ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study on the modes of address used by advertisers in the 1990s to speak to the “culturati”—a highly educated and affluent audience who developed lifestyles and consumption habits to distinguish themselves from the masses. Through an analysis of 4,000 advertisements, this primary research examines how the magazine Vanity Fair captured this culturally aspirant class and how the advertisements in this publication spoke to its particular cultural anxieties. This chapter concludes by introducing the “mise-en-scène” cultural frame, a new phase of advertising that captures the era of “demassification” and remains with us today.
