Analytical Application #1: YAYAYAYAYAY!!
The ruling class is described as “[T]he class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production” (1). This class are the dominant minds that are behind the ideologies that are placed within society to support the means of the ruling class at the expense of the proletariat. The ruling class both controls the material production of cultural products, but also “mental production.” By using the term mental production, I am referencing the power that the ruling class has by taking on the role of the “thinkers” within society. These so-called-thinkers are able to reinforce the ruling ideas that are presented as universal truths.
Keeping this in mind, while viewing the different ads, I thought that the banned ad from Iceland best reflected this term. The harvesting and production of palm oil has led to deforestation and the killings of many wildlife in these habitats. To halt the further production of palm oil products, Iceland Foods came out with an advertisement to educate consumers about the devastation. In response, Iceland had banned this advert on television to ensure that the public continues to stay ignorant of this tragedy. Applying this to Mark and Engels ideology of the ruling class, we can see how the Icelandic ruling class, the major organizations/capitalists, are prioritizing the economy and profit over basic humaneness. Banning the ad from a major platform like television, the ruling class hones in on the exploitation of labor. The ad is set up in a manner in which the ruling class is attempting to maintain control over the information that is being distributed across social media.
As Marx and Engels discuss within their workings, the ruling class also controls the means of mental production, the production of ideas and ideologies that reinforce their own dominance. The banning of the Iceland ad is the equivalent of silencing the proletariat. The ruling class is easily able to exercise their control over both material production, the production and harvesting of palm oil, and mental production, the dissemination of messages that can produce a voice of change. In doing this, the ruling class is able to maintain their dominance and protect their economic interests at the expense of everyone else’s livelihoods. The ruling class are represented by major organizations and capitalists that prioritize economic profit over ethical and moral production–harming the proletariat. The ruling class are the ones that create the system that we are all subjected to, unable to change the dominant ideologies that have been instituted for their interestss.
2. As Louis Althusser states, Ideology is not just a set of beliefs but rather a practical set of beliefs that are ingrained within institutions and the practices that pertain to them. The practices then leads to the formation of individuals under a system of beliefs controlled by the ruling class. Working through different institutions, ideology reproduces “the system of ideas and representations which dominate the mind of a man or a social group” (2).
“Thank You Mama” ad from 2012 by P&G displays how ideology can be constructed through a cultural group mindset–one that is of the role of a mother. The ad further reinforces the portrayal of maternal love, by depicting mothers as selfless for the sake of their children and family. In this, mothers are perpetuated to fulfill gender norms that align with gender ideologies. The sacrificial role of a mother has been engrained since the moment the relationship is built between the mother and their child, but also the moment society sees a child and decides its constructed gender as female, the gender roles and familial responsibilities are instituted. Societal expectations and roles are imposed, shaping their identity and behavior. P&G does an effective job of further ideological reinforcement, tapping into the deeply ingrained gender ideologies, influencing their viewers to conform to societal expectations that the ruling class values towards motherhood.
The ad’s function is to simulate the experience of motherhood while influencing the consumer culture. Motherhood is a non-changing role that is clearly outlined in the ways P&G reproduces the narrative. This displays the worldwide ideology of mothers, a commercial that is applicable across the oceans. The easy success is defined through the support from their mothers, the sacrifices their mothers have made to help their children–that is what is expected of motherhood. This emotional sentiment is easily read across all cultures due to P&G’s reproduction of ideologies that have been designed for mothers. The P&G “Thank You Mama” advertisement is the perfect example of how ideologies are placed within every single realm of media, including all forms of advertising. The company utilizes the ideologies that are present within the ruling class to reinforce the dominant narrative that lends motherhood towards subservience.
3. Ideological state apparatuses, through the works of Althusser, as the ways in which the ruling class are able to shape individuals and their beliefs through institutions and structures that reinforce their dominant ideologies. This can be done through educational institutions, religious institutions, family, media, culture, legal systems, or even the political system (3).
The John Lewis “She’s Always a Woman” advertisement is a prime example in how ideological state apparatuses operate through media to reinforce the dominant narrative that has been instituted within our culture and society. The various stages of a woman’s life is depicted in this advertisement, growing up in a white picket fence home, going to an expensive college, getting married to a white man, has a stable career, begins to grow a family, and spends time with her grandchildren. This is the glorification of the American dream that John Lewis illustrates through these rose colored lenses. Childhood and adolescence are laced with innocence and beauty, the ways in which gender norms are reinforced. Later when she begins her adulthood, her life is just diminished to the roles of a wife, a mother, and a caretaker. Her work is not highlighted or her academic accomplishments are not seen. This is promoting how a woman’s primary identity and value is derived from the ways she is able to serve the men in her life and her relationships with others. The ad finishes on a happy note in her older age, suggesting that she was only able to find happiness by strictly following the structure of life that the ruling class has set through ideological state apparatuses and its traditional gender norms.
The woman’s life depicted through the lens of John Lewis is one that fulfills traditional roles that are being normalized and presented as desirable and easy to achieve. This is a way in which the ruling class is able to maintain their dominant ideologies, through media and its depictions of familial relations. By presenting these roles as natural and universally applicable, the notions are easily translated to different cultures. The role of ideological state apparatuses in shaping public opinion and social order is in line with the interests of the ruling class, disregarding the marginalizations and disparities that the proletariat face.
4. Mechanical reproduction refers to the processes and steps that are taken to reproduce art and cultural products through technology. Allowing for these dominant ideologies, that are produced by the ruling class, to be easily and widely accessible. In this, the aura of these works are being altered according to author Walter Benjamin, who states “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be" (4).
The Tide Super Bowl advertisement, “It’s a Tide Ad,” from the 2018 Super Bowl reveals in each stereotypical commercial scenario that in actuality, each scene is a targeted tide ad. In this, there is a sense of mechanical reproduction through media reproduction. This clever and witty commercial, cultural products are being simulated and duplicated to transform the cultural significance of the ad. When the same message is being duplicated over and over again, it is this being ingrained in the mind of the audience and within mainstream media. Not only that but The Super Bowl is one of the largest events on national television in the United States, providing thousands of viewers to watch each advertisement. Through the mechanical reproduction, the essence of advertising is able to be broadcasted across multiple different online platforms, ensuring exposure to these consumer narratives that the ruling class controls.
The Tide advertisement utilizes these common commercial scenarios that are so normalized for a standard viewer of television, such as car ads, beer ads, and commercial ads to curate a sense of relatability for the audience. By incorporating the Tide slogan within these familiar scenarios, the advertisement is then able to reinforce the ideology of consumerism. The clean clothes within each scene highlights that any ad has the possibility of being a Tide ad, inserting the brand into the broader landscape of advertising. The notion that the product of Tide is necessary when in association to cleanliness, the ad reinforces that ruling class’s ideology that associated consumption with cleanliness.
The ad is also a form of contradictions, challenging and mimicking other common commercials, but the repetitive nature of the ad emphasizes the loss of uniqueness–that loss of aura. The mechanical reproduction that ad utilizes, transforms the piece of media into a commonidic that is designed for mass consumption.
5. The Culture Industry highlights monopolistic capitalism! This industry is the mass production of consumer-based products aimed simply for profit; the homogenization of these cultural products lends itself to the loss of artistry during its distribution. The mass consumption of these products is enforced by the ruling class which promotes conformity to these ideologies that perpetuate these different capitalist structures (5).
Amazon, the creators and distributors of the Alexa, is a trillion dollar e-commerce company that controls almost half of the internet, but as well as more than a third of retail products being produced. Amazon has also seeped into the film entertainment industry and the food industry with their ownership of Whole Foods and the Amazon grocery page. With the creation of Alexa, Amazon is able to control households from within. In the advertisement, Alexa Loses Her Voice there is strictly only depictions of conventionally attractive individuals leading a very attractive lifestyle. This sends out a consumerist message on how lives should be led, lives that can only afford the product, prompting folk to strive for a lifestyle which supports the wealthy and rich. Mass culture and businesses coincide, the cultural impact of the Alexa is significant, as it shapes consumer behavior and reinforces capitalist ideologies.
The ad “Alexa Loses Her Voice” serves as a prime example in how the culture industry functions as a tool to serve the ruling class. The use of these different celebrities glamorizes the world of consumerism, adding a sense of humor and relatability to mask how the consumerist mindset directly funds the interests of the ruling class. The advertisement directly lends itself to the mass culture that Adorno and Horkheimer critique. The ad depicts these idealized lifestyles that are unattainable for a lot of the masses, in which Alexa’s role is to enhance the quality of life. When in fact, the Alexa, in this ad, is used to conform the idea that integrating technology in your everyday lives has become a necessity, this can also be referenced to ISAs. By promoting the use of these expensive products into celebrity-endorsed lifestyles, culturally produced through Amazon, are used to maintain social control and promote conformity within the capitalist society that the ruling class has instituted.
Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. 2010. “The Ruling Class And The Ruling Ideas.” In The German Ideology Vol. 5. N.p.: Lawrence & Wishart.
Althusser, Louis. 2006. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation).” In The Anthropology of the State, N.p.: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Althusser
Benjamin, Walter. 2009. “THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION.” In FILM THEORY AND CRITICISM Introductory Readings N.p.: Oxford University Press.
Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” Essay. In Dialectic of Enlightenment Philosophical Fragments.
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