ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces the notion of advertising as the privileged discourse through and about objects and situates the importance of studying social communication in advertising. For decades, the study of advertising was confined to the field of marketing. In the limited writing critical of advertising, attention was paid to a supposed (yet unsubstantiated) manipulation of consumers. After surveying this literature, the chapter points out that the least interesting question we can ask of advertising is whether it actually moves products. The chapter concludes that advertising must be approached as a social institution and a channel through which social change is mediated.