through the users’ forms of enjoyment and consumption – there is also a technological convergence, an aesthetic convergence, and, finally, an institutional convergence. Technological convergence occurs when the object of the discussion is represented by the convergence of all media in one single distribution channel. Aesthetic convergence, on the other hand, is the hybridisation of languages in television formats. And institutional convergence refers to the set of changes and evolutions that have taken place in the media market and, in particular, in television with the gradual establishment of large multi-channel television platforms and new themebased channels. In fact, the current era is characterised by the “convergence culture where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways”.26 These days, television

 25

Massimo Scaglioni and Anna Sfardini, MultiTv. L'esperienza televisiva nell'età della convergenza (Rome: Carocci, 2008). 26 Jenkins, Convergence culture, 2.

The Changing World of Advertising

53

blends in with the new media, becoming mixed up in them and presenting itself in previously unseen forms. And this is why there is such an intense and large presence of “television texts” online, for instance on YouTube and other audio-visual aggregators and, furthermore, television is commented upon on the Web (forums, blogs and social networks). There is no longer any point, therefore, in envisioning the “disappearance” or “death” of television, since the latter is currently a key player in media convergence processes in which it coexists and is integrated with new forms of “non-linear television”. Not only is the old medium alive and well, but it has actually found its most faithful ally in the Web. Television seems to be adapting perfectly to the new habits of individuals and in increasing its viewers’ level of engagement thanks to second-screen applications (especially Twitter) which, in many ways, improve the television experience for both viewers and advertisers. An increasing number of television viewers are connected to the Internet as they watch their favourite shows. In general, TV still ranks first on the list of media on which people spend most time: consumers spend an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes in front of the TV screen, far longer than the 2 hours and 49 minutes on average that people listen to the radio, and the 42 minutes and 30 minutes they spend reading magazines and newspapers respectively.27 Some 2.6 million tweets about television programmes were posted in September last year. Approximately 240 thousand people tweeted at least once about what they were watching on TV: these tweets generated a total of more than 128 million impressions (total number of times that the tweets about a programme were viewed) and an average audience of 225 thousand people per day. “Every day hundreds of thousands of television viewers discuss, share, and read opinions on Twitter about what they are watching on TV (as Giovanni Fantasia, CEO of Nielsen has stated). Social networks and second screens are changing the television industry”,28 to the point that we can no longer avoid the “real time dialectic with the people of Facebook, Twitter, the blogosphere, and mobile check-in and mobile tagging

 27

Source: Eurisko Media Monitor, EMM. These are the first Italian data provided by Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings, the first tool capable of measuring the total amount of activities (tweets, unique author) and the reach (impressions and unique audience) concerning tweets about TV programmes. http://www.pubblicomnow-online.it/2014/10/nielsen-twitter-tvratings-presentati-i-primi-dati/

28

54

II.

services. [...] In the words of Brian David Johnson,29 it is a transition from a TV based on ‘fixed appointments’ to a TV of ‘human relations’”.30 This kind of television has been defined as social TV, which refers to “all the actions and interactions generated on social media around the topic of TV shows. This aspect refers strictly to the world of broadcasters and to everything that is broadcast and recorded, commented on, reworked and expanded on Facebook, Twitter and the countless social networks, as well as in the blogosphere, on second screen applications and in any form of online community or micro community. In this manner, old television, which is based on linear appointments and passive enjoyment, becomes social TV, or rather TV based on sharing and participation”.31 We should point out, however, that the logic that drives the spreading and sharing of content, as Jenkins, Ford and Green have argued,32 is not reflected by the metaphor of a germ “going viral”, a popular idea among commercial operators and companies as they try to make sense of this changed media landscape. According to this metaphor, “media content now disseminates like a pandemic – spreading through audiences by infecting person after person who comes into contact with it”.33 As the authors explain, “media industries must accept the shift from an environment where people congregate around media texts to a context where audiences do the circulating, they hope to preserve creator control”.34 This is why it is misleading to believe that it is enough for marketers and distributors to create viral media content to achieve success. “The term “viral” first appeared in science fiction stories, describing (generally bad) ideas that spread like germs […] Here, the viral is linked to the “irrational,” the public is described as “susceptible” to its “pull,” and participants become unknowing “hosts” of the information they carry across their social networks”.35 The spread of ideas and messages would therefore occur “without users’ consent and perhaps actively against their conscious resistance; people are duped into passing a hidden agenda while

 29

Intel futurist. (Our translation) Giampaolo Coletti and Andrea Materia, Social TV. Guida alla nuova TV nell’era di Facebook e Twitter (Milan: Gruppo 24Ore, 2012), 13. (Our translation) 31 Ibid., 7. 32 Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford and Joshua Green, Spreadable media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2013). 33 Ibid., 17. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 30

The Changing World of Advertising

55

circulating compelling content”.36 We would thus witness a passive and involuntary transmission of content. In reality, since this term does not express the active participation of audiences in the creation of meaning on online media, it creates “false assumptions about how culture operates and distorted understandings of the power relations between producers and audiences”.37 That is why it has been necessary to introduce the term spreadable, i.e. “the idea that the effectiveness and impact of messages is increased and expanded by their movement from person to person and community to community”.38 Compared to virality, and to its passive and static nature, the term spreadability better reflects the reality of the Web and the active role of audiences in “spreading” content and not merely acting as “passive carriers of viral media: their choices, investments, agendas, and actions determine what gets valued.39 Individuals are driven by the desire for “dialogue and discourse, for solidifying social connections, and for building larger communities through the circulation of media messages. The material emerging from DIY or fan communities provides a vehicle through which people share their particular perspectives with the world, perspectives often not represented in mass media”.40 So if the audience members spread content, Jenkins, Ford and Green argue, it is because they are interested in its circulation, and because the materials they decide to circulate have meaning since they are the focus of attention in their social networks and foster the conversations they would like to have with friends and family. That is why, the authors continue, it is more appropriate to speak of “engagement” rather than “exploitation” in reference to this task performed by the audiences. The term “engaged also recognizes that these communities are pursuing their own interests, connected to and informed by those decisions made by others within their social networks. Perhaps this is what Terranova means when she describes the activities associated with “free labor” as “pleasurably embraced” by participants, even as they are also being commodified and “exploited” by corporate interests.”41 As Boccia Artieri has noted, Jenkins, Ford and Green’s reflection “erodes” the conception of top-down control of content by the culture and communication industries. It seems to point towards a tipping point, or rather, a turning point in the media landscape and in our relationship with

 36

Ibid., 18. Ibid., 21. 38 Ibid., 23. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid., p.60. 41 Ibid. 37

56

II.

content. On the one hand, it reveals “a transmedial context in which the narrative is built and spread, and, on the other, it makes the reality of connected audiences possible and visible – that is to say, individuals that are more aware of being an ‘audience’ and who process content publicly by connecting to each other”.42 Moreover, Boccia Artieri takes the argument of the three above-mentioned authors a step further and uses the expression “If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead” to sum up the current condition of the market for various kinds of cultural content (texts, audiovisual material, advertising campaigns, applications, and so on) and how to act in response. “The narrative that is put out there is that of maximum circulation, which runs counter to that of controlled distribution”.43 There is therefore a sort of continuum between production and consumption that requires producers to formulate an increasingly diversified model of transmedial entertainment capable of identifying the various types of activities inspired by the properties of the different media: they need to “consider the many ways in which audiences participate actively on several media platforms”.44 All this is also true for the television industry, which is driven by the idea of winning a passive mass audience as against the ever growing importance and role “of surplus audiences and the role active audience members play as grassroots intermediaries shaping the experience of other audience members”.45 And a phenomenon like Social TV, which constitutes a particular form of television experience and has changed due to the growing pervasiveness and interactivity of digital technologies, of the Web and social media, is generated by this “‘spontaneous’ crossing of technological innovations and the audience’s social habits”.46 Both social media and new devices such as tablets and smartphones are rapidly converging into television and influencing our viewing experience. If, on the one hand, tablets and smartphones enable us to watch television outside our home, on the other, social media are creating a social network of interactions whose content involves the discussion of TV shows, encouraging viewers to tune in to live broadcasts and thereby reinforcing the power and social status of television. Today, we can watch television at any time and in any place, its products spread across the Web, separated



42 Giovanni Boccia Artieri, “Postfazione. La cultura della circolazione: media diffondibili e contenuti “spalmabili” oltre le ideologie del web 2.0”, in Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford and Joshua Green, Spreadable media, 328. (Our translation) 43 Ibid., 330. (Our translation) 44 Jenkins, Ford and Green, Spreadable media, 150. 45 Ibid., p.150. 46 Colombo, Introduzione: la social tv nell’era digitale, 7. (Our translation)

The Changing World of Advertising

57

from the original medium. From its status as a mass medium, television has become instead a niche phenomenon that has shifted from a one-way communication system for delivering content to a system of participation and interactivity with its users. The concept of multiTV thus returns, where “multi” reflects the fact that it provides a plurality of offers (thematising channels by market niches), of distribution channels, and, above all, of possible experiences.

II.3 Is advertising in tune with the Zeitgeist? We have already stressed the fact that advertising selects the most widely shared values within the social sphere and recycles them in its messages. Now, we need to verify if advertising has changed concurrently with the evolving social and economic scenario (which has been strongly impacted by the economic crisis and other major factors like globalisation and the environmental emergency) and with the so-called serendipity effect in society,47 which summarizes any radical changes in the way we relate to the world of consumption. Consumption, as we have seen, has benefited strongly from another major revolution, the Web revolution. We need to assess, therefore, whether advertising has changed alongside society, whether it has adapted, so to speak, to this changing economic and social scenario and whether we can state that we are currently witnessing an evolution in this field. Before going into a detailed analysis, we believe it is paramount to listen to the voices of some professional “insiders”, i.e. advertisers, whether copywriters, art directors, or creative directors. It is unanimously acknowledged that advertising seems to have lost its way in recent years. It seems to be stuck in widely abused euphoric paradises, which are distant from the common sentiment. A few years ago, Paolo Iabichino,48 in his successful book entitled Invertising, expressed his hope that advertising could “change direction”.49 Iabichino states: “my opinion is very simple: advertising – as it has been conceived until now – must change its course.50 It must ‘change direction’ […]. This is imperative in our time in order for advertising to move closer to its interlocutors”.51

 47

See Fabris, La società postcrescita. Creative director at Ogilvy. 49 Paolo Iabichino, Invertising: ovvero, se la pubblicità cambia il suo senso di marcia (Milan: Guerini e Associati, 2009). (Our translation) 50 Ibid., 13. (Our translation) 51 Ibid., 44. (Our translation) 48

58

II.

But what did Iabichino essentially expect? We could say he expected a kind of creativity that is respectful of its interlocutors, a creativity that is “capable of aggregating them around an experience which generates value for the brand that puts its name to it. He expected advertising to establish a genuine dialogue and conversation, generating a true connection and trust, relevance and sharing, consent and honesty”.52 Invertising is thus the epitome for some fundamental changes that should relate to an “ethical” communication, in which there is respect for the interlocutor and his intelligence. Iabichino summarizes these changes as follows: Advertising -> Invertising; Commercial -> Content; Communication -> Conversation; Push -> Pull; Monologue -> Dialogue; Consumer -> User; Impactful -> Useful; Execution -> Experience; Contact -> Connect; Promotion -> Education; Global -> Social; Aesthetics -> Ethics; Ability -> Responsibility; Shopping -> Sharing; Persuasion -> Permission. Appropriately, Iabichino also referred to the following three ideas in the Cluetrain Manifesto, “34) To speak with a human voice, companies must share the problems of their community; 37) If their culture ends before the community starts, then they will have no market; 38) Human communities are based on communication, human conversations on human problems”. Annamaria Testa, another authoritative name in the world of advertising, shares this view.53 Using one of the terms from the Invertising vocabulary, she stresses in particular the importance of a “useful” communication. She specifically uses the expression “new and useful” to define what new creativity should be about, an expression she also uses as the name of the non-profit website dedicated to creativity theories and practices. As already mentioned in this discussion, creativity means being in tune with the Zeitgeist, the spirit of time, in order to produce something meaningful and useful for the community it addresses. And this was ultimately Bill Bernbach’s lesson when he supported the so-called “creative revolution” in the 1950s. Bernbach believed in a kind of advertising that is “civil, never trivial and based on the truth”.54 In BillMagazine, a magazine authored by advertisers from different generations and different agencies and actually inspired by Bill Bernbach and his vision on advertising, Guido Cornara points to “the dramatic need”

 52

Ibid., 197-198. (Our translation) Annamaria Testa is an eclectic person: university professor, communication expert, copywriter and writer. 54 Which is in fact also stated on the BillMagazine website, named after him: http://www.billmagazine.com/ 53

The Changing World of Advertising

59

to reconsider Bernbach’s lessons. In his work, he argues that undoubtedly many vulgar and invaluable commercials exist, but that the same could be said for journalism and cinema. These two disciplines can likewise be divided into the good and the bad kind, so the dualism of good and bad advertising should not be too surprising. However, Cornara underlines that advertising: can be different from what most people think. It can, indeed, it must tell the truth. It can, indeed, it must respect the people it addresses. It can elicit attention with intelligence, with irony or paradox. […] It can show values, anticipate emotions and ideas that are still latent in society and it can perhaps play a social role as well. Good advertising will never be offensive, deceiving and imposing. […] The crisis we are experiencing may turn into an opportunity for brands and advertisers to search for authenticity.55

In this respect, Pasquale Barbella’s reflection shared during the conference entitled “INSIGHTS. Prospettive etiche e nuove frontiere della pubblicità” (Insights. Ethical perspectives and new frontiers of advertising) is truly enlightening.56 Specifically, Barbella wonders whether it is possible to combine the professional sphere, which necessarily includes investors’ expectations for success, with ethical issues. Barbella also mentions two experts who had a clear ethical view of advertising, Bernbach and Gossage: “the only people who were concerned about their responsibility and practiced it with commitment and without deviations. […] Because marketing is a useful resource for everyone, but it is not entitled to falsify reality by systematically showing it through rose-tinted glasses, particularly in an uncertain and heated era like the one we are experiencing”. Barbella’s distinction between “concrete thought and abstract thought”, between abstraction and realism, as decisions the advertiser must make about which side take, is particularly interesting and in line with our

 55

Guido Cornara, “On Bernbach: Bill today?”, in http://www.billmagazine.com/article/on-bernbach-bill-today/ (Our translation) 56 Paper delivered by Pasquale Barbella, La pubblicità al bivio tra astrazione e realismo, during the Conference (organized by Sociologist Lella Mazzoli), "INSIGHTS. Prospettive etiche e nuove frontiere della pubblicità”, at the Faculty of Sociology of the Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo", on 4 May (in Urbino) and 5 May (in Pesaro), 2006. On a later occasion, Barbella held a seminar on the same topic at the Centro Studi Ilas – Naples on 13 December, 2006. Finally, this interesting analysis on advertising can be found in the book Pasuqale Barbella, Confessioni di una macchina per scrivere. La pubblicità tra visione di marca e visione del mondo (Naples: Liguori, 2008).

60

II.

reflection. To disambiguate the term “realism”, Barbella states that realism should not be understood as the representation of the “real-life housewife / student / manager / grandfather”, and so on. Instead, it is “a less illusory and superficial realism [which can be identified] with the direct or indirect presence in advertising of the world around us and of the time we live in. Time in its chronological meaning, but also interior time. The time of universal feelings, attitudes and behaviours”. Thus, it is not enough for advertising messages to portray characters and situations from contemporary life in order for them to be defined as realistic. Instead, “characters and situations must convey authentic issues and feelings: they must be ‘human’ and not caricatures or stereotypes in sketches, otherwise they will not arouse the interest of the audience”. Barbella makes the point effectively when he states that communication is realistic when “it is inspired by people’s real issues and the real issues of our time”, while abstract communication is when “the historical and social context fully disappears behind the curtain of the theatrical show staged by advertisers”. Advertising should not be self-referential, “it should not resemble itself. It should resemble life”. In relation to this, Barbella quotes Bernbach, who said that “one thing is unchangeable and certain: in order to be successful, a creative professional must be able to deeply scrutinise human nature, he must know the art of moving people and touching them in their deepest emotions. Without these qualities, he will never succeed”. The ‘humanism’ invoked by all these authoritative voices (to whom we must add Marco Lombardi, mentioned earlier in the discussion) can in fact be summarized by the ability to “humbly” listen to society, which should drive the actions of advertisers and advertising designers alike. This means “listening” to the most widely shared values, the values that characterise our society and our way of living in this particular historical moment. Thus, through our analysis we believe we can show how advertising has responded and is responding to the needs pointed out by the professionals quoted above. It is actually possible to identify some increasingly significant and steady ‘trends’ across advertising today (albeit there are still a range of stereotypes to be found with associated narratives that are not very contemporary, and indeed are quite often trivial and even vulgar). These new trends reveal the values characterizing this historical period more specifically. We have devoted two sections to the concept of value. However, these are brief and far from exhaustive considerations originating from the vast literature on the subject. Thus, we have selected the reflections that are most useful to us to understand how deeply the concept of value –

The Changing World of Advertising

61

frequently used by social or socio-economic research to describe the changes that have occurred or are occurring in our society – is permeated with both emotional and rational dimensions that integrate individuals within the social system that hosts them. The consequence is that, if we want to understand consumption as “a social action imbued with meaning”, we must first understand and analyse the new values that are becoming established in recent years and which translate into as many new consumption choices. In fact, consuming implies the combination of not just social, economic and demographic variables, but socio-cultural variables as well.57 Individuals build their identity through objects and these objects also help them adhere to a certain lifestyle,58 as well as to relate to others and the world. Objects do not have a purely functional value but are also signs.59 We use them to express ourselves, to communicate differences or, conversely, to show belonging, status, an emotional state, a cultural identity or our identification with a sub-culture (as we mentioned in the discussion on lifestyles). The tools through which objects and the brands that identify them speak to the individual are many and they can be summarised in an expression that is widely known and used in the world of marketing, the communication mix.60 This expression stresses the communication and relational dimension that the company adopts (or should adopt) when addressing its stakeholders. Advertising is certainly a very important way to connect the consumer with the product whose story it tells in its messages. In fact, the verb “to tell” is enormously important to create an effective advertising message, to set the stage for the goods that must attract the attention of a consumer who is besieged by a growing multiplicity of stimuli. As Fabris underlines, advertising has the function of anthropomorphising the markets by assigning a personality to the goods, imbuing them with sense and meaning. “It draws from and, at the

 57

See Roberta Paltrinieri, Il consumo come linguaggio (Milan. Franco Angeli, 1998). 58 Giampaolo Fabris defines lifestyle as “a social grouping typical of advanced industrial societies’ in Fabris, La pubblicità, teorie e prassi, and in Giampaolo Fabris, Consumatore e mercato (Milan: Sperling&Kupfer, 1988). 59 See Jean Baudrillard, L'Echange Symbolique et la Mort (Paris: Gallimard, 1976); Jean Baudrillard, Il sogno della merce (Milan: Lupetti, 1987); Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood, The World of Goods (New York: Basic Books, 1979). 60 See Maria Angela Polesana, Communication mix. Come comunica l’impresa (Milan: Egea, 2007), 3.

62

II.

same time, contributes to building our collective imagination, the rites and myths of our time. It is inspired by the inexhaustible pool of current events and by the greater universal archetypes as it elevates our daily life to myth status and attributes dignity and an often epic dimension to our everyday behaviour”.61 Thus, this form of communication cannot do without the social reality it represents and addresses.62 “The advertising text must not be divorced from its connection to other texts, from the sources it draws from, or from the extra-textual conventions of the cultural system”.63 As Chiara Giaccardi puts it, advertising does not limit itself to presenting “things”. It represents certain ways of life and lifestyles, within which things acquire their meaning and value. Thus, on the one hand, advertising must ‘engage with’ the social reality it addresses, in order to be understood and to be ‘effective’. This is the reason why it tends to rely heavily on a repertory of shared images, of topoi (the competence that lends strength to and forms part of it) and to exploit themes of broad social interest (from pollution to health, and so on). […] It has a strong referential component. The ‘social reality’ we are talking about is always the social reality represented in advertising texts and not reality per se.64

We thus need to stress the “referential character of commercials, not so much as faithful mirrors of a social reality, but as representations with a relationship of ‘appropriateness’ at least with the social reality they describe and address”.65 This leads us to the core of our investigation: does advertising carry within it and effectively convey the new value system that is currently becoming established? Pollay, in his seminal article mentioned earlier but which is worth recalling again,66 argued that “advertising does not simply reflect the values existing in society. Rather, although it does not create any new values, it does nonetheless change the relative hierarchy of existing values by strengthening those it promotes and depriving of any

 61

Fabris, La pubblicità, teorie e prassi, 18. (Our translation) See Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream, (Berkeley U.P.: Berkeley, 1986). 63 Chiara Giaccardi, I luoghi del quotidiano. Pubblicità e costruzione della realtà sociale (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 1995), 47. (Our translation) 64 Ibid., 21. (Our translation) 65 Ibid., 57. (Our translation) 66 Pollay, The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising. 62

The Changing World of Advertising

63

meaning those it ignores. It is a deforming mirror for social values, since it enhances values that are considered socially negative, like materialism, cynicism, anxiety, social competitiveness and lack of self-respect”.67 In reality, “advertising may also produce some positive social effects, for instance promoting values that are deemed important by society, like in social advertising or those that are more and more often presented in the social campaigns launched by companies. More generally, they can promote – as Morris Holbrook showed in his response to Pollay – those positive values that can be found in most advertising messages”,68 such as “social relations, affection, generosity, health, patriotism, ecumenism, personal enrichment, safety and temperance”.69 This work accepts and analyses the second of the two reflections above in the light of the already mentioned and shared referentiality that needs to characterise the advertising message. In fact, the latter “must speak to all those it refers to (advertisers are part of the interpreting community of many of those to whom their messages are targeted), and pick from preexisting repertories, from shared formulas (that advertising naturally contributes to strengthening, selecting and promoting)”.70 Among the media used by advertising, we have decided to focus our attention on television since the Italian advertising system remains TVcentric. In fact, we have been able to ascertain that, according to much of the research, Italians spend an average of four hours and twenty minutes per day in front of the TV screen.71 Nonetheless, there is an upward trend in online advertising investments,72 as shown by the estimated advertising investments analysed by Nielsen. In fact, television has low marginal costs and can reach huge audiences, even though this does not mean that TV advertising alone can be enough in a market where the transformations

 67

Pier Pietro Brunelli, Vanni Codeluppi and Gianfranco Marrone, “Pubblicità e scienze sociali”, in Manuale di teorie e tecniche della pubblicità, eds. Mauro Ferraresi, Ariela Mortara and Guingo Sylvan (Rome: Carocci, 2010), 250. (Our translation) 68 Ibid.. (Our translation) 69 Morris Holbrook, “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall. What’s Unfair in the Reflections on Advertising?”, in Journal of Marketing 51 (July, 1987), 101. 70 Giaccardi, I luoghi del quotidiano,.41. (Our translation) 71 Aldo Grasso, “Gli italiani e le ore passate davanti alla tv, Rai1 resta la rete leader”, Corriere della Sera, 4 January 2015, http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2015/gennaio/04/Gli_italiani_ore_passate_davanti _co_0_20150104_9d081302-93df-11e4-bcbd-b3ed314312e0.shtml; Antonio Dipollina, “Italiani sempre più incollati alla tv: sale di 4 minuti la "dose" quotidiana”, La Repubblica, 28 September 2013, p.25. 72 http://www.iab.it/inestimenti-mercato.html

64

II.

introduced by Web 2.0 and mobile communication have forced companies to change the way they relate to consumers. Advertising has had to adapt accordingly: when media consumption changes, advertising – eventually – changes too. Considering the amount of time Italians spend in front of the TV and the advertising investments still made in this medium, it is reasonable to focus this research on television and, particularly, TV commercials, with an occasional foray into the printed press, and exploring in detail some interesting advertisements that are particularly relevant for our discussion. In our view, the “means is not the solution”,73 because strong, effective and relevant creativity produces results regardless of the medium through which it is conveyed. In this respect, the communication by Absolut Vodka is exemplary,74 since it advertises exclusively in the printed press, but in an absolutely original way. Our method of analysis is both qualitative and quantitative. The research started in 2012 and continued throughout 2014. It was enriched by data provided by Sponsorshop for the period from 5 April to 4 July, 2012 and from 1 January to 3 March, 2014. We should point out, however, that during the period between these two timeframes, we continued to analyse the TV commercials and press ads which were believed to be particularly significant and relevant for our research. Let us begin by considering the year 2012. The quantitative analysis involved identifying the commercials broadcast by Italian television,75 over a 24-hour timeframe and through a period of about three months, from 6 April to 4 July 2012, totalling 2,357 commercials (this number represents only the new spot ads broadcast during this timeframe, not the total number of spot ads broadcast). The following TV channels were analysed: Rai 1, Rai 2, Italia 1, Canale 5, Rete 4, Sky Fox, Sky Cinema, SKY Sport, La 7, and MTV. The qualitative analysis studied the content of a number of spot ads that are considered as texts according to the meaning assigned to the text by Peirce,76 i.e. the text stands for something



73 Luca Vergnano, L’ennesima bolla o un nuovo inizio?, in White Space. Comunicazione non convenzionale, Arianna Brioschi and Anna Uslenghi (Milan: Egea, 2009), 328-329. (Our translation) 74 Brioschi and Uslenghi, ed., White Space. Comunicazione non convenzionale, op. cit. 75 Kindly made available by Stefania Andrello, Managing Director of Sponsorshop, an advertising monitoring agency located in Milan. 76 Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss and Arthur W. Burks, ed., The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vol. VIII, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931-1966).

The Changing World of Advertising

65

(referential level) to someone (pragmatic and communicative level), in some respect or capacity (semantic level of the representation). The text is thus the outcome of the interconnection between the textual, semantic and pragmatic dimensions. In addition, the content analysis is completed by the analysis of the value representation based on Schwartz’s value model illustrated in section I.2 above. Starting with the quantitative analysis, the graph below shows the most active brands on television from 5 April, 2012 to 4 July, 2012 (it must be kept in mind that Sponsorshop considered only the new campaigns broadcast during that period).

Fig. 3 Source: Sponsorshop. Tag Clouds of the most active brands from 05/04/2012 to 04/07/2012 and Graph of the most active brands from 05/04/2012 to 04/07/2012

66

II.

As we can see in the image above, a search key by ‘brand’ was selected for each of the ‘most active brands’. In fact, the graph shows the tag cloud referring to the most active brands during the given period. In addition, a table for each brand is also available, showing the date, format (i.e. duration) and the TV channel that broadcast the spot ads we will analyse. Below, we include one example of a brand table, because due to the limited space available to us, it would be impossible to do so for each of the brands. An overall analysis of the product categories in the Sponsorshop table enables us to briefly list the main themes driving the representations, and which are the following: - For the automotive sector: safety, affordability (focus on price), low consumption, performance level, respect for the environment, freedom; - For food: quality, taste, healthiness, social relations, warmth; - For telephone services: humour, relational dimension, affordability (focus on price); - For TV networks: entertainment/emotions, wide offer and program selection, affordability (focus on price); - For large-scale retail (including non-food distribution, for instance “Mercatone Uno”, which is a large chain of hypermarkets in Italy, specialised in the sale of household appliances, furniture and interior design items): affordability (focus on price), service quality, rich assortment; - For beauty: body hygiene and care, effectiveness of anti-aging products or products that make users more attractive. These ‘macro-themes’, which identify and characterise the different sectors listed above, produce a general picture that apparently always remains the same. If we limited ourselves to this concise and superficial analysis, we would think that nothing new is happening in the field of advertising. And indeed many of its messages suffer from “the myth” of growing consumption, the myth of a growth society that no longer exists, just like the values that once identified it, as we have seen above. Advertising must in fact act on its identity, and this no small matter. First of all, its main means of communication, namely television,77 is no longer sufficient to convey its messages, which forces advertising to spread (and reinvent itself) across an ever-broader array of media.

 77

From Gerardo Di Meo, Advertising: declino degli investimenti in Italia. Cresce il digitale, in http://www.techeconomy.it/2012/07/03/advertising-declino-degliinvestimenti-in-italia-cresce-il-digitale/. See also Lombardi, La creatività in pubblicità.

The Changing World of Advertising

67

Secondly, its interlocutors – the consumers – have changed as well: they are forcing advertising to review its contents and expect new narratives in keeping with the changed social and cultural scenario. In fact, if we look at the individual spot ads, the situation changes. Evidence shows a gradual process of ‘absorption’ and re-processing of the changes that have affected the economic and political spheres, civil life and social customs alike. Obviously, advertising always offers representations, in the sense that the texts it creates do not reflect reality, but rather refer to it. Advertising cannot give up its mission, which is to stimulate people’s goodwill regarding the products it offers them. However, it may ‘change’ the methods it applies by drawing inspiration from a form of creativity that is more in tune with the contemporary sentiment. This does not mean that advertising should stop expressing aspirational content and convey exclusively rational content; this would imply the risk of limiting itself to a purely tactical approach, which would certainly work in the short term but not in the longer term. Over time, it would ultimately deprive brands of the values that differentiate them from others, leading to uniformity and standardisation on a merely promotional level. We need to consider that, especially today, when there is a strong emphasis on rationality, the latter needs to be tempered through the use of originality and the hybridization between tactical and value-related strategies. We will now analyse some commercials that illustrate this form of hybridization. These spot ads embrace “new” dimensions that introduce topics, concerns, emotions and “desires” in keeping with the Zeitgeist of our time. Let us start with attentiveness to/respect for the environment, which is increasingly featured in advertising right across the different product categories. A good example of this is the Toyota Yaris Hybrid commercial,78 which portrays a couple living in a hyper-technological future, their house boasting a sophisticated home automation system. A disorienting” element is introduced when they step out and get into a 1920s car, which the man starts by turning the crank-handle, which causes the car to release a menacing cloud of grey gas. They then merge into traffic, which invades the city and chokes it with harmful emissions. A voiceover says, “No world will ever be evolved until car technology is what it used to be. Hybrid is Toyota since 1997”. The commercial highlights the company’s commitment to the environment as an effort to raise consumer awareness of this issue.

 78

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIb8t4UN1Uc

68

II.

However, green themes are recurrent – often even just as a setting – in many car advertising campaigns, where the setting alludes to a kind of harmonious relationship between technology and nature. Consumers thus implicitly get the message that if they buy that product or service they will be performing an environmentally friendly action. An example of this is an advert featured by Eni Station (Eni is a multinational company in the oil/natural gas sector, generating and marketing electric power). The commercial is entirely shot with 3D technologies and depicts the birth of a new generation of service stations where you can find not only fuel, but also a world of services connected to Eni, such as Eni Cafés and the food products they offer. A voiceover says, “Eni Station means transforming a service station into a world that never stops [with] quality products and services 24/7. It’s affordability. [It’s] hospitality. It’s Eni Station. Discover Eni Station, a world that moves with you”. The commercial is “consistent with the essence of the Eni brand: ‘Open Energy’, which in Eni’s terms means a brand that is open to change, to dialogue, to building relationships […], a brand that cares about sustainability”.79 The Ford Fiesta commercial is also concerned with the environment. It opens with a woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sitting in an outdoor café. The camera zooms in and we notice that there are tiny solar panels on her hat charging the iPad she is using. A child sitting on the pavement is playing with some cars charged by tiny wind turbines. A voiceover closes the commercial by saying: “In the future, we will consume less and less by saving more and more. You can start now with Ford”. As Enrico Giraudi puts it, advertising has always been conceived as a “multiplier of consumption because in the past it triggered a virtuous economic cycle. Today, however, we are faced with the limits to development and with the issue of sustainability [...] We can hope for advertising to become a multiplier of responsibility and awareness about the effects that our consumption ‘here and now’ can have ‘elsewhere and in the future’”.80 Leaving aside all ideological and moralistic views for or against advertising – which, as a tool serving the company’s interests cannot avoid performing its task – we need to stress that nature, towards which individuals have recently developed a more attentive and respectful

 79

M. BELLI, “Eni station: un mondo che si muove con te”, in Campagne 2012. Ventotto storie di comunicazione testimoni dei nostri giorni, ed Emanuele Gabardi (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2013), 95. (Our translation) 80 Enrico Giraudi, “Provocazioni e spunti di riflessione per un “Manifesto della comunicazione (alternativa) responsabile”, in White Space. Comunicazione non convenzionale, eds. Brioschi and Uslenghi.

The Changing World of Advertising

69

attitude, features in advertising messages as a powerful element to legitimize the soundness/goodness of the products it features. The idea of making a saving, and thus the focus on price, is another issue of great current relevance, and which attracts consumers to the product in a market that is experiencing a crisis. The price is featured especially in the commercials of auto makers, large-scale retailers and fast food chains.81 We will consider fast food chains as they offer a particularly interesting example of the obvious contradictions characterising it: MacDonald’s Happy Meal commercial,82 i.e. a meal designed for children served in a carton box containing a surprise gift toy. The commercial portrays big Happy Meal boxes that metonymically represent the children’s homes in a sort of fun village. A voiceover, in fact, says “this is the story of a place where there is only one rule: having fun! This is a place where good things are also magical. And every new feature is a surprise. There is the organic fruit juice and the ready-to-drink organic yogurt. This is a wonderful place where you can now enjoy Parmigiano Reggiano cheese too. The best thing of all, however, is that it really exists. There are many new features in the Happy Meal this year. Except for the price, which has been the same since 2007: 7 euro”. We are all well aware that McDonald’s food has often been accused of causing illnesses – first among them obesity – related to an unhealthy diet. Therefore, no one would ever believe that they have now suddenly given up their most famous meals for the sake of promoting people’s health. However, it is worth noting that this company, too, is now trying to take on board recommendations from nutritionists and, as we have mentioned, from a new generation of consumers, very different from the past. Nature is in the spotlight in this commercial, and is presented as a magical world to young TV viewers in order to foster their relationship with the products of nature – at least at the level of the imagination – compared to the certainly tastier, yet less healthy hamburgers and fries. This is the organic food narrative for children. In short, we need to acknowledge that the most famous fast food chain in the world is adopting an increasingly “relational” marketing and communication approach, and paying more attention to consumers and their needs. Thus, it would be limiting to identify “the communication project as the search for a new image, a bespoke restyling or, indeed, a bombastic rhetorical expedient, [because this would mean forgetting about] McDonald’s corporate history, which in

 81 82

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZgghsvJ-SU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf0TQRaEqE8

70

II.

recent years has been adopting more and more strategies and programs in line with the recent campaign. We thus seem to be able to perceive a recurrent leitmotif of social, corporate, and cultural commitment: a marketing of meaning, of value, of mission”.83 As Kotler puts it, we are in the era of Marketing 3.0, when brands are concerned about the consumer’s and the company’s wellbeing. “Companies practicing Marketing 3.0 have bigger missions, visions, and values to contribute to the world; they aim to provide solutions to address problems in the society. Marketing 3.0 lifts the concept of marketing into the arena of human aspirations, values, and spirit”.84 While Marketing 1.0 focused exclusively on the product, Marketing 2.0 started to focus on the consumer instead. Now, in Marketing 3.0 there is recognition of the consumer’s deepest and most intimate nature. It is no longer enough to manufacture excellent products to meet the needs of various target markets if production processes are polluting and harming the environment. Consumers will penalize companies that continue to think and act this way. Indeed, consumers want to make their social environment into a better place to live, and if companies want to make space for themselves inside the consumers’ hearts and minds they must share their desire and prove that they are acting in that direction. At the beginning of January 2013, fully coinciding with the market crisis, McDonald’s announced that they would take concrete and proactive measures to tackle unemployment – a sadly current issue in Italy and which, according to ISTAT (Italian Statistical Institute) data, was at about 11% for the general population and 38.7% for young people during that period – by offering a concrete contribution towards reducing it. The text of the advertisement read as follows: “Italy is a democratic Republic founded on labour. We will contribute to it with 3,000 new jobs”. The company referred to article 1 of the Italian Constitution in its promise to create three thousand new hires in Italy in the following three years. People thus became the real protagonists of this commercial as they were being offered a concrete job opportunity. The McDonald’s brand is one example of a company which, “working on the so-called favourable junctures of circumstances” implements new strategies aimed at enhancing the value of its intangible assets that

 83

Andrea Rizzo, Marketing e Employer Branding: il caso di Mc Donald’s per l’Italia, in http://www.brandforum.it/papers/1106/marketing-e-employer-brandingil-caso-di-mc-donald-s-per-l-italia (Our translation) 84 Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya and Iwan Setiawan, Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to Human Beings (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, 2010), 4.

The Changing World of Advertising

71

coincide with its value proposition. This is a sort of brand reloading,85 which acts simultaneously on the consumer’s human and social side without forgetting the purely economic aspects. We could even claim that the creation of value lies in the mixture of both sides.86 In this regard, it is worth mentioning the commercial shot by the Italian film director Gabriele Salvatores (2013),87 with ordinary people, real McDonald’s employees, as lead actors. A voiceover talks about the commitment of McDonald’s employees and each statement is confirmed by the young employees’ enthusiastic ‘Yes’: “You work hard at McDonalds” (Yes); “You have to record incoming goods, serve at the counter and fry potatoes” (Yes); “You also have night shifts and you work during weekends” (Yes). “McDonald’s pays your salary on time every month” (Yes). “9 employees out of 10 are hired with a permanent contract” (Yes). “You can become restaurant manager at the age of 27” (Yes). “At McDonald’s we believe in Italy: this is why we employ over 16,000 people. And we will hire 3,000 more in the next three years”. The employees who had appeared in this commercial were later featured in another commercial, where their identities were outlined further: “Federico is 22 years old. He is part of the McDonald’s crew in Perugia and studies geology”; “Julienne is 28 years old. She is in the McDonald’s crew in Rome. She has a son”; “Simone is 24 years old. He is in the McDonald’s crew in Rome and studies drama”; “Sara is 23 years old. She is the manager at McDonald’s in Bologna and has a degree in business and economics”. Realism, although often toned down, is a more and more constant presence in advertising. Of course, advertising still does not feature many of the traits characterising our society today. However, it must be noted that a few small steps are being made in this direction. An interesting example in this respect is the commercial by Tre entitled “Passa a Tre e raddoppia” (Get Tre and double your money).88 It talks openly about the economic crisis by setting up a situation with eight ordinary people (unknown to the audience), who are invited to be part of a focus group (a qualitative survey technique where people are encouraged to talk, discuss and compare their attitudes on a particular topic, product,

 85

See Patrizia Musso, ed., Brand Reloading. Nuove strategie per comunicare, rappresentare e raccontare la marca (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2011). 86 See Andrea Rizzo, Marketing e Employer branding: il Caso di McDonald’s per l’Italia, in http://www.brandforum.it/papers/1106/marketing-e-employer-brandingil-caso-di-mc-donald-s-per-l-italia 87 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzChOex6er0 88 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtWeQ2I2KeU

72

II.

advert, etc.). A text appears on the screen reading “Nielsen market research with real customers. May 2012”. One of the group members states that “Tre gives you the possibility to save money in this period of crisis”. A second group member says, “I am making twice as many phone calls since I have Tre”. A woman adds, “If you recharge your account, Tre doubles the amount of the recharge”. The scene stops and a voiceover urges viewers to take advantage of the summer offer. Raoul Bova and Teresa Mannino then appear on the screen: the former tells the latter, “This double offer is certainly the best offer this summer!” She asks, “So, how long will the summer last?” He replies “With you? ... double the time,” and she responds, “Is that a compliment?” This narrative is characterised by strong degree of reality. Not only are those being interviewed “real” people rather than actors, but also the focus group was not created specifically for this commercial. Instead, Nielsen had actually organized it to gauge consumer attitudes towards Tre. Their voices express positive opinions – since the company is helping them cope with the crisis by applying low prices and attractive offers – and are more “credible”,89 because they are consumers just like the audience. They have been recorded in a natural environment, and they stimulate the so-called mirror neurons that foster empathy.90 The commercial ends with two actors – Mannino and Bova – who add a comic note and appeal to female consumers, who can easily identify with Teresa, an ordinary-looking woman who falls outside the stereotype of the beautiful but distant women featured in many commercials. Another interesting example of realism emerging not only from the stories staged, but also from the characters experiencing them, is that of Enel,91 Italy’s largest electricity provider. In 2012, it launched the campaign entitled “50 years of energy, millions of moments together”, to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Its goal was to share this important anniversary with all Italians, celebrating the presence of energy in people’s lives and the “heroic” commitment of those who fight every day to attain individual and collective goals, both in their everyday lives and in unique, unrepeatable moments. Enel positioned itself “as a company close to the

 89

On the concept of credibility, see G. GILI, La credibilità. Quando e perché la comunicazione ha successo, Soveria Mannelli, Rubettino, 2005. 90 Giampiero Lugli, Emotional traking. Come rispondiamo agli stimoli di marketing (Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli) 2014. 91 For a more comprehensive analysis of the case, see Gabardi, ed., Campagne 2012.

The Changing World of Advertising

73

people, particularly at such a difficult time, placing the emphasis on realism and emotion in the campaign’s tone of voice”.92 Three different subjects were developed for television: “BMX”, “Graduation”,93 and “Childbirth”, all of them accompanied by the music of Elvis Presley’s Always on my mind, an undoubtedly impactful and emotionally engaging soundtrack. Focusing on “Graduation” in particular, it tells the story of a man’s many years of hard work to pay for his son’s education, which ends on the day of his graduation. His son will thus have the chance to live a different and better life thanks to his father’s selfless sacrifice. All three commercials describe real, everyday Italian life, and they all share a realistic treatment that makes the subjects appear truly authentic.94 Also on the subject of realism in advertising, we would like to draw attention to what is currently happening in the world of fashion. Quite often, in fact, fashion magazines like Grazia ask ordinary people (whose biography they outline in a few lines) to wear designer clothes or to star in advertising campaigns. This is the case in Piazza Italia. The image below shows the data collected by Sponsorshop when the ‘clothing’ category is

 92

Antonio Di Battista, Manuel Musilli and Lorenzo Terragna, “Enel 2012 ‘Milioni di Attimi’”, in Campagne 2012,, ed. Gabardi, 86. (Our translation) 93 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT5AgTgqzt8 94 The only sore point we would note, although this is not the place to go into detail on the subject, has to do with the “Childbirth” commercial. To quote an insightful and effective observation by Giovanna Cosenza in this regard: “The campaign moves and engages us, and we empathise with the daily efforts which that father, that young man and that young woman perform to attain their goal with commitment and hard work, minute after minute. [However,] in this campaign, men can identify themselves with two generations (a young and an elderly man) and with two different goals, one contemporary, related to the body and to the discipline of Bicycle Motocross (BMX), and the other, more traditional goal of the worker aiming for his son’s university degree as a form of social advancement. For women, on the other hand, Enel only seems to envisage the goal of giving birth. Clearly, giving birth to a child is both wonderful and demanding. It would have been enough, however, to feature a girl as the athlete or the university graduate in addition to a mother delivering a baby to provide a touch of modernity (and change) for women as well. This was in 2012, and women were certainly experiencing more than just pregnancy at the time. Pregnancy looks great in a commercial, not only because it is empathic, moving, etc., but also because it represents a wonderful reality. For women, however, this is not the only one. So, why should advertising promote that one option alone?” Giovanna Cosenza, La sottile differenza di Enel “Milioni di attimi”, from the blog DIS.AMB.IGUANDO, http://giovannacosenza.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/la-sottile-differenza-di-enelmilioni-di-attimi/. (Our translation)

74

II.

selected. The tag cloud thus refers to the most active brands in the given period. This brand offers low-price quality fashion items and has proclaimed itself a “sponsor of ordinary people” by portraying real people as their models.

Fig. 4 Source: Sponsorshop. Tag Clouds of the most active brands in the Clothing category from 05/04/2012 to 04/07/2012 and Graph of the most active brands in the Clothing category from 05/04/2012 to 04/07/2012

The campaign (we will consider a printed ad here because the fashion industry rarely produces TV commercials for reasons mostly related to the rapid obsolescence of its products95) was created in late 2011. It was entitled “We create miracles – The sponsor of ordinary people” and focused on the value of people who actually become special because they performed extraordinary gestures like Dario Pallotta, a rugby player who saved many people from the rubble after the earthquake in L’Aquila (the



95 See Germana Galoforo, Matteo Montebelli, Sabrina Pomodoro, Moda e pubblicità: stili e tendenze del fashion system (Rome: Carocci, 2005).

The Changing World of Advertising

75

city awarded him the bronze medal for civil merits), Andrea Punzo, a film and art director who devoted his life to organising theatre activities in the prison of Volterra, and Jessica Intravia, a dancer and model who donated a 30 thousand euro prize she received from a famous TV show to cancer research. The same applies to so many people who have acted ethically and thus represent positive value models. Piazza Italia offers an optimistic, positive view of a social fabric bearing new values and filled with signs pointing to the growth of a new and different society. It seems that advertising is receptive to consumers’ demand for authenticity – meaning transparency, truth, compliance with past values, nature, originality, consistency with their cultural heritage and value system, the will to truly connect with others, honesty, and so on. All this seems to finally be taken into consideration by advertising as well. The use of real people as endorsers, in fact, goes against the common practice in advertising of using endorsers belonging to the star system. Today’s consumers perceive these celebrities as inauthentic, as people who have probably only ever come across the featured product on the set. On this point, let us remember the role that friends’ advice plays on the Web when it comes to purchasing products, not to speak of the role played by bloggers, who have built up strong credibility and are thus considered a source of authoritative opinions. Most commercials are characterised by emotion, which is not simply the outcome of a good purchase or limited to consumption alone, but is rather to be attributed to the relational dimension. The focus is on the importance of the bonds created thanks to a product that becomes a pretext to be together, to feel part of a tribe.96 Take, for instance, the commercial for “San Bitter Fruit Emotions” (note that the product name itself already places the focus on emotions),97 a blend of San Bitter and grapefruit. The commercial shows aperitif time in different Italian cities. This ritual has become part of Italian everyday life, and the commercial stresses its social dimension as an opportunity to meet people and build relations. In the foreground, we see people smiling, their friendly attitudes, and the way they connect with each other rather than with the bars (barely ‘hinted at’) or places they are in, which are merely evoked by their names appearing on the screen or by a few representative glimpses of the cities they identify. The narrative ends with a voiceover saying, “Enjoy your breaks: San Bitter, alcohol-free emotions”.

 96

See Bernard Cova, Marketing tribale. Legame, comunità, autenticità nel marketing mediterraneo (Milan: Il Sole24Ore, 2003). 97 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHUxNfBAv7M

76

II.

The examples we have considered so far have been selected because they are useful to demonstrate that if we disregard the general and standard observations according to which advertising in Italy is unreceptive to change and therefore keeps delivering the same messages, and if we are patient enough to analyse its individual manifestations, we become aware that new contents are making their way into the world of advertising more and more perceptibly. Below we provide further examples (which are not included in the Sponsorshop sample group but were still broadcast in 2012) to prove this point. These examples show even more clearly the referential nature of advertising with respect to a social context it cannot disregard or escape from. As anticipated earlier, the commercials we will be analysing, are characterised by being particularly in tune with society, individuals and their values. In relation to realism and authenticity, let us begin with the “Pampers Best Wishes For 2012” commercial,98 which shows some toddlers playing together while large format numbers appear on the screen suggesting how much the mothers will have to devote themselves to their children. 1: “number of evenings you will go out in one month”; 10: “minutes you’ll have to yourself per day”; 100: “hours of sleep you’ll lose”; 1,000: “the number of times you’ll think you can’t cope”; and 1,000,000 “reasons why it’s worth it”. In short, it delivers a very concrete image of maternity – which is no doubt made up of many joys, but also of sacrifices. This image is very different from those portraying highly efficient mums always perfectly dressed and made-up, ready to take care of their children every moment of the day. It offers a far more realistic view, consistent with the values of a brand that has always been close to mothers, including through an online community with experts offering their professional advice on blogs and forums. A further example of a commercial in line with the times is that of Skoda Yeti, broadcast in 2010.99 The commercial features four friends driving a Skoda SUV in Milan, singing an irreverent song in the Milanese dialect that pokes fun at the “standard” Milanese SUV owner. The commercial gives an ironic description of a narcissistic, exhibitionist “Milanese” person who is obsessed with his image (bauscia is the Milanese vernacular term for a brag). The car has always been a status symbol, a sign of social distinction: consider a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari or a

 98 99

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXZeVWxq3AQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm-bGkVxOT4

The Changing World of Advertising

77

Porsche as opposed to a Beetle or a Fiat 500. In the specific case of the SUV, its size is a strong metaphor of power, comfort, safety and freedom. On the negative side, it is synonym for vanity, arrogance and a bloated ego: the SUV is an ostentation of possession. Owning an SUV in the city means unconcerned about problems related to parking or driving a big car in traffic congestion. In this commercial, the emphasis is on the arrogance which often characterises owners of this type of car. The irony thus lies between this sort of negative mythology of SUVs, seen as pointless for the city but considered cool by the Milanese bauscia who love their big cars, and its possible more positive interpretation in the form of Skoda’s compact SUV, which is smaller than the others and embodies different lifestyles and values. The video in fact ends with the image of the Skoda SUV stopping suddenly before a zebra crossing to let a mum with her baby in the pushchair cross the road. A voiceover says, “Stop excess. There is now a compact SUV. Skoda Yeti”. The ending of this commercial is emblematic as it sanctions the end of an era marked by excessive and compulsive consumption and the dawn of a new post-growth era driven by different values, i.e. respect for the environment and for human beings. Along the same lines as the Skoda commercial, there are two further interesting examples worth analysing (although they were broadcast outside the timeframe under consideration here), which clearly illustrate the shift away from status symbols and towards other dimensions. The commercials are for the Dacia Lodgy and for the Dacia Duster in turn.100 The first commercial shows two small villas in the foreground, one with a Porsche parked in front of it and the other with a Dacia Lodgy. The Porsche is the object of an “extravagant” decision made by its owner, who uses a famous Italian counting rhyme to decide, by exclusion, which of his five children can ride with him to go to school. At the end of the count, three get lucky and can ride in the car, while the other two have to walk. The Dacia Lodgy, owned by the family next door, is certainly less prestigious and expensive than the Porsche but is more comfortable and spacious, so the father, who also has five children, does not have to make any “sad choices” and they can all ride in the car together. A voiceover says: “Why spend more to have less? Dacia Lodgy, the family genial box from 9,900 euros”. The second commercial shows a very elegant party in an exclusive location. At some point, a couple arrives on a Dacia Duster SUV, stirring surprise and enthusiasm among the party guests, and a smartly dressed young woman exclaims: “Wow, it’s beautiful!” However, everyone at the

 100

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6UjgrGeY2s

78

II.

party, including the girl, stops short when a man wearing a white suit says: “It only costs 11,000 euros”. Everybody is disappointed, including the young woman who came in the Dacia Duster, who starts complaining to her partner for buying such a cheap car. A voiceover says: “Dacia Duster, unashamedly unique. Yours for only 11,900 euros”. Let us conclude this series of examples with two more cases portraying a sadly topical issue in Italy today, namely the immoral and wasteful conduct of its ruling classes. For instance, Piazza Italia’s campaign entitled “The thought that counts” employs harsh and ironic language against the so-called “caste”, a term referring to Italian politicians. This campaign interprets the national anger and frustration in 3,500 billboards featuring fourteen brand endorsers selected from the street, as with previous socially inspired campaigns, denouncing a series of evils in politics. In this case too, as with the Skoda Yeti commercial described above, excess stands accused. Although this is a different kind of excess, they both refer to a form of behaviour that is currently the object of blame and disapproval. Both commercials criticise a lifestyle characterised by excessive, self-absorbed individualism focused on pleasure-seeking and personal gratification alone. The values that are currently gaining ground, on the other hand, are moving in the opposite direction, towards an awareness of the importance of pursuing a lifestyle that considers the “other” as well. “The society of the decline of mass individualism is reorganising itself, finding new vitality and trust in strong interpersonal relations. It is re-discovering the ‘other’ seen as an ‘object’ of respect, but also, and above all, as ‘someone’ to develop a relationship with, for the sake of self-completion. Thus, the individual can re-discover the ‘other’, not because he is driven by ethics, but because he has experienced the limits of his incomplete subjectivity”.101 Through these commercials, advertising not only reflects but actively participates in the change currently taking place in Italian values, and although it is engaged in commercial advertising, it embraces a topic that is typical of social advertising. And this is another trend seen in Italian advertising today (which is also in line with what is happening internationally). In this regard, we will start by recalling the 2012 campaign by Benetton’s UHATE Foundation entitled “Unemployee of the Year”, an integrated campaign (including a film, a contest, printed ads and social media marketing activities) aimed at

 101

CENSIS, ed., I valori degli italiani, 8 (Our translation)

The Changing World of Advertising

79

boosting confidence among young unemployed people and raising public awareness of the “youth non-employment” issue. Young people aged 18 to 30 without stable employment (less than six consecutive months) were invited to submit their projects to contribute to the mission of the UNHATE Foundation, established by Benetton in 2011 to fight youth non-employment. The campaign called for project proposals with a potentially positive impact on the community (e.g. through the creation of artworks or for-profit or non-profit economic activities) and consistent with the Foundation’s purposes. Participants could upload their projects on the official website and on a Facebook page from 18 September to 14 October 2012.102 The young people featured in the press campaign, ironically wearing formal clothes as if they were ready for just another day at work, were all unemployed youths (Django the ‘nondirector’, Ilenia the ‘non-researcher’, Eno the ‘non-actor’, etc.). So, although it is true that Benetton, like most production and distribution chains in the clothing industry, outsources most of its manufacturing activities to save on labour costs, it is also true that thanks to the UNHATE Foundation, whose mission is “to identify and pursue tangible initiatives and projects that support the social aspirations of its campaigns”, the company’s social communication campaigns are seen as more authoritative because they are not directly connected to Benetton. Naturally, Benetton is a company and therefore, like all the others we have considered and will henceforth be considering, needs to make a profit. However, we have to acknowledge that – beyond all the possible and justifiable criticism one might express towards this company – it runs campaigns that are useful to the whole community through tangible projects that reach beyond the advertising initiative. A further example comes from the Ceres beer brand whose billboards in January 2013 urged young people to act responsibly in the upcoming February 2013 elections. The messages in the three billboards designed for Milan were, “Heroes never abstain”; “First you vote, then you drink. Not like last time”; “Only open the bottles once the ballot is closed”. The company launched a Corporate Social Responsibility message urging young people to commit to what should be a normal action but which, in a period of growing distrust, ironically becomes a heroic act performed by fully responsible people. The company thereby gave its contribution to reducing the expected abstentionism, spurring young people on to go and cast their vote and express their point of view to try and change a society

 102

The 100 projects to receive the most votes from the community would each receive a €5,000 award.

80

II.

that considers young people as the weak link. It called on young people to act responsibly not only when they drive, but also in their public and private life more generally. The brand was so in tune with reality that, through the use of irony, it conveyed the malaise of a whole generation by launching a call to engage young people and the ruling classes alike.103 There are more and more examples illustrating how commercial advertising is spilling over into social advertising.104 More and more frequently, this tool of corporate strategy is in fact used to address the challenges we face in daily life and which it should be the task of our institutions to tackle. The distinction between the two “sisters” – the bad sister, i.e. commercial advertising, and the good sister, i.e. social advertising – is thus becoming less and less clear-cut and their boundaries are getting more blurred. Due to the changed historical scenario, the former has decided to respond by borrowing the focus on ethical, social and environmental issues from the latter. Quite often, advertising is actually one of the few channels which, by drawing people’s attention to major ethical issues, makes up for the failure of the institutions – first among them, politics – to fulfil their duty in this respect. An example of this is the 2013 press campaign of the well-known food company Lete, featuring a poor homeless woman looking for food in the rubbish bins. The slogan, “poverty is much closer than you think” (meaning, “this could happen to you too”), could sound almost terroristic, and maybe it is, since it remains truly impressed in our minds (which is not a bad thing). However, it is also true that it uses an old rhetorical figure, very popular in advertising, called amphibology, i.e. a syntactic ambiguity that allows for several interpretations. This advert could therefore also be seen as urging people to think about the fact that the number of poor persons is growing, even though we tend to think of our nation as immune from similar predicaments: the economic crisis has enhanced problems in the Western world, which we thought existed only in distant so-called Third World countries.

 103

In addition to its presence on Facebook, Ceres also created a video tutorial to engage younger audiences, to explain – by parodying some ‘institutional’ videos providing information on the issue – how to vote and, in particular, how you should celebrate – according to Ceres – after you have ‘fulfilled your duty’ as a citizen. It is another example of how irony subtly and indirectly tackles a thorny issue in an effective way ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bszRp6EOw8). 104 Maria Angela Polesana, Societing: alcune riflessioni a partire dal caso Acqua Lete, in http://brandforum.it/papers/1183/societing-alcune-riflessioni-a-partire-dalcaso-acqua-lete

The Changing World of Advertising

81

It is a call to reflect upon what is happening around us, and in this respect it is a significant signal. Beyond facile criticism, it is a case of a company taking up the problems facing society. The company is in fact part of the society within which it operates (societing), and does not shy away from its duty towards society and the people who constitute it. This has become a growing trend over the years, confirming the increasingly social role played by companies as well as the gradual expansion of marketing as societing. Let us now consider once again the Sponsorshop tag cloud, based on a survey of 2,360 commercials, which, as we recall, is not the total number of commercials broadcast during the period under analysis, but only of new ads aired at the time, broadcast over 24 hours on the following TV channels: Rai 1, Rai 2, Italia 1, Canale 5, Rete 4, Sky Fox, Sky Cinema, SKY Sport, La 7, and MTV. The tag cloud shows the most active brands on television from 1 January to 31 March, 2014, providing a snapshot that substantially confirms the trends we have identified for 2012, which have strengthened over time. For obvious reasons, including our desire not to bore our readers, we will analyse only a few, but we hope effective, examples.

Fig. 5 Source: Sponsorshop. The most active brands by number of new campaigns Medium: TV/spot ad Date: 01/01/2014 to 31/03/2014. The number in the graph refers to the total number of new creative commercials inserted in the Online Database (both new and edits) for the selected medium, category and period.

82

II.

Let us begin with two telephone service providers in Italy: Wind and Tim. In both cases, realism influences the design of the commercial. Specifically, in the case of Wind, we have a number of commercials starring real, ordinary, unknown people who work in Wind stores or call centres and provide information to consumers. These commercials end by stressing the values that inspire Wind’s corporate philosophy, which are summarized in the payoff: “closer”. Fiorello, an Italian entertainment star who has been Wind’s celebrity endorser for about 13 years, interviews the employees in a new Wind store and takes selfies with them, making him “closer” too. Closeness (“closer”) to the consumer-person is expressed in practice through the interaction between the endorser – who places himself on the same level as the audience – and ordinary people: an effective demonstration of consumer engagement. Tim talks about “closeness” and “sharing” and focuses on the individual in its “millions of passions” campaign for Impresa Semplice, a service it provides to professionals and businesses. The celebrity endorser, the famous Italian television host known as Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto), becomes the tool through which the company creates a sort of mobile observatory, investigating Italian passions and the impact that technologies have on people’s work. To do this, he travels all over Italy to find communities with a common passion, which they signal through the hashtag #milionidipassioni (millions of passions), sharing it in videos and on social networks. The TV commercial opened a multi-media campaign that enabled Telecom Italia to collect users’ comments and feedback through the #Milionidipassioni hashtag (used as a slogan in all the TV commercials) on Twitter and Facebook, thus creating a channel for dialogue and direct exchange with the community. Nature is also a strong feature in the storytelling of advertising, and in the automotive industry in particular (cars drive through nature silently and respectfully, almost grateful for its hospitality), as we saw earlier. In fact, it also provides the setting for both the Suzuki S-cross and the Citroen 4 Picasso commercials. In both brands, moreover, the main focus is on the family, evoking bonds and strong relationships. The Citroen C4 Picasso commercial portrays a father, the protagonist, forced to have his three children literally “with him” in everything he does throughout the day until he finds relief/help thanks to Citroen. A voiceover says, “Being a dad is not always easy. But it’s not impossible. The new Citroen C4 Picasso”. An example of social brand advertising comes from Conad, a cooperative company operating a large-scale supermarket chain. The Conad campaign is focused on the character of the cooperative member who represents a tangible contact point with the local area, the community

The Changing World of Advertising

83

and the consumer. Thus, the commercials show his closeness to customers and attentiveness to their needs, particularly at such a difficult time as that which Italy has been experiencing for some years now. The payoff “People besides things” encapsulates the brand positioning, emphasized by the TV representation of the Conad member’s passion for his work, his store and his customers, so strong that he cannot even sleep at night. In fact, it is during a sleepless night that his desire to “help” people gives him the idea for the “Low and fixed prices” campaign, which consists in offering all the staples in an Italian food shopping-list at truly affordable and “locked” prices. This proves Conad’s and its members’ attention to the current problems experienced by all families. As Emanuele Gabardi puts it, the narratives that usually make up advertising messages quite often include positive feelings in different forms. A sort of “buonismo” (an Italian word meaning do-goodism in its positive interpretation here), which you can find, for instance, in the Enel, Ikea and Conad commercials, mixed with friendly and participatory feelings. Gabardi compares it to the cocooning of the early ’90s, “when the dizziness generated by the economic wealth of the previous decade suddenly stopped. Now, after almost twenty years of ethical decadence, the country finds it difficult to recognise itself, while the consumption bulimia is only a memory for many people and the search for simple values, affection and solidarity is a social reality. Hence, advertising, being a mirror of society, cannot but take this into consideration”.105 Now, then, let us summarize the “languages” we have identified and explained using a number of explanatory commercials and ads, in order to define some of their distinctive characteristics and, based on Schwartz’s value analysis, to highlight the values they stress. ¾ Realism, in line with Pasquale Barbella’s definition, i.e. not just a form of enhanced hyperrealism, faithfully and accurately portraying reality in its narratives, but something deeper and more intimate that can be found in the ability to analyse the individual’s inner world and tune in with contemporary feelings, attitudes and values. ¾ Authenticity, which translates into “human” characters and situations, hence not just caricatures or humoristic theatrical exaggerations, but real people who confront equally real problems. Pasquale Barbella’s previously mentioned statement according to



105 Emanuele Gabardi, Introduzione, in Campagne 2012, ed. Gabardi, 24. (Our italics)

84

II.

which “advertising should not resemble itself, but should resemble life” is highly relevant in this respect. Authenticity often uses what Patrizia Musso calls “glass-testimonials”,106 due to their transparency. These are usually delivered by ordinary people who get personally involved by revealing their real name, surname and real profession, as in the Piazza Italia campaign. However, authenticity also derives from the presence of a growing number of ordinary people who do not reveal their personal details, as they do in glass testimonials, but who are willing to act as guarantors for the advertised products. In this regard, we should point out the highly contagious nature of Web communication, which often takes place among peers and where, quite often, more value is attributed to an ordinary person’s opinion than to that of a celebrity who is believed to be biased since they are paid by the company whose product they are promoting. In the case of the testimonial, but not exclusively, another fundamental issue arises, which increasingly affects all advertising communication, i.e. credibility.107 In this specific case it refers to a symmetrical, horizontal form of credibility between parties who share the same condition/situation. Guido Gili identifies three sources of credibility: cognitive, ethicalnormative and affective credibility. The first refers to the endorser’s expertise – when “experts” are involved, who are recognized as such thanks to their special skills in the given field. The second refers to “socially accepted values, like status and prestige, tradition and innovation, or a common heritage”.108 The third builds on the affective dimension.109 We should note that, over the years, celebrity endorsers have relinquished the image of distant and inaccessible stars that they adopted in the past, when they used to project themselves as “hybrid, human and divine, real and imaginative at the same time. […] Today, by contrast, stars are more integrated within daily life”.110 In fact, as Codeluppi notes, contemporary stars are not

 106

Patrizia Musso, “Il testimonial, garante della pubblicità”, in Storie e culture della televisione, ed. Aldo Grasso (Milan: Mondadori, 20139. 107 See Guido Gili., La credibilità. Quando e perché la comunicazione ha successo (Rubbettino: Soveria Mannelli, 2005). 108 Francesca Nicotera, Il ruolo dei testimonial nella pubblicità di oggi: un’indagine qualitativa (Campobasso: Regia Edizioni, 2015), 27. (Our translation) 109 See Gili, La credibilità. Quando e perché la comunicazione ha successo. 110 Vanni Codeluppi, Vivere in vetrina. Tutti divi (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2009), 6. (Our translation)

The Changing World of Advertising

85

endowed with particular professional skills or abilities and owe their fame entirely to their constant media presence. This means that a star always “tends to act as a mirror, like a character enjoying greater prestige but similar to ordinary people (same age, same interests and same social background)”.111 With the loss of their “divinity” status, celebrities from the star-system (whose lives are often scrutinised on the Internet to discover their most intimate side, e.g. stars photographed without makeup or in embarrassing situations) acting as endorsers often use self-irony, like Gerry Scotti for Edison or Totti for 10 and Lotto, and so on. Authenticity therefore also means admitting to being “normal”, with celebrities willing to participate in self-representation or staging their daily lives as they experience success and failure, just like everyone else. ¾ Reputation, which goes hand in hand with credibility and the trust a company must gain in order to convince consumers to listen to its messages. Reputation cuts across all the narrative forms and languages used in advertising. Clearly, this refers to societing and to what we have called a social brand, which we have discussed extensively in the course of this analysis. ¾ Affordability, which means focusing on the price. However, it now takes on a different meaning compared to previous historical periods of economic downturn, when advertising used this “trick” to attract the consumers’ attention towards the product and increase their goodwill towards the company. Today, by contrast, the focus on price takes on additional elements partly because the low-cost phenomenon has proved that quality, good service and corporate focus on CSR may be attained even if prices drop. Thus, the product’s low price is not, and can no longer be, merely a promotional and tactical strategy, but – in order to be meaningful to the consumer – it needs to be built into a narrative that makes it appear better compared to other, albeit affordable, prices, due to the values that distinguish the company applying that price. This is why McDonald’s not only applies low prices, but also offers healthy menus and meals specifically designed for children and helps young people by opening up many new job positions. Similarly, the member of the Conad cooperative does not sleep at the night because he cannot stop thinking about how he can help Italians in trouble. And, according to the same logic, cars not only

 111

Ibid., 7. (Our translation)

II.

86

¾

¾

¾

¾

¾

boast competitive prices but are also environmentally friendly, traffic friendly, and so on. Relations and the community, which are key features in advertising, as shown by the extensive and growing focus on relations with friends, family and co-workers in commercials, and by the fact that companies are portrayed as a big family. As an example of the latter, Fiorello connects with the consumers and the company employees on behalf of Wind, and Pif similarly establishes a closer connection between Tim and the users, a connection which, thanks to new technologies, leads to sharing, another major topic in current advertising, of knowledge, experiences and emotions. The focus on nature and respect for the environment, which is found in many commercials advertising food, technologies, cars and other products, showing a new awareness that human survival depends not just on industrial production but also on the ecosystem. There is less emphasis on human power and more on a holistic conception of the man-nature relationship. The importance of emotions, which have been a major feature in advertising for years now and, in most cases, are not focused on the self but on others. Emotions have to do with others, with the pleasure of being together and where the environment brings serenity and freedom. The focus on smaller joys and daily pleasures, which translates into narratives that set the stage for ordinary stories. Here, sudden joyful reactions are elicited by simply being together (maybe sitting around a table with friends and family, enjoying good food), by the possibility of enjoying a privileged relationship with nature, or again by the achievement of highly significant goals by the protagonists of the narrative (as in the case of Enel referred to earlier). The hybridisation of social and commercial advertising, a phenomenon that has grown in importance over time since companies are now no longer just market players but full social players connected with social groups and movements, lobbies, political parties, institutions and consumers who are increasingly mature and aware of their rights. For instance, Piazza Italia interprets citizens’ concerns through campaigns that often denounce the evils besetting the Italian nation and our everyday life. Many other cases fit into this picture in addition to those we have considered so far. For instance, in 2013 Yamamay tackled the, sadly increasingly urgent, issue of violence against women in a

The Changing World of Advertising

87

very concrete manner. Incidentally, we should note the strong consistency of this campaign with the target market for its products, which are designed for women, thereby proving that the company’s concern for its customers goes well beyond the time of purchase. The three key words of the campaign appearing full-page on several national dailies were: change, solidarity and participation. And its “Stop the bastard” slogan was a powerful and impactful appeal conveying the strength and conviction/determination required by women to find the courage to report an act of violence. The conative function here was expressed through a call to action which, in order to boost its impact and reach large numbers of people, was launched on the Web, including through the dedicated Facebook page and the #fermailbastardo (stopthebastard) hashtag. However, this was also an information project, since it informed any women victims of violence that they could ask for help by dialling 1522, a toll-free number active nationwide 24/7 set up by the Ministry for Equal Opportunities. With this campaign, the company sought to raise awareness among female victims of violence. Cimmino – the company’s founder and CEO – committed to working in partnership with Isabella Rauti (advisor to the Minister of Domestic Affairs on policies against gender and sexual violence, and femicide) on an agreement with the Ministry. The goal was to identify, fund and give visibility to companies or entities that contribute daily to helping women who have been victims of abuse and stalking, and which use their corporate advertising spaces for this purpose. So which values could be said to underpin the advertising languages we have considered above? As we have seen, Schwartz identifies ten universal values that are common to all cultures. These values are organized in a circular structure divided into four larger areas, each of which includes some of the ten basic values. Based on the system described in section I.2- Fig.2, it is clear that the values of Universalism and Benevolence falling within the area of Selftranscendence feature significantly in the languages employed by advertising. Schwartz believes that Universalism can be found in those values that underpin any attitudes of understanding and protection of the wellbeing of both humanity and nature.112 These include justice, equality, peace, altruism and respect for the environment, for instance.

 112

Shalom H. Schwartz, Universals in the Content and Structure of Values, 11-12.

II.

88

Benevolence, on the other hand, encapsulates those values that stimulate individuals to take care of the people with whom they have frequent interpersonal relations. According to Schwartz, these values are loyalty and devotion, honesty, availability, responsibility, forgiveness, the ability to establish strong and sincere friendships and to have stable and mature sentimental relationships.113 From the sample we have considered, it is clear that the representation of these two values – Universalism and Benevolence – is predominant. Universalism can be clearly identified in the hybridisation of commercial and social advertising, i.e. in the act of spurring citizens to help other people (the poor in the case of Lete water, and female victims of violence in Yamamay’s campaign) or protect the environment. This is the case whenever advertising reminds us that we belong to a community/ecosystem that requires our respect and protection. In a clearly “lighter” way, universalism also underpins all commercials, for instance in the automotive industry, where respect for the environment is shown through product innovations that reduce pollution. Moreover, what can be said about the commercials by Ceres, MacDonald’s or Piazza Italia we analysed in our study? In the first case, young people are invited to behave responsibly, including towards their country, by going to cast their vote. In the second case, the company offers to fight the problem of unemployment by opening up new job positions for young people. In the third, the company voices the widespread discontent by directly denouncing the immoral behaviour of those who should rule us fairly and lawfully. As for Benevolence, we can find it in all the many narratives featuring individuals in contexts that emphasise human relations and connections, and dedication to others, whether they are family members (and families are often the main subject of commercials) or friends. While there are many examples of this, we will obviously refer to those we have analysed in our study for the sake of simplicity. For instance, let us consider Enel, whose “Graduation” commercial tells the story of a father’s abnegation to enable his son to study at university and provide a better life for him. Or think about the Conad “member” who cannot sleep because he is thinking about other people’s financial difficulties, and so on. With technology products, too, although the focus is on a mythical dimension of omnipotence, as Graziella Priulla points out,114 driven by Self-direction (i.e. freedom, independence, creativity), which celebrates their ubiquity, user friendliness and efficiency, in our view this is

 113 114

Ibid., 11. Priulla, Vendere onnipotenza.

The Changing World of Advertising

89

tempered by the hybridisation with the Self-transcendence area. Thus, for technology products, the emphasis is increasingly on their potential to connect us to others, to our loved ones, and of living and sharing our emotions with them (take Tim’s commercial with Pif, for instance). Cosmetics commercials (obviously also due to the nature of this product category) still use representations focused on hedonism, since their primary goal is the pursuit of beauty and this is associated with success, understood as acceptance within the social group through the acknowledgement of the individual’s attractive appearance. An example of a cosmetics brand bucking this trend is Dove, which has always fought for “true beauty” with commercials featuring the faces of ordinary women, even with wrinkles. It should be noted, however, that so far they are a black swan in the beauty industry. In automotive industry commercials, the theme of respect for the environment, and therefore Universalism, clearly coexists with several narratives in which the dominant values are Power, Success (for luxury cars) and Stimulation. The latter emphasises the importance of thrills, risk and adventure in people’s lives, in other words “exciting” living. However, we would like to underscore how, with the major changes that have occurred in our society (illustrated in the first two chapters of this study) – in which the Internet has triggered a real “gift culture” translated into various different forms, including the rapidly growing socalled sharing economy (whose very “label” contains a statement of interest towards others) –, the narrative of advertising is moving towards greater awareness of the importance of bonds and relationships. Going back to Schwartz’s circumplex model and looking at the large area with Self-enhancement and Self-transcendence facing each other on opposite sides – where the former expresses the quest for personal success and the tendency to dominate others by considering them only as a means to attain personal goals (i.e. Achievement and Power), while the latter represents the quest for wellbeing and prosperity not only for ourselves but also for those who are close to us and for humanity in general (Universalism and Benevolence) – we can definitely say that the latter is richer in advertising messages compared to the former.

II.4 “Gender” and advertising The signals described above show that advertising is certainly undergoing a tangible change in the direction that scholars, as well as professionals, have long been hoping for. However, a description focusing exclusively on the positive changes in advertising would offer but a partial reading of the

90

II.

current scenario. We cannot therefore refrain from explaining – albeit succinctly – certain “evils” that still beset advertising and society as a whole, starting from those agencies which should be making an effort to help us overcome stereotypes. In fact, when we talk about the effects of advertising, we must consider the action and interrelation of the primary cultural industry (i.e. book, newspaper and magazine publishers, cinema, TV, radio and, naturally, school) with the secondary cultural industry (essentially based more on “consumption”, including advertising). “The former plays an essentially ideological function with respect to the audience, tending towards change. The latter, on the other hand, has a rhetorical, strengthening function, since it is influenced by the spirit of the times as defined by the primary cultural industry, which it studies, uses and reproduces by connecting it with new consumption values”.115 Advertising is a form of communication characterised by a succinct and elliptic kind of narrative and by the selection of topics that can be narrated, as well as by their further simplification, which makes them easily accessible to a wide and diversified audience. “By virtue of its simplifying view of the world, advertising translates into a parodistic showcase of society” thereby capturing, as if through a magnifying glass, the typical traits of society. In fact, one of the most common stereotypes in advertising is the “partial” representation of women, who remain stuck in their roles as mothers, wives, housewives (note that women are always the stars of advertising featuring household products) and seducers, or as ornaments or objects of desire. Women thus play an ancillary function in relation to men and their pleasure. Only rarely do women appear as “intellectual women”, confident and strong, and when they do they are often shown wearing glasses to stress their intelligence.116 Women’s condition in society compared to the past has changed only partially since, following the feminist revolution in the ’70s, it has been confronted with new and contradictory pressures. On the one hand, society requires women to be successful, independent and competitive just like men (even though their salary is lower under the same working conditions). On the other, women are still moving within a culture permeated with sexist stereotypes mainly emphasising their physical

 115

Marco Lombardi, La strategia in pubblicità. Manuale di tecnica multimediale: dai media classici al digitale, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2010, p.113. (Our translation) 116 Paola Panarese, “La donna usata dalla pubblicità. Una ricerca sugli spot tv italiani”, http://www.aiart.org/public/web/documenti/La_donna_usata_dalla_pubblicit%C3 %A0_Panarese.pdf

The Changing World of Advertising

91

appearance and still forcing them into a “subordinate” role in relation to men, in the collective imagination. Here, side by side with expectations of success and personal fulfilment, there is a persistent idea of traditional femininity characterised by compliance, beauty and passivity. This image includes a conflictual “double” female identity: so-called true womanhood and new womanhood.117 The former refers to the traditional idea of the “angel of the house” – a compliant, submissive, amenable woman – while the latter can be identified with a “new” woman, who actively participates in society by working outside her home (a role historically played by men only). This does away with the traditional public-private and work-home dichotomy, which saw women relegated to their condition of housewives. Among today’s couples, it is increasingly common for both the man and the woman to work. Women are taking on more and more tasks that were traditionally assigned to men, even though they are often discriminated against in the workplace. As mentioned earlier, women earn less under the same working conditions, something which Pope Francis has recently spoken out against, calling it scandalous.118 According to the JP Salary outlook 2015 report compiled by Job Pricing, women actually earn an average of 6.7% less than their male counterparts.119 Although women have “abandoned” the private sphere of the home to go out to work (although we should perhaps say they now divide their time between home and work), the traditional conception of women as carrying the main responsibility for the home and children remains unchanged. An interesting observation by Susan Bordo explains that our culture is based on the idea (aimed at supporting the view that the division between the public and the private sphere is natural) that women feel particularly happy when they can feed and take care of others and not of themselves.120 Self-negation and preparing food for the family reflects the “myth” of the ideal mother: by caring for others, women are thought to embrace the only passion appropriate to their role. This is reflected by the numerous examples of advertising messages that hardly ever show a man cooking, except on very special occasions, e.g. during a barbecue. Bordo states that

 117

Richard. A. Gordon, Anorexia and Bulimia: Anatomy of a Social Epidemic (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990). 118 Paolo Rodari, “La battaglia di Francesco per la parità delle donne. Scandaloso pagarle meno”, La Repubblica, 30 April, 2015, 28. (Our translation) 119 Report drawn up by the Job Pricing Observatory, the portal refers to the consultancy firm Hr Pros., http://www.jobpricing.it/shop/jp-salary-outlook-2015 120 Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993).

92

II.

in our culture “food is considered equivalent to motherly and conjugal love”.121 Therefore all commercials depicting a man eating food also feature, openly or implicitly, a woman who has prepared that food. In addition to food, another product category dominated by women in advertising is that of detergents. In this connection we would recall the 2015 “Perlana rinnova colori” (Perlana renews colours) commercial. Here, a voiceover states that “92% of consumers are happy with the revolution. “Perlana rinnova colori” not only protects coloured, white and black garments, but also refreshes them with every wash: confirmed by 92% of consumers”. This is a particularly sexist commercial because the voiceover talks about “consumers” but only women appear in it. On the one hand, the assumption is that women are the only buyers and users of this product, since they are the only people featured in this entirely female spot ad. On the other, women seem to play a merely “decorative” function (they are all tall, slim and wearing high heels… just like all the women who do the housework every day: always perfectly elegant, allow me the irony) since the commercial mentions – in both the opening and the ending – 92% of consumers, including both women and men, although men are not visually present. There is a sort of ambiguous contradiction concerning the female protagonists of the visual communication, since, although they are the protagonists of the visual message, they are not, however, mentioned either in the words or the text. Laura Corradi, in her book, Specchio delle sue brame (Mirror, mirror on his wall),122 entitled one of the chapters Per una sociologia del culo femminile nelle pubblicità italiane (For a sociology of women’s behind in Italian advertising), as a deliberate challenge against gender stereotypes and sexism. Images of this part of the female anatomy are broadcast throughout the day on Italian television. The male view is predominant and expects to see a behind that suits his taste. The male dictatorship over the female body generates a dangerous sense of inferiority, particularly in younger girls who, lacking confidence in themselves and the way they look, undergo strict diets or plastic surgery in order to look like the models featured in commercials, soap operas, reality shows and quiz shows. An interesting study, described by Paola Panarese as sadly topical, is Erving Goffman’s Gender Advertisements published in 1976.123 The

 121

Ibid:, 48. (Our translation) Laura Corradi, Specchio delle sue brame. Analisi socio-politica delle pubblicità: genere, classe, razza, età ed eterosessismo (Rome: Ediesse, 2012). 123 Ervin Goffman, Gender Advertisement (New York: Harper and Row, 1979); first edition in “Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication” , 3, 1976, 69-154. 122

The Changing World of Advertising

93

Canadian sociologist showed it was possible to identify a number of ways in which (printed) advertising portrays women in poses and attitudes designed to convey their social inferiority to men. He specifically focused on the so-called “genderisms”, i.e. “gender codes” that build and stabilise male and female identities in daily life and social representations. Goffman also argued that the differences between men and women are constructed every day in the workplace, at school and inside the family by means of a clear division between gender roles and through a ceremonial ritualisation that makes them recognisable and helps to reinforce them. According to the sociologist, gender representation in advertising is strongly unbalanced in favour of men. What Goffmann identified as a hierarchical function is expressed in the prevalence of commercials featuring both men and women which evoke, more or less explicitly, traditional gender divisions and hierarchies. The latter become clear when we see the inferior or ancillary position assigned to women in relation to men in these ads, and from the fact that they show men as taller than women (symbolising their higher status). In addition, men are represented in protective poses, which change depending on the kind of social tie (family, love, profession) they are depicted as having with the women in the ad. Numerous studies have investigated the issue. Among them, a recent one entitled Come la pubblicità racconta gli italiani (How advertising portrays Italians) (Art Directors Club Italiano et al., 2014) is particularly interesting for our analysis. The study set out to investigate whether the recommendations of a report to abolish sexist advertising adopted by the European Parliament in 2008 had been implemented in Italy six years later, and concluded that they had not. The research was based on the analysis of seven thousand TV and press campaigns conducted in December 2013. It analysed the way men and women were portrayed in advertising by identifying and defining a number of female and male narrative types. The analysis showed that advertising storytelling was mainly focused on the female body. 81.27% of the women featured in the adverts were described as “models”, “ornaments”, “available”, “dummies”, “pre-orgasmic” and “broken girls”. Similar male categories, by contrast, did not even account for twenty percent (19.95% to be precise). Apart from traditional typologies (mother, wife, housewife) depicting women as care givers devoted to housework, the so-called “ornaments” category deserve special attention for their significant presence in the advertising narrative (20.2%, compared to only 2.5% for male ornaments. In December 2013, some EUR16,781,362 were spent in portraying the former compared to EUR1,704,963 for the latter). The

94

II.

“broken girls” category was also significant, accounting for 4.01%, compared to 4.6% for “broken boys” who again attracted lower investments (EUR680,685 against EUR3,169,242 for the girls). The “ornament” women were those whose beauty was passively decorative. This is quite common in the media as illustrated by the many female assistants in various TV shows. “Broken girls” referred instead to a “neocubist” representation portraying only some parts of the female body (either only their behind, only their legs, etc.) to indulge men’s voyeurism. In other words, only a part of the female body is photographed or filmed in order to represent its totality. The narrative of the female universe emerging from this is therefore quite negative, emphasising the physical-emotional side of women and hardly ever their cognitive side. However, faced with this sad situation, it must be noted that at least there is growing awareness of this phenomenon, which is what triggered the research summarised above, as well as a desire to combat it, starting from the advertising world itself. On this point it is worth noting that, on the Art Directors Club website, Guastini quotes Gandhi’s saying: “Be the change that you want to see in the world124”. This, in line with Annamaria Testa’s reflection, which we will explore in due course, shows the will of at least part of the advertising world to oppose these common, trivial, and stereotypical portrayals. In fact, as Guastini points out,125 the mission statement in the charter of the Italian Art Directors Club sets out a vision that should drive all advertising communication, i.e. “To improve the standards of creativity in the field of communication and its associated disciplines. To raise awareness among the corporate and institutional communities and the public at large, in and outside Italy, of the importance of these standards”. He also quotes Bernbach’s words: “All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it.

 124

Translated from the Italian edition. “A non-profit association gathering the most important Italian creative people working in advertising, i.e. art directors, copywriters, graphic and web designers, and other professionals in the new media, graphic design for the publishing industry, packaging, photography, illustrations and communication in general. Its primary goal is to improve the standards of creativity in the field of communication and its associated disciplines and to raise awareness among the corporate and institutional communities and the public at large, in and outside Italy, of the importance of these standards”. http://www.comunicazioneitaliana.it/component/jumi/aziendadettagli?option=com_jumi&aid=10207 (Our translation) 125

The Changing World of Advertising

95

Or we can help lift it onto a higher level126”. We should also add that the study Come la pubblicità racconta gli italiani mentioned above (also in the terms of the “advertising texts” it analyses) clearly follows this trend in its mission to fight “trivial” narratives by raising awareness about them. These are small but significant signs of a genuine will to change, starting from those who create advertising messages. Annamaria Testa’s paper delivered at the UPA (Utenti Pubblicità Associati – Italian Advertisers Association) meeting held on 8 July, 2013, went in the same direction well before the publication of the above-mentioned study. On her “new and useful” portal, she stresses the importance of the event, and points out how unthinkable it would have been in the past for that association, which most companies belong to (i.e. the advertising investors who define the styles and contents of commercial communication on the different media), to reflect on female stereotypes in advertising during an institutional meeting. In her speech, Testa stressed that much has changed and is changing for a number of reasons, including Internet activism, dozens of opinion groups and strong stances like that of the Italian journalist and politician Laura Boldrini. This means that we are ready to foster a new imagery characterised by a more variegated female universe that does not just represent highly stereotypical female models, but also includes the entire female universe, which certainly includes housewives, but also businesswomen, physicians, lawyers, teachers, architects, and so on. These women have wrinkles. Their hair is not always perfect. They do not wear an Italian size 38. In fact, another interesting issue of growing social importance, which deserves more space for discussion than we are able to give it, is the role of the female body in fashion advertising. It is a body that swings between anorexia and bulimia. The sizes portrayed in these advertisements are either Italian 36 (XS) or 56 (XXXL), setting two extremely dangerous models since they are associated with serious illnesses. Clearly, we are not referring to people who wear these sizes “naturally”, but rather to the many women who wear them as a result of eating disorders. In the world of fashion, however, they are the only ones to be featured: intermediate sizes – from size 42 to 46/48, which apply to the majority of women – have practically disappeared from these advertisements. According to the “2014 Women’s Report” by Manageritalia, published in collaboration with Astra Ricerche and Media Village,127 several signs

 126

Translated from the Italian edition. Manageritalia, or the Italian National Federation for Managers, Middle Managers and Professionals in the Trade, Transportation, Tourism, Services and

127

96

II.

point to the fact that the family, and therefore society, are evolving towards closing the gender gap, among other things, in the relative influence of men and women over purchasing decisions. Women (chart 1) are still dominant when it comes to food purchases (72% in 2013), but their importance is growing in certain fields which were once the almost exclusive preserve of men. These include household appliances (52% in 2013 from 47% in 2009), furniture (57% in 2013, 27% in 2000), culture and entertainment (49% in 2013, 25% in 2009), the Internet (28% in 2013, 17% in 2009) and finance (22% in 2013, 18% in 2009). In short, a real evolution of the family seems to be taking place. The data set out above should encourage companies to interact with a market in which women are key players and whose value should be recognised. Companies should not merely express the value of women by holding a few one-off social initiatives. Rather, this value should drive their entire communication. We cannot consider a company’s social advertising initiative against women’s violence, for instance (something that many brands have done over the years), as a true act of CSR, if that same company’s commercial ads then represent women as objects, and not subjects, reduced to their physical attributes and devoid of any skills and personality. CSR should permeate corporate communication across the board and foster a new way of seeing and considering women. It should build a new imagery through a kind of storytelling that portrays a different country, tangibly contributing to spreading contemporary gender models. In actual fact, advertising has made many strides in recent times and, side by side with certain discriminatory communications, there are others offering different perspectives (albeit a minority, as highlighted by the survey Come la pubblicità racconta gli italiani mentioned above, which found that men are almost always portrayed at work and only rarely, in 4.32% of the analysed cases, depicted as fathers). For instance, the Allianz campaign shows a woman getting dressed to go to work in the morning while at the same time a man is shown taking their three children to the park. Then, in a different frame of the ad, a woman is seen getting around the city on her motorbike. This is a clear example of creativity breaking loose from the usual stereotypes and also serving the function of freeing men from the standard image connected to their gender. In fact, men too are trapped within a series of stereotypes depicting them as always fit, dynamic, with a wonderful career and a fixed idea in their mind, i.e. the woman’s body and not the woman as a whole. Hence the need to

 Advanced Tertiary sectors. Report in http://donne.manageritalia.it/wpcontent/uploads/2014/03/Rapporto-donne-Manageritalia-2014.pdf.

The Changing World of Advertising

97

show/exhibit their virility, quite often without any emotional involvement. The representation of women as sexually available objects thus provides a distorted and partial image of men as well. Think about the very famous Adbusters image portraying a young man looking inside his briefs with concern. The title is Obsession and it mimics Calvin Klein’s commercial for the perfume of the same name: here, Obsession parodies the idea of men’s obsession with their own virility. Another discriminating factor for women is their age. Age, and the related phenomenon of ageism, as Luisa Corradi points out, can be interpreted in terms of social difference and inequality. Although the advertising landscape, like that of other domains, is dominated by the myth of youth represented by men and women with perfect bodies, there are already perceivable signs that this sort of “advertising terrorism” is falling apart. As Corradi underlines, this kind of terrorism fosters the view that old age equates with ugliness, and traditionally features older people in Christmas advertising – with their grandchildren and a big panettone cake on the table – or in commercials advertising age-specific products, like dental bridges or stair lifts. In addition, many advertising campaigns for anti-aging products portray very young models using anti-cellulite or anti-wrinkle lotions even though they are clearly not affected by the issues that these products are designed to address. We should note, however, that the beauty industry also employs women who are not so young, but whose faces show no signs of aging. Giovanna Cosenza mentions some cases in point,128 like Jane Fonda for l’Oréal, and Sharon Stone for Dior who appeared in a 2010 campaign at the age of 53 with a wrinkle-free face looking like that of a twenty-yearold, raising the question we mentioned earlier of what the anti-age lotion is actually for. Giovanna Cosenza notes that even “when fashion and advertising tell us that old age is beautiful, they nonetheless stress that there is an inverse relationship between beauty and age, particularly for women. […] While youth is definitely not sufficient to make a face and a body beautiful, everyone still keeps considering it as a necessary component of beauty”.129 However, as we mentioned earlier, things seem to be heading towards a change. The worlds of beauty and fashion have started to portray women aged over 40 and even over 70 in their messages, like in the case of the eighty-year-old writer Joan Didion, brand ambassador for Céline, or the

 128

Giovanna Cosenza, “La donna Trans-Age”, in https://giovannacosenza.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/la-donna-trans-agegiovanna-cosenza.pdf (Our translation) 129 Ibid., 2. (Our translation)

98

II.

eccentric ninety-one-year-old designer Iris Apfel, celebrity endorser for MAC cosmetics and for the American costume jewellery line Yoox. We should note, however, that this is not happening because the myth of youth has been abandoned in favour of a new perception of old age. It is due, rather, to a sort of marketing “convenience”: as we mentioned earlier, referring to the book Ageless marketing by David B. Wolfe,130 we are living in a time of aging populations. The market therefore needs to target these consumers, who have more time and more money to spend. “In Italy, women aged over 50 account for 20% of the female population (there are 6 million women aged from 50 to 64). By 2030, 20% of the world population will be over 55 years old”.131 The fashion world also seems to have opened up to aged women; although, in fact, the industry has been a pioneer in abandoning the idea of targets segmented by age and adopted lifestyle segmentation some thirty years ago. Over time it has reduced the importance of biological age in the choice between different items of clothing, since age, especially in fashion, has become increasingly a matter of personal and arbitrary choice. In fact, the fashion houses’ interest in older audiences can be seen across their corporate strategies, from the inspiration behind their collections to the topics of their advertising campaigns. Alber Elbaz, for instance, chose Pat Cleveland, an icon of the runways in the ’70s, and Kirtsen Owen, aged 44, for Lanvin’s latest campaign. Again, Inès de La Fressange is now brand ambassador for Roger Vivier. Many models are currently walking down the catwalk even though they are over 40, something that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. However, their allure and charisma have not declined: Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and other such celebrities are as attractive as ever. Even so, fashion still prefers the adolescent body (a sort of denial of the passing of time which transforms our body), and several models are in fact known to struggle with anorexia. It should be stressed, however, that women are not alone in suffering from this form of gender discrimination. Gays and lesbians are equally affected by it in the name of the hetero-normality that Warnet – as Luisa

 130

David B. Wolfe and Robert E. Snyder, Ageless marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Heart and Mind of the New Consumer Majority (New York: Harcourt Publishing Company, 2005). 131 Elisabetta Muritti, “Non ho l’età. Oggi non contano gli anni, ma la scelta di uno stile. Perché a guidare moda e consumi è l’idea di freschezza. Sana, consapevole, uguale in ogni stagione della vita”, in DModa (La Repubblica), 2 September, 2014, http://d.repubblica.it/moda/2014/09/02/news/stile_donne_famose_star_et-2265373/ (Our translation)

The Changing World of Advertising

99

Corradi reminds us – “uses to describe those social rules founded on the institution of heterosexuality as a paramount value in social and sexual relationships. Hetero-normality is a sexualised and genderised binary system that neatly separates male from female as regards sex, gender and their roles in society. By presenting heterosexuality as normal, natural and dominant, hetero-normality strengthens its introjection and defines all divergences and oppositions as deviations”.132 The issue is actually very complex and covers many more issues than we have considered and will consider below. It would deserve a separate study for a much wider discussion. In this section, we will only outline how some important steps are being taken in this direction, even though most messages still retain old stereotypes, probably because this strategy is perceived as less risky by companies and advertisers alike. In their commercials, brands usually tell stories based on the heterosexual norm, fully expressed through the “traditional” family: “traditional families and heterosexual couples illustrate the ‘basic level of ordinary life’”.133 While hetero-normality is deeply rooted in advertising narratives, LGBT imagery is usually trapped in two possible representations: either normalisation or transgression.134 Normalisation can be seen in all those commercials where models only seemingly interact with each other. “Most fashion adverts featuring two women in a situation of not purely friendly intimacy use the lesbian characters as objects of sexual fantasy for heterosexual males: […] one of the two girls, or both, turn an eye towards the camera as if the goal of their relationship were not personal pleasure but the pleasure of a third person observing them”.135 Transgression, on the other hand, is expressed through the spectacularisation of LGBT relationships, “with marked references to sex and promiscuity,136 [so we could say that] what is being represented is not the LGBT experience itself but only the imagery of it, or, indeed, a stereotype”.137 In actual fact, although most messages still portray hetero-normal families and couples, a “different imagery” has been gaining ground which provides scope for “other” families and “other” couples. Ikea was one of

 132

Corradi, Specchio delle sue brame, p.127. (Our translation) Ibid., p.155. (Our translation) 134 LGBT stands for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals. 135 Alessandro Corsi, “Il dream market: realtà americana o illusione?”, in Omosapiens. Studi e ricerche sugli orientamenti sessuali, ed. Domenico Rizzo (Rome, Carocci, 2006), 184. (Our translation) 136 Corradi, Specchio delle sue brame, 156. (Our translation) 137 Ibid., 147. (Our translation) 133

100

II.

the first brands to recognise that hetero-normality could not be the exclusive code for the creation of messages and, back in 2011, featured a gay couple in the context of their daily life, as a normal couple shopping for furniture for their home. Over time, more and more companies have followed this trend, notably including Eataly and Althea (a company that sells ready-to-use sauces). In 2013, Althea’s commercials featured homosexual couples in the act of kissing (specifically two men kissing in an advert for amatriciana sauce and two women kissing to advertise a pesto sauce) in a normal everyday context: however, these commercials were only broadcast late in the evening, after 11 pm. These cases, however, are few and far between compared to the vast majority of narratives portraying heterosexual families and couples. It is not surprising therefore that Guido Barilla, the chairman and CEO of the company of the same name, made the following – albeit much criticised – statement on the radio show “La Zanzara” in 2013: “I would never produce a commercial with a homosexual family even though I support gay marriage. This is not because I don’t respect them, but because I have different views from them: ours is a standard family where the woman plays a key role. If people don’t like our adverts, they can just eat a different brand of pasta”. This ill-considered statement (which, however, reflects the actions of most, even non-Italian, food companies) damaged the value system which it took the company so many years to build, and which necessarily needs to be inclusive since it targets the mass market. Indeed, Barilla’s entire marketing communication is more focused on values than on the product, as illustrated by their claims: “Where there’s Barilla, there’s a home” or “Where there’s pasta, there’s love”. These claims actually appeal to the whole population and invoke universal values. Pasta is represented as a symbol of conviviality, socialisation, social ties and family affections, to build a system of values which all individuals can identify with, whether they belong to a traditional family or unmarried couples, gay couples, and so on. Guido Barilla’s ingenuous comment that anyone who disagrees with him can just eat a different brand of pasta is therefore surprising. He forgot that, by saying this, he was alienating not only homosexuals but also anyone who, while belonging to a “traditional” family, also believes that love must be free to express itself in all its forms, regardless of gender.

The Changing World of Advertising

101

Obviously, this statement backfired badly: the company was boycotted and was the subject of much negative buzz online,138 so that Guido Barilla was forced to make a public apology, while Barilla’s major competitors, like Misura, Buitoni and Garofalo, immediately made official statements on their websites in support of “different” families. The following year, Barilla adopted a totally different attitude and became a member of Parks, a non-profit association working under the patronage of the Ministry for Equal Opportunities.139 The association groups companies that “recognise the value that LGBT employees offer to the business and commit to providing them with equal opportunities and rights, respect and dignity in the workplace”.140 Ultimately, Barilla too has acknowledged, albeit with some delay, that the social and cultural scenario has changed. One final interesting example is the recent Findus “4 Salti” commercial for its “micro-waves and tasty surprises” range. The spot ad, which never shows the actors’ faces, tells the story of a mother visiting her son’s house. The latter organises a dinner to introduce her to the new Findus 4 Salti meals, which she loves the taste of and thinks is perfectly cooked in the microwave. Then, between one dish and another, the son finds the courage to tell his mother that he has another “surprise” in store for her. He reveals that his housemate, who is having dinner with them that evening, is also his partner. The woman reacts warmly to her son’s coming-out,141 and simply caresses his hand and says: “My dear, I thought so. And he’s also a great cook”. Consistently with the advertising claim, “Findus. The taste of life”, the brand narrates the love for good food around a table in a friendly atmosphere, while showing great openness towards all models of life and family that make up our contemporary society. This commercial is characterised by a “normalised” view of the couple. The choice of not showing any faces is maintained throughout the campaign, but it must be said that the absence of facial expressions deprives the scene of all its warmth and pathos, which, in the context of Italian society,142 where

 138

Within 24 hours, a Twitter campaign was launched to boycott Barilla with the hashtag #boicottabarilla, which attracted hundreds of messages criticising the company’s chairman. http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2013/09/26/barilla-mai-spotcon-omosessuali-bufera-web-tra-ironia-e-boicottaggio/724070/ 139 http://www.parksdiversity.eu/news/barilla-aderisce-a-parksbarilla-joins-parks/# 140 http://www.parksdiversity.eu/chi-siamo-3/ 141 The ad was actually first broadcast on 8 June, coinciding with the day of the 2014 Gay Pride celebrations. 142 The Ilga survey ranks Italy 32nd out of 49 European Countries as regards gay rights and the quality of life for gay people. This refers not only to their possibility

102

II.

people still have a hard time treating homosexual relationships like all other relationships, seems to confirm that the depicted relationship is not, in fact, like all others. We believe that there is still much to be done in terms of gender narratives. We have made some progress in that direction, yet, in view of the prevailing sexist and strongly stereotyped contents, this is not enough. Achieving change will take a team effort involving everyone: not only “insiders” working in communication, but all of society and the institutions that should represent it. It is unquestionable that advertising does not have a pedagogical role. It is just as unquestionable, however, that it should not show vulgar representations that reduce its value and make most people forget that this form of communication has its own dignity. It has the potential to create powerful stories that can stand the test of time, like the Apple commercial, which has now become legendary, and not only in advertising. The commercial was produced in 1984 to launch the new Macintosh computer. The main feature is a huge screen with a sort of Big Brother speaking from it (a direct reference to George Orwell’s apocalyptic novel 1984). An audience of people is passively looking at the screen until a girl – the embodiment of Apple – comes and destroys it with a big hammer. The scene is strongly metaphorical: the young woman personifies the Apple Company which, like her, wants to break the current rules in the name of a more “human” IT, in contrast to IBM, the market leader at the time, represented as the huge screen. Similarly, new gender narratives must disrupt the old and overused storytelling – just like the girl who destroys the huge screen – to give full scope to that originality and creativity which can and must be “new and useful”.

 of expressing their feelings freely by walking hand in hand on the street, for instance, but also of getting married, adopting children, not being discriminated in the workplace, and so on. http://ilga.org/

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alberoni, Francesco. Consumi e società. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1964. Antonioni, Stefania. Pubblicittà. Forme pubblicitarie del moderno. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2012. Art Directors Club Italiano, Nielsen Italia, Dipartimento di filosofia and comunicazione dell’Università di Bologna, “Come la pubblicità racconta gli italiani”, 2014 in http://www.datamediahub.it/wpcontent/uploads/2014/11/Come-la-pubblicit%C3%A0-racconta-gliitaliani.pdf Arvidsson, Adam, and Alessandro Delfanti, Introduzione ai media digitali. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2013. Barbella, Pasquale. Confessioni di una macchina per scrivere. La pubblicità tra visione di marca e visione del mondo. Naples: Liguori, 2008. Barni, Daniela. Trasmettere valori. Tre generazioni familiari a confronto. Milan: Unicopli, 2009. Bartoletti, Roberta and Pierluigi Musarò, eds. Mappare la campagna in città: immagini tra New York city e l’Italia. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2012. Baudrillard, Jean. L'Echange Symbolique et la Mort. Paris: Gallimard, 1976. —. Il sogno della merce. Milan: Lupetti, 1987. Bettetini, Gianfranco, and Armando Fumagalli, Quel che resta dei media. Idee per un’etica della comunicazione. Milan: Franco Angeli, 1998. Boccia Artieri, Giovanni. I media-mondo. Forme e linguaggi dell’esperienza contemporanea, Rome, Meltemi, 2004. —. Stati di connessione. Pubblici, cittadini e consumatori nella (Social) Network Society. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2012. Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation. Understanding New Media. Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2000. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993. Brioschi, Arianna, and Anna Uslenghi. White Space. Comunicazione non convenzionale. Milan: Egea, 2009. J. D Brown., K.M. Childers, C.S. Waszak. “Television and Adolescence Sexuality”, Journal of Adolescents Health Care 11 (1990): 62-70.

104

Bibliography

Bussi Parmiggiani, Giuseppina Elisa. L’arte bastarda. Analisi del linguaggio della pubblicità inglese. Bologna: Pàtron, 1988. Cacciaguerra, Francesco. Il secondo sangue. La circolazione dei valori nella famiglia. Troina: Oasi, 1990. Casetti, Francesco, ed. Tra me e te. Strategie di coinvolgimento dello spettatore nei programmi della neotelevisione. Turin: Rai-Eri,1988. Castells, Manuel. Internet Galaxy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. —. The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996. CENSIS, ed. I valori degli italiani. Dall’individualismo alla riscoperta delle relazioni. Marsilio: Venice, 2012. —. ed. Quarantottesimo rapporto sulla situazione sociale del Paese 2014. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2015. Centorrino, Marco, and Angelo Romeo. Sociologia dei media. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2012. Ce.R.T.A., “Oltre la tv. Piccolo schermo e convergenza”. In Storie e culture della televisione italiana, edited by Aldo Grasso, Milan: Mondadori, 2013. Codeluppi, Vanni. La società pubblicitaria. Consumi, mass media, ipermodernità. Genoa: Costa&Nolan, 1996. —. Iperpubblicità: come cambia la pubblicità italiana. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2000. —. Che cos’è la pubblicità. Rome: Carocci, 2001. —. Vivere in vetrina. Tutti divi. Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2009. —. Stanno uccidendo la tv. Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2011. —. Il ritorno del medium. Teorie e strumenti di comunicazione. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2011. —. L’era dello schermo. Convivere con l’invadenza mediatica. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2013. —. Storia della pubblicità italiana, Rome, Carocci, 2013. Coletti, Giampaolo, and Andrea Materia. Social TV. Guida alla nuova TV nell’era di Facebook e Twitter. Milan: Gruppo 24Ore, 2012. Colombo, Fausto, ed. I persuasori non occulti, Milan, Lupetti&Co, 1989. —. La cultura sottile. Milan: Bompiani, 1998. —. ed. Social Tv. Produzione, esperienza e valore nell’era digitale. Milan: Egea, 2015. Cornara, Guido. “On Bernbach: Bill today?”, in http://www.billmagazine.com/article/on-bernbach-bill-today/ Cornara Corradi, Laura. Specchio delle sue brame. Analisi socio-politica delle pubblicità: genere, classe, razza, età ed eterosessismo. Rome: Ediesse, 2012.

Advertising, Values and Social Change

105

Rizzo, Domenico, ed. Omosapiens. Studi e ricerche sugli orientamenti sessuali. Rome: Carocci, 2006. Cosenza, Giovanna. “La sottile differenza di Enel ‘Milioni di attimi’”, from the blog DIS.AMB.IGUANDO, http://giovannacosenza.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/la-sottiledifferenza-di-enel-milioni-di-attimi/. Cosenza, Giovanna. “La donna Trans-Age”. Ocula. Occio semiotico sui media 8, Agosto 2007, https://www.ocula.it/files/OCULA-8COSENZA-La-donna-trans-age.pdf Cova, Bernard. Marketing tribale. Legame, comunità, autenticità nel marketing mediterraneo. Milan: Il Sole24Ore, 2003. Dipollina, Antonio. “Italiani sempre più incollati alla tv: sale di 4 minuti la "dose" quotidiana”, La Repubblica, 28 September 2013. Donati, Paolo. Manuale di sociologia della famiglia. Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2006. Douglas, Mary, and Baron Isherwood. The World of Goods. New York: Basic Books, 1979. Durkheim, Emile. Les Règles de la Méthode Sociologique. Paris: Alcan, 1895. Fabris, Giampaolo. Societing. Il marketing nella società postmoderna. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2008. —. La pubblicità. Teorie e prassi. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 1997. —. “La pubblicità: il giudizio dei consumatori”. L’impresa. La pubblicità negli anni Settanta l2, XII anno, March-April 1970. —. Consumatore e mercato. Milan: Sperling&Kupfer, 1988. —. , ed. Sociologia delle comunicazioni di massa. Milan: Franco Angeli, 1992. —. La pubblicità, teorie e prassi. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 1997. —. Societing. Il marketing nella società postmoderna. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2008. —. . La società post-crescita. Consumi e stili di vita. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2010. Falabrino, Gianluigi. Pubblicità serva e padrona. Milan: Il Sole24 Ore, 1999. Ferarresi, Mauro. I linguaggi della marca. Breve storia, modelli, casi. Rome: Carocci, 2008. Ferraresi, Mauro, Ariela Mortara and Guingo Sylvan, eds. Manuale di teorie e tecniche della pubblicità. Rome: Carocci, 2010. Ferri, Katia. Spot Babilonia. Milan: Lupetti&Co, 1988. Fidler, Roger. Mediamorphosis.Understanding new Media. California: Pine Forge Press, 1997.

106

Bibliography

GABARDI E. (ed.), Campagne 2012. Ventotto storie di comunicazione testimoni dei nostri giorni, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2013. Galli, Giorgio, Virgilio Melchiorre, Franco Rositi and Fulvia Selingheri Pes. Modelli e valori nella pubblicità televisiva. Milan: Istituto Agostino Gemelli, 1969. Galoforo, Germana, Matteo Montebelli and Sabrina Pomodoro. Moda e pubblicità: stili e tendenze del fashion system. Rome: Carocci, 2005. Palfrey, John, and Urs Gasser. Born Digital. Connecting with a Global Generation of Digital Native. New York: Perseus Publishing, 2008. Giaccardi, Chiara. I luoghi del quotidiano. Pubblicità e costruzione della realtà sociale. Milan, FrancoAngeli: 1995. Giddens, Anthony and Phlip W. Sutton, Essential Concepts in Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009. Gili, Guido. La credibilità. Quando e perché la comunicazione ha successo. Rubbettino: Soveria Mannelli, 2005. Goffman, Ervin. Gender Advertisement. New York: Harper and Row, 1979; first edition in “Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication” , 3, 1976, 69-154 Gordon, Richard. A. Anorexia and Bulimia: Anatomy of a Social Epidemic. Oxford: Basil Balckwell, 1990. Grasso, Aldo, ed. La scatola nera della pubblicità. Il linguaggio, vol. I. Turin: Sipra, 2000. —. Prima lezione sulla televisione. Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2011. —. ed. Storie e culture della televisione italiana. Milan: Mondadori, 2013. —. “Gli italiani e le ore passate davanti alla tv, Rai1 resta la rete leader”, Corriere della Sera, 4 January, 2015. Grasso, Aldo, and Fausto Colombo, eds. Bla, bla, bla, parlare di televisione, (LinkMono). Milan: RTI, 2009. Grazioli, Elio. Arte e pubblicità. Milan: Bruno Mondatori, 2001. Guastini, Massimo. “Il vero e il falso nella pubblicità”, L’austerità creativa nella comunicazione di oggi, edited by Art Directors Club Italiano, Geneva-Milan: Skira, 2012. Holbrook, Morris. “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall. What’s Unfair in the Reflections on Advertising?”. Journal of Marketing 51 (July 1987): 95-103. Iabichino, Paolo. Invertising: ovvero , se la pubblicità cambia il suo senso di marcia. Milan: Guerini e Associati, 2009. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide. New York and London: New York University Press, 2006.

Advertising, Values and Social Change

107

Jenkins, Henry, Sam Ford and Joshua Green. Spreadable media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2013. Kotler, Philip, and Kevin Lane Keller, A Framework for Marketing Management. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2012. Kotler, Philip, Hermawan Kartajaya and Iwan Setiawan. Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to Human Beings (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, 2010. Lazarsfeld, Paul F. and Robert K. Merton, “Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action”. Mass Communications, ed. Wilbur Schramm (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1949). Lombardi, Marco. La creatività in pubblicità. Manuale di linguaggio multimediale: dai mezzi classici al digitale. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2010. Lombardi, Marco. La strategia in pubblicità. Manuale di tecnica multimediale: dai media classici al digitale. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2010. Luhmann, Niklas. Soziale Systeme: Grundriss einer allgemeinen Theorie, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1984. Maggio, Marco. In principio fu la pubblicità. Critica della ragione pubblicitaria. Padua: Il Prato, 2014. McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. London: Routledge, 1964. Meletti, Jenner. “La comune dei contadini di città, “Addio spesa al supermercato, adesso produciamo noi”, La Repubblica, 9 March 2014. Morcellini, Mario. Passaggio al futuro. Formazione e socializzazione fra vecchi e nuovi media. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2000. Morcellini, Mario, and Barbara Mazza, ed. Oltre l’Individualismo. Comunicazione, nuovi diritti e capitale sociale. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2008. Muritti, Elisabetta. “Non ho l’età. Oggi non contano gli anni, ma la scelta di uno stile. Perché a guidare moda e consumi è l’idea di freschezza. Sana, consapevole, uguale in ogni stagione della vita”, DModa (La Repubblica), 2 September, 2014, http://d.repubblica.it/moda/2014/09/02/news/stile_donne_famose_star_ et-2265373/ Musso, Patrizia. “Advertainment. La comunicazione pubblicitaria alle soglie del Duemila”. Comunicazioni Sociali, no 2, XXI, Vita e Pensiero (April-June 1999). Musso, Patrizia, ed. Brand Reloading. Nuove strategie per comunicare, rappresentare e raccontare la marca. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2011.

108

Bibliography

Musso, Patrizia. Slow Brand. La gestione socio-economica della marca contemporanea. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2013. —. “Il testimonial, garante della pubblicità”, in Storie e culture della televisione, ed. Aldo Grasso. Milan: Mondadori, 2013. Nicotera, Francesca. Il ruolo dei testimonial nella pubblicità di oggi: un’indagine qualitativa. Campobasso: Regia Edizioni, 2015. Packard, Vance. The Hidden Persuaders. New York: D. McKay Co., 1957. Paltrinieri, Roberta. Il consumo come linguaggio. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 1998. —. Consumi e globalizzazione. Rome: Carocci, 2004. Panarese, Paola. “La donna usata dalla pubblicità. Una ricerca sugli spot tv italiani”, in http://www.aiart.org/public/web/documenti/La_donna_usata_dalla_pu bblicit%C3%A0Panarese.pdf Parsons, Talcott. “Values, Motives, and Systems of Action”, in Toward a General Theory of Action, eds. Talcott Parsons and Edward A. Shils (Cambridge, Mass: Harward University Press, 1951), 45-275. Pasquali, Francesca. I nuovi media. Tecnologie e discorsi sociali. Rome: Carocci, 2005. Petrini, Carlo. Slow Food Revolution. Da Arcigola a Terra Madre. Una nuova cultura del cibo e della vita. Milan: Rizzoli, 2005. Hartshorne, Charles, Paul Weiss and Arthur W. Burks, ed. The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vol. VIII. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931-1966. Pitteri, Daniele. La pubblicità in Italia. Dal dopoguerra a oggi. RomeBari: Laterza, 2002. —. ed. Fabbriche del desiderio: manuale delle tecniche e delle suggestioni della pubblicità. Rome: Luca Sossella editore, 2000. Polesana, Maria Angela. Communication mix. Come comunica l’impresa. Milan: Egea, 2007. —. La pubblicità intelligente: l’uso dell’ironia in pubblicità. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2005. Pollay, Richard W. “The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising”, Journal of Marketing 18 (April 1986): 18-36. Pollini, Gabriele. “La sociologia dei valori: teoria e analisi”, in L’Italia nell’Europa: i valori tra persistenze e trasformazioni, edited by Gabriele Pollini, Albertina Pretto and Giancarlo Rovati. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2012.

Advertising, Values and Social Change

109

Propp, Vladimir. Morphology of the Folktale. American Floklore Society and Indiana University, 1968. Priulla, Graziella. Vendere onnipotenza. Metafore pubblicitarie, tecnologie, miti del XXI secolo. Bari: Dedalo, 2002. Puggelli, Francesca Romana. L’occulto del linguaggio. Psicologia della pubblicità. Milan: Franco Angeli, 2000. Rifkin, Jeremy. The Age of Access: the New Culture of Hypercapitalism. Where All of Life is a Paid for Experience. London: Penguin, 2000. Righetti, Paola. La gazza ladra. Una visione socio semiotica della pubblicità. Milan: Lupetti&Co, 1993. Rivoltella, Cesare P. Screen generation. Gli adolescenti e le prospettive dell’educazione nell’età dei media digitali. Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 2006. Rizzo, Andrea. Marketing e Employer Branding: il caso di Mc Donald’s per l’Italia, in http://www.brandforum.it/papers/1106/marketing-eemployer-branding-il-caso-di-mc-donald-s-per-l-italia Rocher, Guy. Introduzione alla sociologia generale. L’azione, l’organizzazione sociale e il cambiamento sociale. Gallarate: Sugarco Edizioni, 1992. Rodari, Paolo. “La battaglia di Francesco per la parità delle donne. Scandaloso pagarle meno”, La Repubblica, 30 April, 2015. Scaglioni, Massimo, and Anna Sfardini. MultiTv. L'esperienza televisiva nell'età della convergenza. Rome: Carocci, 2008. Schwartz, Shalom H., and Wolfgang Bilsky. “Toward a Psychological Structure of Human Values”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53 (1987): 550-562. —. “Toward a Theory of the Universal Content and Structure of Values: Extensions and Cross-cultural Replications”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58 (1990): 878-891. Schwartz, Shalom H. “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries”, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 25 (1992), 1-65. Setiffi, Francesca. La mistica della merce, relazioni, oggetti e costruzione della realtà sociale. Verona: QuiEdit, 2009. Shannon, Claude E., and Warren Weaver. The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1949. Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York: Penguin, 2007. Testa, Annamaria. La trama lucente. Che cos’è la creatività, perché ci appartiene, come funziona. Milan: Rizzoli, 2010.

110

Bibliography

Testa, Annamaria. “Superare gli stereotipi pubblicitari sulle donne (e sugli uomini)”, in http://nuovoeutile.it/stereotipi-pubblicitari-sulle-donne/ Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1980. Vecchia, Marco. Hapù. Manuale di tecnica della comunicazione pubblicitaria. Milan: Lupetti, 2003. Volli, Ugo. Semiotica della pubblicità. Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2005. Weber, Max. Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftlehre. Tübingen: Verlag Mohr, 1922. Wolfe, David B. and Robert E. Snyder, Ageless marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Heart and Mind of the New Consumer Majority. New York: Harcourt Publishing Company, 2005. Zanacchi, Adriano. Pubblicità: effetti collaterali. Riflessioni sulle conseguenze “involontarie” della pubblicità. Rome: Editori Riuniti, 2004.