The Performativity of Value by Sherlock Steve;

Author:Sherlock, Steve;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

Advertising and the Promise of Value

As discussed above, Derrida (1997; 1981) has argued that in Western philosophy, speech has been regarded as an original, authentic mode of communication, while writing has been regarded as a mere “supplement.” For Derrida, this “‘logic of supplementarity’” relegates the lesser term in a dichotomy to an auxiliary position (Norris 1987, 34). The supplement, like writing, is regarded as inferior, extra, and indeed a threat to the primary term. One term is thus established in a structure of dominance as a “primary presence,” through the abjection of the second. Derrida’s project of deconstruction was to show, however, that the subordinate, second term in a hierarchy was in fact necessary for the construction and maintenance of the identity of the dominant term all along. The supplement is shown to be crucial in the very constitution of the “original,” and not simply an after-the-fact “add-on.” Yet Derrida does not invert the hierarchy, but rather shows the mutual interdependence of the differential terms (Gasché 1986, 210).

Advertising, like retrospective accounts of events, is usually considered as supplemental to the more valuable entertainment commodity. For those who cannot afford advertising-free “sights”—for example, by purchasing a premium television channel or a recording technology designed to skip ads—advertising language must be endured as a distraction from the “language-commodity” itself. In the case of the Internet, “popup” ads, like television or radio commercials, are seen to contaminate the purity of the entertainment site/cite. The citational practices involving the experience of linguistic commodities are thus perceived to be devalued by advertising.

In The Codes of Advertising (1987), however, Sut Jhally has shown how advertising cannot be regarded as merely supplemental to a commodity’s value (see also Haug 1986; Culler 1981). His work shows that in the case of television, advertising and programming cannot be neatly separated, and sometimes the supplemental advertising even becomes the commodity or program. This ambiguity between advertising and commodity continues today; for example, some Internet websites are constructed as mostly containing links to other websites. In other words, the website “commodity” itself is comprised of links which function as advertisements for other “cites” by the traveling subject. In fact, most websites, as part of their own content, contain links to other sites/sights—the link functioning to graft the two web contexts together.

While considered only a “supplement,” advertising is in fact integral to the meaning and value of the commodity, as well as to the interpellation of the subject who experiences this value—and in some cases, the advertising becomes a commodity itself. In short, the strict distinction between ad and commodity becomes untenable, especially when considering that commodities can also be advertisements for, or signs of, themselves (see Culler 1981, 127; 137; see also MacCannell 1976, 22). It is not altogether clear whether subjects cite the advertising, the commodity, or both in their utterances.

While in the U.S. cultural economy value is said to be present in commodities, the advertising which precedes the cultural commodity also affects its meaning and value. As mentioned earlier,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.