ABSTRACT
Diesel’s primary product is denim although it also designs and markets other fashion items including sunglasses, bags, shoes, underwear. The diesel advertisement conjures particular notions of adventure, unconventionalism, risk-taking, sexual self-expression, individuality. The young man and woman are shown doing the unexpected, doing so publicly and having themselves photographed in the process. The disjunction between the advertisement and ‘reality’ may be inconsequential to the advertiser. But it is crucial to an understanding of the cultural logic of neoliberal modernity. The advertisement for diesel expresses an idea at the core of neoliberal discourse: that the rest of nature exists to enable humans to realise its notion of ‘successful living’. Nature is seen as a resource or backdrop but not as a living entity that can and does act to limit human action and possibility. Neoliberalism adopts a similar perspective on socioeconomic and cultural realities.
