111-254 Commodity Culture: Myth, Meaning and Advertising

Note

Available as 111-354 at 3rd-year level.

Credit Points

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

An inter-textual study of late 20th century commodity culture with a special emphasis on film, television, photography, advertising and interactive media. The relationship between advertising and commodity culture is studied in historical terms and various types of publicity such as print and electronic advertisements are analysed in terms of discourse(s), genre, myth and rhetoric. An overview of the major theoretical approaches to the study of consumer culture, such as political economy, anthropology of consumption, semiology and postmodernism, provides a framework for critical examination of commodity culture(s), art and advertising, and the commodification of aspects of everyday life such as fashion, sport, shopping and tourism.

Assessment

Written work which may comprise of class papers, essays or take-home examinations totalling about 5000 words.