Tags: bodies, commodification, consumption/consumerism, gender, health/medicine, marketing/brands, human diversity, medical sociology, medicalization, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2009 Length: 1:02 Access: YouTube Summary: This commercial featuring actress/model Brooke Shields is for Latisse, a prescription drug approved by the FDA for “inadequate or not enough lashes.” The ad claims that Latisse can be used to treat symptoms of hypotrichosis, a condition characterized by a "less than normal" amount of hair; advertisements for Latisse have appeared in beauty magazines such as Allure. This clip is excellent for teaching students the concept of medicalization, the process by which normal life conditions (such as menopause, childbirth, aging, or death) or issues not traditionally seen as medical come to be framed as medical problems (e.g. alcoholism, eating disorders, compulsive gambling) (Conrad 1992). The Latisse commercial is particularly powerful when shown alongside a typical mascara commercial (e.g., here); while the latter claims to be a cosmetic product and the former claims to treat a “medical problem,” both are clearly targeted toward women and share many similarities -- e.g., promises of “better” (i.e., longer, darker, and/or fuller) lashes, before/after shots, celebrity actress/model spokeswomen, and scenes of attractive women having "fun," suggesting that longer, darker, and fuller lashes can result in happier social lives for women. Moreover, both commercials imply that women, and not men, should be concerned about their eyelashes, even though men can also have sparse, short, and/or light-colored lashes. While the producers of the commercial never say Latisse is developed for use by people with hypotrichosis (this message is only written in a caption at the bottom of the screen), a classroom discussion can underscore the blurring of the medical and the cosmetic in this advertisement. Instructors can point out that the active ingredient in Latisse is used to treat glaucoma. When some glaucoma patients began to notice more prominent eyelashes, they perceived this as a desirable side effect of their glaucoma medication since longer, thicker, and darker eyelashes on women are symbolic of beauty in our culture (Law 2010). Class discussion can then lead to a conversation about human diversity, in which the diversity of eye color and eye shape, as well as the length and thickness of eyelashes, among the world’s population can be examined. The Latisse commercial can prompt students to question whether eyelash hypotrichosis and other medical problems (e.g., andropause, erectile dysfunction, short stature, ADHD) (Conrad 2007) are medical problems or natural human conditions and/or characteristics that create human diversity. Advertisements such as this point to the commodification of such naturally occurring human conditions. Submitted By: Amy Irby
4 Comments
Tags: consumption/consumerism, corporations, food/agriculture, health/medicine, marketing/brands, media, social mvmts/social change/resistance, culture jam, sociology of culture, subvertising, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2007 Length: 1:13 Access: YouTube Summary: This McDonald's culture jam montage demonstrates how, by mashing up a readily recognizable yet rarely questioned piece of popular culture, new and critical questions can emerge that draw attention to social problems. In this mash-up, various scenes from McDonald's commercials are rearranged and placed alongside U.S. health data trend maps, images of obesity, and graphic scenes from a liposuction surgery in order to highlight the alarming rates of chronic health problems facing our "Fast Food Nation," including coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, various cancers, insulin resistance, among many others. The accompanying music, "Pusherman" by Curtis Mayfield, provides further commentary on the role of McDonald's in American society, one that resembles that of a drug dealer, providing addictive and unhealthy products to consumers that can ultimately lead to life-threatening and socially dysfunctional outcomes. This clip would be good to use in a lecture on sociology and health, food, or media studies. This clip also adds to The Sociological Cinema's growing collection of video clips on culture jamming, (e.g., here). Submitted By: Valerie Chepp DJDave raps about consumption at Whole Foods Tags: art/music, class, consumption/consumerism, environment, food/agriculture, health/medicine, marketing/brands, theory, conspicuous consumption, privilege, thorstein veblen, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2011 Length: 3:55 Access: YouTube Summary: In this rap parody, DJDave (aka David Wittman) raps about his frustrations shopping at Whole Foods, which includes over-priced grocery items, loud shoppers on I-Phones, and over-crowded parking lots. To illustrate useful sociological concepts using this YouTube summer sensation, instructors can begin by simply asking students: Why is this video funny? Instructors can facilitate a conversation about middle- and upper-class consumption practices; specifically, the clip might be useful in a class discussion on Veblen's notion of conspicuous consumption, whereby upper-class consumers carry out very specific consumption practices in an effort to wield social power, whether real or perceived, thereby conveying a particular social status. The video's portrayal of a "typical" Whole Foods shopper involves a host of recognizable consumption patterns, including the foods they eat (organic chicken, kale salad, pinot noir, gourmet cheese, quinoa, kombucha tea), the cars they drive (e.g., a hybrid, Prius, Mini Cooper), the health practices they engage (yoga, cleansing diets), the gadgets they use (I-Phones), and even the social justice initiatives they are financially able to support (e.g., the environment, natural/organic/sustainable foods). A critical perspective might involve a conversation around whether health is a class privilege, pointing to the high costs associated with a healthy American lifestyle. Instructors can further unpack the humor of the clip to illustrate sociological insight by pointing to the choice of musical genre deployed. Given that rap music's origins are largely rooted in a form of social commentary on the struggles of poor and working-class urban communities of color, the "struggles" that Whole Foods shoppers endure while purchasing groceries is clearly cast tongue-in-cheek. Like other clips featured on The Sociological Cinema, this rap parody shows the ways in which art can provide a useful medium for social commentary, as well as sociological insight (e.g., see here). Submitted By: Valerie Chepp
Tags: art/music, consumption/consumerism, environment, gender, knowledge, marketing/brands, media, social mvmts/social change/resistance, culture jam, détournement, guerrilla semiotics, sociology of culture, subvertising, 00 to 05 mins
Year: (1) 2007; (2) 2008 Length: (1) 1:20; (2) 1:27 Access: (1) YouTube: "Onslaught" (Dove) (2) YouTube: "Onslaught(er)" (Greenpeace) Summary: The pair of clips above by Dove and Greenpeace are excellent examples of commercials which appear to transcend the narrow concern of increasing market share and actually aim to promote social justice. However, more cynical viewers will likely protest that, at least in regards to the Dove spot, the appearance of corporate social responsibility is little more than a sophisticated marketing ploy. By attempting to raise public awareness about the role visual media play in rigidly defining what counts as attractive and truly feminine, Dove is actually attempting to position itself as a responsible brand. In response, Greenpeace created a spoof of the ad, but unlike the original version, viewers are not urged to talk to their daughters before the beauty industry does; rather, they are urged to talk to Dove about Dove's use of palm oil and its role in the destruction of Indonesian forests in order to harvest this oil. The Greenpeace clip can be understood as a practice of détournement, which is a concept originally developed by a Paris-based group of radical artists known as the Letterist International. Détournement refers to the practice of "finding" an artifact, then reconfiguring or re-situating it with the goal of making it newly relevant. The reconfigured artifact typically suggests ideas, which are in opposition to the those promoted by the creator of the original artifact. Thus a commercial about a caring company which bravely invests in exposing dangerous media messages about feminine beauty standards is reworked to expose the caring company's role in the destruction of Indonesian lowland forest. This post is just one in a growing number of posts on The Sociological Cinema, which feature examples of détournement or what is sometimes called culture jamming (see here, here, and here). In the sociological classroom, the clip might work well as a way to discuss what sociologists mean by culture and cultural resistance, which often involves the transformation of meanings and meaning-making practices. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: commodification, consumption/consumerism, globalization, marketing/brands, social mvmts/social change/resistance, coffee, commodity fetishism, conspicuous consumption, consumer culture, ethical consumption, fair trade, sustainability, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2008 Length: 8:41 Access: YouTube Summary: Our consumer culture has been linked to many social problems (e.g. see this documentary on consumerism). As discussed in Marx's theory of commodity fetishism, the social relations of capitalism are obscured in the commodity, and we are largely blind to the sweatshop labor, environmental degradation, and related social problems inherent in the commodity's production and consumption. Ethical and sustainable consumption (e.g. Fair Trade) seeks to address these problems and can be a way to encourage students to think about how their own consumption relates to these problems. This video discusses Fair Trade (FT) through the perspectives of small-scale farmers/producers (how FT has benefited them personally), retailers, the certifier (i.e. Fair Trade USA), and consumers (by focusing on campus groups promoting FT). It can also be used to better understand Marx's concept of commodity fetishism by juxtaposing the "Free Trade" and Fair Trade models (although this video is particularly great to discuss commodity fetishism because it emphasizes the social relationship between producer and consumer). This video emphasizes the power of the consumer to effect change through the products they buy every day, but I also encourage students to think critically about whether we can adequately address these social and environmental issues through consumer activism alone. I also have students explore their consumption using GoodGuide's smartphone app and paired this video with a good introductory chapter on Fair Trade: Kimberly Grimes' (2005) "Changing the Rules of Trade with Global Partnerships: The Fair Trade Movement" in this book (see more readings on FT here). You can also access other Fair Trade films at the Fair Trade Resource Network. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: commodification, consumption/consumerism, marketing/brands, advertizing, conspicuous consumption, consumer culture, emulation, identity, materialism, veblen, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2010 Length: 52:00 Access: no online access (trailer on YouTube) Summary: This documentary offers an excellent overview of consumer culture. In the words of the documentary's creators, this film asks "Are we too materialistic? Are we willfully trashing the planet in our pursuit of things? And what's the source of all this frenetic consumer energy and desire anyway? In a fast-paced tour of the ecological and psychological terrain of American consumer culture .... Taking aim at the high-stress, high-octane pace of fast-lane materialism, the film moves beneath the seductive surfaces of the commercial world to show how the flip side of accumulation is depletion -- the slow, steady erosion of both natural resources and basic human values" with an exploration of the "relationship between the limits of consumerism and our never-ending pursuit of happiness." This video would work great with consumption theories from Veblen to Juliet Schor (who is featured throughout the film). One limitation of the documentary is that while it explores the ecological impacts of consumption, it does not focus on the labor and social issues (e.g. sweatshops) related to the production of the goods that we consume. The film would also work well in combination with videos (such as this video on Fair Trade) and activities (e.g. using a smartphone app to explore consumption impacts) addressing more sustainable consumption to encourage students to think about possible solutions, but also to think critically about whether we can adequately address these social and environmental issues through consumer activism alone. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: consumption/consumerism, gender, marketing/brands, organizations/occupations/work, housework, representation, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 0:29 Access: iSpot.tv Summary: Unlike other advertisements for cleaning and household products that might at least attempt to covertly embed sexist messages about women and domesticity (here and here), this advertisement for Quilted Northern toilet paper makes no qualms about explicitly linking women to the domestic sphere. One of the primary ads for Quilted Northern's new Soft & Strong brand toilet paper originally opened with a male voiceover explaining that, “We went around the country asking women to speak frankly about something no one wants to talk about.” The unspoken phenomenon mentioned in the ad referred to that taboo topic of toilet paper. While the male voiceover implicated himself in the story as part of the “research team” that interviews women across the country, women in the ad are positioned as experts of the domestic domain, able to speak knowledgeably and credibly about toilet paper. This ad appears to have been removed from YouTube and in its place are two shorter clips, and much like the original, each features a woman describing what she needs from toilet paper. The new advertisements, like the original, deploy the persuasive technique of ethos, or an appeal to credibility or character. Instructors can point out that what’s significant here (and in thousands of other commercials for household products) is that, unlike appeals to ethos that involve, for example, Michael Jordan endorsing Nike or “9 out of 10 dentists” endorsing toothpaste, the credibility of the Quilted Northern experts lies solely in the fact that they are women. They are not avid toilet paper enthusiasts or physicists that can speak to the durability of the toilet tissue fibers. The message is that being a woman, and specifically a woman with a family, enables one to speak credibly about matters involving the domestic sphere. As consumers, we are told to trust and purchase this household product because an “extremely reliable source”—i.e., women—told us to. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: consumption/consumerism, environment, externalities, production, sustainability, waste, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2008 Length: 20:30 Access: YouTube Summary: Through an animated cartoon, narrator Annie Leonard discusses the story of our stuff through the stages of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. The video includes discussions on the role of corporations and government, limitations to the ecological cycle, externalized costs, globalization, planned obsolescence, advertising, happiness, health, equity, and points of intervention. It offers a variety of statistics to support the relationships it depicts. Additional resources, including other videos and information for sections of this video, can be found on the official website. When I used this in my social problems class, I also asked students to calculate their ecological footprint before coming to class, and facilitated discussion about their own work and consumption activities as it related to this process, and the sustainability of those activities. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: consumption/consumerism, gender, marketing/brands, organizations/occupations/work, housework, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2009 Length: 0:31 Access: YouTube Summary: In this clip, women are ushered into the Clorox 2 Stain Research Facility to observe the power of Clorox. The most obvious message in this commercial is that laundry is women's work. A second, complimentary message is that science is men's work. With the exception of a brief and fleeting appearence of a woman scientist at about 19 seconds, the serious and purposeful work of science is all performed by men. Notice too how even the dummies in the research facility are blatently gendered. The commercial works well for encouraging students to contemplate the ubiquity of gender stereotypes in the media. This is now the second commercial from The Clorox Company posted on The Sociological Cinema, which can be used to illuminate the way advertisements often reinforce gender stereotypes. The first Clorox ad was posted here. Thanks to Sociological Images for suggesting this clip. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: children/youth, consumption/consumerism, education, gender, inequality, knowledge, media, social construction, standpoint theory, 00 to 05 mins Year: 1998 Length: 1:31 Access: YouTube Summary: The YouTube caption for this clip reads, "By Phil Lord and Chris Miller - This was a fake commercial we made in 1998 for a series of educational shorts about action figures based on historical figures. Its educational value was somewhat suspect. It was never aired." While the clip may not offer quantitative data, it works well to broach the topic of gender inequality. The Bronte sisters action figures must fight evil publishers who discriminate against women authors. At a minute and a half, the clip is brief but incredibly useful for stimulating discussion about one way gender inequality works. For instance, students can be encouraged to contemplate that the standpoints of women are systematically suppressed through a publishing bias in favor of works written by men. A second point to take away from the clip is the positioning of women as action figures who fight evil. I would argue that even as toys women are rarely represented as such in the United States unless they are also sexually objectified. In this clip, the Bronte sisters are dressed rather modestly. I would like to thank Elisa Kreisinger for suggesting this clip. Submitted By: Lester Andrist |
Tags
All
.
Got any videos?
Are you finding useful videos for your classes? Do you have good videos you use in your own classes? Please consider submitting your videos here and helping us build our database!
|