What does advertising sell? – Michael Schudson and his aesthetic approach to advertising

Authors

  • Rodolfo Rorato Londero Universidade Estadual de Londrina

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4013/fem.2014.163.03

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review critically the aesthetic approach to advertising by Michael Schudson in Advertising, the uneasy persuasion (1984). We intend to discuss Schudson’s criticism about the effects of advertising on sales, often characterized as persuasive, and discuss his hypothesis about advertising as an artistic style (“capitalist realism”), highlighting the importance of irony. This paper is a partial result of a research whose aim is to map the various theories of advertising.

Keywords: advertising, capitalist realism, irony.

Author Biography

Rodolfo Rorato Londero, Universidade Estadual de Londrina

Professor do Departamento de Comunicação da Universidade Estadual de Londrina. Doutor em Estudos Literários pela Universidade Federal de Santa Maria.

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Published

2014-04-24

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 3 (2014): September/December

Section

Articles

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