Archive for November 19, 2008

Olivero Toscani – United Colors of Benetton

{ November 19, 2008 @ 6:05 pm } · { Spectacle }
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Breast Feeding

Breast Feeding

Olivero Toscani, is an Italian photographer for ‘United Colors of Benetton’. His photography is very controversial, the photo’s seen here; ‘Breast Feeding’ 1989, ‘Guisy’ 1990, and ‘Portraits’ 1993 created debate amongst critics. The spectacle here is non-conformity, the confidence to be adventurous.

Portraits

Portraits

Luciano Benetton’s advertising philosophy is “communication should be commissioned from outside the company, but conceived from within its heart”. These adverts are non-related images with their single green brand logo as the only caption, but they hold incredible power as an image, each advert has a Benetton campaign behind it.

Guisy

Guisy

Advertising as a Spectacle

{ November 19, 2008 @ 5:51 pm } · { Spectacle, Spectacle Idea Development }
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The Original Propaganda

The Original Propaganda

This World War II recruitment poster is an excellent example of propaganda and advertising as a spectacle. The power this advert holds is legendary. Lord Kitchener’s finger points directly at the viewer (almost like an optical illusion) forcing them to communicate with it. In this instance power is the spectacle, the blatant propaganda used here dominates over the image.

This NHS infomercial uses the power of spectacle to shock the audience into drinking responsibly. The almost disturbing image of a young woman soberly being drunk



The following is cited from the 4th edition of Gill Branston and Roy Stafford’s ‘The Medis Student’s Book’ 9: Advertising and Branding. Advertising: Debates and Histories:

  • Advertising is arguably the most powerful and pervasive form of propaganda in the history of the planet
  • The media’s use of glamorous body images, leads to huge degrees of conformity, especially around already powerful identities involving the ‘approved versions‘ of appearance, gendered behaviour and how differences in class, ethinicity, disability and age are imagined.
  • It brain washes its audience, not with subliminal messages, but with deceptive promises and appeals designed to promote consumerism, materialism, waste, hedonism (pleasure seeking) and envy.
  • To advertise originally meant ‘to draw attention to something’. *SPECTACLE*