Advertisements whether in print, TV or social media are all
about creating and sustaining Reference
Groups that Robert Merton pertinently
outlined for us students of sociology. When they show on screen a fair lady or man, a housewife speeding
through her household chores due to a better dish wash or a man gifting his wife a diamond or gold
necklace, it is all about creating that positive orientation into a Reference group of being the Ideal Type woman, housewife or husband.
Added to that is the Weberian Charismatic Authority in play
with sports celebrities and film stars who have millions of fans and followers.
If someone whom you worship drinks a particular brand, wears a particular
clothing line or drives a said car then you also must have it. That’s the reference group of your mind and the tune
of the Charismatic pied piper.
It is
thus safe to say advertisements are thus specialists in role allocation. They achieve this by reinforcing the value system of society defining the character sketch of the Ideal housewife, lover, husband,
employee, women, man and the list is endless and allocating the virtues associated.
In a way, they feed into the common sense and
stereotypes of society that ‘white is beauty’ or ‘Gold symbolizes
prosperity and social status’ or ‘a
woman must be the one washing clothes’ (yet to come across an ad in which men
wash clothes). Ads are thus a
reflection of the culture angle pointed
out by Margret Mead and Ann Oakley
in the nature-culture debate on gender
hierarchy where it becomes clear cultural values perpetuate male domination
of women in society. This role allocation as a whole becomes status quoist
encouraging system of social
stratification in place.
This is
straight of the Parsonian and Davis and
Moore functional theory of stratification. Advertisements are a mere reflection of social rank and order
that exist in society and the value
consensus that bind this rank. Advertisements reinforce this value consensus, social order and thus ensure the sustenance of stratification. Most of
them being punctuated with a feel good ending (a girl smiling after becoming
fair or the housewife content at clean dress or plates) drive home their point
that social stratification in effect
becomes functional for unit of family and
society as a whole.
That being said,
advertisements are ironically change
oriented also albeit a reformative rather
than revolutionary change. The state
itself utilizes advertisements to change social attitudes, behaviours and
social stratification systems that exist. The ads advocating Sanitation facilities, its linkage with gender and the use of charismatic
authorities like Vidya Balan and Akshay Kumar are a case in point. Who can
forget the tag line ‘Jaago Grahak Jago’ that
the Indian state has utilized to drive up consumer awareness among citizens and
renewed trust in consumer-seller relations. .
The
state-ad linkage goes one step further when ads also feed on the idea of a
nation. Benedict Anderson gave the
concept of how nations are imagined
communities. Advertisements seek to establish this imagined community as those who utilize their goods or services. That is how Amul
sells as the ‘Taste of India’ and Hero Honda is ‘Desh ki Dhadkan’. It is
the unity and feeling of oneness among us as nation that becomes the selling
point for businesses at the same time reinforcing nationalist feeling among
citizens and consumers.
Marxian
and Neo-marxian thinkers would place Ads a part of super structure to a great extent determined by the base structure- the ruling class and
its ideas. The Ads on luxury cars,
perfumes, champagnes that ooze elitism
are a direct hit on the dominant class
values that they perpetuate and the elite
hierarchy that they seek to maintain. At the end of the day, it is about haves and have-nots, the haves’ social status created, maintained
and reinforced through Ads and the desire for material pleasure directly
correlated with social status. The haves become the Positive Reference Groups for the have-nots inducing false class
consciousness suppressing revolution and serving as the Ideological State Apparatus for capitalist dominance.
Whatever said and done, Ads build and thrive on
social relationships, patterns and networks. The very foundation of
economics thus curiously lies in society (if one were to turn Marxian thought
on its head). The Cadbury Diary Milk Ad
of ‘Kiss Me’, The Hutch Ad of ‘You and I in this beautiful world’ and the
Havells Ad featuring the mother and child all show that advertisements rest
on the foundation of relationships- fictive, familial or conjugal. This truly
must be the Comteian moment for the
‘Queen of All Sciences’.
(Disclaimer: The names
of companies and celebrities used here are purely for educational, academic and
non-commercial purposes. The author does
not intend to advocate any brand
or to defame or criticize any company
for its advertisements. The examples used are purely for illustration purposes
and no damage is intended)
