ABSTRACT
Advertisements have become so integral to the fabric of our lives that we may believe that we hardly notice them, and, therefore, we downplay their ability to influence us. Product advertising campaigns change with new technologies and with increased knowledge about consumer psychology. Advertising assumed its modern form at the end of the nineteenth century, when goods manufactured in industrial settings began to replace the locally produced and individually crafted goods of traditional societies. In a third phase, advertising's focus shifted as emotion was brought clearly into the foreground. Leiss refers to this period as narcissistic because consumers were asked to consider what products could do for them as individuals. During the fourth period-the totemic phase-advertisers began to make products representative of lifestyle. This chapter charts changes in the connection and exchange of meanings, beginning with the idolatry phase, then moving through stages of iconology, narcissism, totemism, and mise-en-scène to today's stage of hypercommunication.
