Utopian Images and Narratives in Advertising Dreams for Sale

by Manca, Luigi; Manca, Alessandra; Pieper, Gail W.; Kloos, John; Kauth, Jean-Marie; Amir, Zubair S.; Scarlato, William; Birks, Chris; Lewis, Jonathan F.; Catterson, Paul A.; Salyer, Margaret; Piga, Maria Lucia; Gaddis, Vincent; Montero, Joaquin; Craig, Robe

• ISBN13: 9780739173268
• ISBN10: 073917326X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-10
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

The study of advertising and its treatment of utopian appeal enhance our understanding of consumer culture. By looking into the advertising page, we also look into consumers' desires and the process by which these desires are reshaped and rechanneled through images and narratives created solely for the purpose of making a sale. Utopian Images and Narratives in Advertising: Dreams for Sale, edited by Luigi Manca, Alessandra Manca, and Gail W. Pieper, is a collection of essays which gather a host of academicians from a wide variety of disciplines including sociology, psychology, literature, fine arts, history, religious studies, communication, and media studies. Through their expansive disciplinary expertise, the contributors bring unique insights to the analysis of the advertising page. The collection's cross-disciplinary investigation also examines gender images and narratives which, in the advertising page, are frequently associated with utopian fantasies. The analyses offered in Utopian Images and Narratives in Advertising will appeal to any scholar or student engaged in mass media, communication, and the effect of advertising and consumerism on individuals and cultures.

Author Biography

Luigi Manca is professor of communication arts at Benedictine University. Alessandra Manca is lecturer at Benedictine University. Gail W. Pieper is coordinator of writing and editing at Argonne National Laboratory.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Probing Madison Avenue's Utopian Images and Narratives	p. 1
The Portrayal of Utopian Spaces in Magazine Advertisements	p. 7
Water, the All-Purpose Utopia	p. 31
Women and Children in a Fragile Paradise	p. 47
Welcome (Back) to the Brotherhood: Nostalgia, Masculinity, and the Selling of the Mitchum Man	p. 69
Absolute Utopia: Advertising the American Dream "In an Absolut World"	p. 79
Utopia on the Common Ground: Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties	p. 89
Utopian Images and Gender in Web-Based Advertisements: A View from the Starting Line	p. 99
Jungian Archetypes in Advertising Imagery	p. 111
Selling the Good Old Days: Images of Community Life in Contemporary American Advertising	p. 141
Masculine and Feminine Images in Italian Magazine Advertising	p. 153
Black Face-White Utopia: Reflections on African-Americans, Utopia, and Advertising	p. 193
Utopian Scenarios in Hispanic Advertisements: People en Español	p. 213
Advertising, Neoliberalism, and the Financial Collapse of 2008	p. 229
Living in Worlds We'd Like to Live In: Capitalist Utopias in an Age of Counterfactuality	p. 251
The Four Women of the Apocalypse: Utopia or Dystopia?	p. 261
Index	p. 283
About the Contributors	p. 287
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