Technology has changed our lives forever, the question
proposed today, is the globalization of new media for better or for worse?
Exploring how society has evolved with new technology and how even though there
are different stances on the benefits of technology, it is now with no doubt a
corner stone of our lives. Looking particularly at the progression of Nike
advertising and commenting on the implications new media brings to all our
everyday lives.
Using John Berger to analyse
advertising, he makes his points clearly and outlines the industry rules. Berger
posses the argument that all adverts are images that are selling the audience
an alternative life. Within our media filled lifestyle, publicity works are the
process of making attraction due to the birth of envy. These adverts always
show a life of glamour engraving this into our brains as an apparitional goal. ‘Glamour
is for everyone who believes they can be glamorous or perhaps for everybody who
finds they cannot afford not to be glamorous. Now the model has taken the place
of the Goddess.’ (John Berger:1977)
Advertising prays on the insecure
and targeted them as a way of securing their self-worth in products. It
succeeds by changing people’s feelings, in order to make a need for the
product. Making people feel inadequate is an unfailing method
used to promote products. Due to the celebrity and publicity world and we live
in, people secure their interests in the latest and greatest gadgets and
objects to be owned. Peer pressure
is a massive part of the need people feel to own the best of the best. This
fuels people’s needs of always wanting to be the best and owning the newest and
glamorous objects. Technology is at the front of this battle between human
nature and machines.
By looking at Nike over the years, advertising, categorising and
branding has become more aggressive. Rather than focusing on the products it
plays with the desires and wants of the consumer, promising an almost
unobtainable lifestyle.
The theorist Foucault believes that power is not a
thing or a capacity people have, it is a relationship. Using Nike as a case
study, the consumer allows themselves to be categorised and voluntarily labeled
through Nike’s advertising methods. By displaying the Nike logo consumers are automatically
branding themselves, allowing others to subjectify them based on the collective
images and opinions associated with Nike. Foucault would describe us today as
docile bodies, humans constantly keeping themselves in positions of ruling. “That the techniques of discipline and “gentle punishment”
have crossed the threshold from work to play show how pervasive they have
become within modern western societies” (Danaher:unknown)
Another great example of
design with Foucault’s view in mind is the recent 3-part mini-series written by
Charlie Brooker, focusing into a collective of situations provoking unease
about our modern way of life. The episodes all contain new media: facebook,
twitter, television and even possible future technologies, that challenges the
audience to question their relationships with each technology by showing the
advantages and disadvantages in a dramatic Science fiction twist, creating film
narrative that poses the serious question, ‘what if?’
"I'm not pessimistic about technology, nor am
I hopelessly optimistic. I'd much rather live in this time now than in medieval
time in a smock eating a turnip, while sitting on a tuff it, or whatever they
used to do, in the muddy tin days, but erm, on the other hand it's
slightly alarming not knowing where things are going."
(Charlie Brooker:2011)
Throughout the whole series the gadgets seem too
familiar and the voyeurism far too credible, creating a chill about the society
we exist in. Humans are just
existing, constantly reaching for fame and fortune almost always out of their
own grasp. The program foreshadows the reality of today buying into the escapism
that advertising and consumerism others.
Lets begin with one of Nike’s first ad campaigns ‘There is no finish line’. 1976. Nike was founded in the year 1964 using the name ‘Blue Ribbon Sports’ and later changed its name to Nike in 1978. As the worlds leading supplier of sports goods and appeal, recognized by a small tick named the swoosh logo we will study how the brand has evolved throughout time.
With the words: ‘Sooner or later the
serious runner goes through a special, very personal experience that is known
to most people. Some call it euphoria. Others say it’s a new kind of mystical
experience that propels you into an elevated state of consciousnesses. A flash
of joy. A sense of floating as you run. The experience is unique to each of us,
but when it happens you break through a barrier that separates you from casual
runners. Forever. And from that point on, there is no finish line. You run for
your life. You begin to be addicted to what running gives you. We at Nike
understand that feeling. There is no finish line for us either, We will never
stop trying to excel to produce running shoes that are better and better every
year. Beating the competition is relatively easy. But beating yourself is a
never ending commitment.’
Many posters were released to advertise
the Nike brand in this year, but this specific advertisement contains a story
hooking the audience. The image is the primary focus immediately capturing the
viewer’s attention. Immediately we can see Nike is relating its product to
nature, connoting the purchase of these shoes will give you freedom, fresh-air,
countryside and a new lease of life. ‘There is no finish line’ speaks for it
self and is obviously linked to running and Nikes attempt to focus on freedom,
but they go one step further by introducing a large paragraph of text. A risky
move by hoping the audience is captivated enough to read the small print, but
from this we understand that they are playing on the feelings of belonging,
talking as an elitist club, as though running with Nike gives you a better
sense of achievement and individual pleasure. Nike understands the freedom you
want and can provide the means to do so. Completely backing up Williamsons
opinion ‘All
the enjoyment we can really have from advertisements is the anticipation of
consumption, since this is all the advertisements can materially bring us.’ (Judith
Williamson:1978). The advert is
simple enough to show the product in use (even though we cannot actually see
it) and sell the anticipation of being in the runner’s shoes.
Making people feel inadequate is an
unfailing method used to promote products. Due to the celebrity and publicity
world and we live in, people secure their interests in the latest and greatest
gadgets and objects to be owned.
Peer pressure is a massive part of the need people feel to own the best
of the best. This fuels people’s needs of always wanting to be the best and
owning the newest and glamorous objects. Technology is at the front of this
battle between human nature and machines.
Nike sponsored this video in the same campaign, as
‘There is no finish line’, it shows Joan Benoit-Samuelson one of the most
dominating performance ever seen at the Olympic Games at 53 year old. She won the woman Marathon with a
massive fifteen-minute gap. The documentary focuses on the average woman, not
the athlete she is described as a ‘groundbreaker, never lingering as a victory,
‘she has 0 genetic gifts, she’s not 5’6 5’7 5’8 5’9, she doesn’t have a fluid
stride’ featuring her husband to add a realism to her story. She seems like a
humble person, Nike was surrounding itself around these ideals of supporting
the underdog, showing a unlikely winner winning, inspiring the average person
creating the feeling that they can too. The video itself is a great advertising
ploy to reach audiences that have an interest in Joan, probably an audience
that would not take interest in Nikes’ paper advertisements.
As time passed Nike became a
recognizable brand and was able to rely on it’s swoosh logo to identify itself,
the logo started to see the brand because it had so much desire due to its
popular status. Nike became a commodity runners had to be associated with.
Starting with Joan Benoit-Samuelson
(discussed above) Nike was no longer a faceless brand. It became well known for
sponsoring successful of the time athletes, this became Nikes prerogative.
In 1989 the Bo Jackson ad was released just after
the Just Do It’ campaign, it was easy to see Nike was accustom to grit
determination and passion, adding humor. The brand became linked to its tag
line making Nike ‘cool’ and creating sneakers as a fashion statement, not just
a running shoe. ‘We feel a need to belong, to have a social ‘place”. (Judith Williamson:1978)
The audience clings to the idea that they will be ‘cool’ if they buy into the product;
being associated with success without the effort is what Nike is truly selling.
The advert above is
advertising a shoe, with comical aspects showing Jackson mastering 5 different
sports, creating the ideal that anything is possible, with the twist of humor
using the title ‘Jackson 5’ (relating to the Jackson family’).
A great example of modern technology in advertising
is 2010’s largest viral advertisement of Nike, ‘Write your own Future’.
The change from Nikes beginning till now is
astronomical, from creating a brand about sport and exercise originally
advertising freedom in nature, to progress into advertising social status, fame
and glory is a massive gap. The video was filmed by Alejandro G Inarritu, who
directed fims: 21 Grams and Babel, is no doubt high budget. It was first aired
on television a month before the world cup in South Africa. It focuses on what
footballers think when they are in play, will they succeed and bring glory for
themselves and their country or will they devastate their reputations? It
focuses on the aura of celebrities, it seems over the last decade Nike have
focused on the feeling of superiority in social status and money, steering away
from advertisements about the product itself and counting on the brand to carry
it’s product.
The video is a excellent mix of sport at topical to
the world cup showing the serious side of the weight on each players shoulders,
while still adding humor. Still it posses the question is this successful
because of its content, or the way it is delivered?
‘In advertisements the products are
always unconsumed, waiting. We are led to desire an imaginary unity with the
subject who will enjoy, and this also creates a imaginary unity between our
time and the projected future”
(Williamson Judith:1978)
Nike is a global company and already top of its
market, it seems their adverts now show off their status and net worth. As the
top viewed video on Youtube it appeals to a massive audience with over
1.120,000 views. Showing the players of the England football teams being
knighted, made into massive statues, even having children named after them
gives a unreachable ridiculous goal the audience and even suggesting Nike helps
you get there is insane.
With practice, dedication and of course the Nike
brand, the individual footballers are treated to knighthood, worshipped by
whole countries and pushed towards the utmost stratospheres of fame but even
the suggestion that Nike has responsibility in this outcome is preposterous.
In conclusion, advertising is constantly influencing your life, weather you realise or not. The idealistic are placed on pedestals and generally adverts work on the basis of envy and wanting to have that “perfect” lifestyle and look, in Nike’s case the famous athletics. New media has become a massive part of this pushing advertising and design into new technology forcing itself on new audiences that otherwise would never have been reached. This if anything is a massive bonus for brands as they can now capitalise on a global audience. Nike over the years has created an instantly desirable group, which anyone can join if they buy into the ideology and products. Their campaigns are easily identifiable by the swoosh which is recognised globally and holds the adverts together.
In conclusion, advertising is constantly influencing your life, weather you realise or not. The idealistic are placed on pedestals and generally adverts work on the basis of envy and wanting to have that “perfect” lifestyle and look, in Nike’s case the famous athletics. New media has become a massive part of this pushing advertising and design into new technology forcing itself on new audiences that otherwise would never have been reached. This if anything is a massive bonus for brands as they can now capitalise on a global audience. Nike over the years has created an instantly desirable group, which anyone can join if they buy into the ideology and products. Their campaigns are easily identifiable by the swoosh which is recognised globally and holds the adverts together.
Although I have mentioned a lot of
underlying issues with new media, it does bring a mass number of employment and
people buying these products keeps our economy a-float. Yes this has changed
advertising and made it inescapable and some people live by Berger’s theories
of self worth in products. Also without technology I really can’t see a world
without it, the individual would be more secluded and the world would be a lot
bigger place. We can argue its worth in the world or why it has changed our way
of living and ideals, but the fact of the matter is, without technology we
would not be able to reach half as many people as we can today. Now in today’s
climate humans have become so immune to it that it is easy to blend into the
background and forget about. The question is, will technology be mankind’s
undoing or it’s saving grace? Will it manage to tear us apart as a commutative
planet, or will it continue to make our knowledge about life and the universe
grow?
Bilbliography:
Berger John (1977), Ways Of Seeing,
British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books Publishers, 3.48 minutes part 1
Danaher (2000), Schirato & Webb 2000
Brooker,
Charlie (2010), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr9Y03i4iPw&feature=player_embedded,
2.32-2.56 minutes
Williamson,
Judith (1978) , Decoding Advertisements - Ideology and Meaning in
Advertiements. Marion Boyars Publishers. Pg161, lines 28-30
Williamson, Judith (1978)
, Decoding Advertisements - Ideology and Meaning in Advertiements. Marion
Boyars Publishers. Pg13
Williamson, Judith (1978)
, Decoding Advertisements - Ideology and Meaning in Advertiements. Marion
Boyars Publishers. Pg161, lines 6-13.
Other Sources:
Camuffo, Georgio & Mura, Maddalena
Dalla (2011), Graphic Design Worlds / Words, La Triennale Di Milano.
Agel, Jerome (1968), Global War and
Peace in the Village, Marshall Mcluhan Quentin Fiore (Hardwired).
Thomas, Julia (2000), Reading Images,
Palgrave.
Cranmer, John & Zappaterra, Yolanda
(2003) With a introductory essay by Steven Heller, Conscientious Objectives:
Designing for an Ethical Message, RotoVision SA.
Lister, Martin, Dovey, Jon, Giddings,
Seth, Grant, Iaian & Kelly, Kieran (2003), New Media, A critical
introduction second edition.
Image sources:
Online sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/sportvideo/footballvideo/7748434/Nikes-Write-the-future-advert.html
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