Tags: consumption/consumerism, marketing/brands, social mvmts/social change/resistance, culture jamming, subvertising, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2010 Length: 16:01 Access: Vimeo Summary: This short documentary was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. It opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a 2010 academy award under the category of animated short. The film depicts a world populated solely by corporate logos, and the villain of the story is none other than Ronald McDonald. The violence in this film and its atrocious characters stand in jarring contrast to the generally sublime messages corporations attempt to associate with their logos. While the ubiquity of corporate logos is certainly a remark on contemporary capitalism and consumption, I think the film works as an excellent example of cultural resistance or culture jamming, which can be summed up as an effort to subvert meanings. Carly Stasko elaborates on the practice of culture jamming in this clip taken from a documentary on the subject. Submitted By: Lester Andrist
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Tags: gender, marketing/brands, media, sex/sexuality, violence, doing gender, masculinity, rape, representation, sexual objectification, sexual violence, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2008 Length: 5:33 Access: YouTube Summary: The description under this YouTube clip reads, "Dreamworlds 3...examines the stories contemporary music videos tell about girls and women, and encourages viewers to consider how these narratives shape individual and cultural attitudes about sexuality." Specifically, this five minute excerpt links popular media with the objectification of women and the masculine violence directed toward them. This clip might also work well as a means of introducing the concept of "doing" gender. The clip makes it clear that men must learn masculinity, and it is not something that flows from them naturally. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: bodies, emotion/desire, gender, marketing/brands, media, race/ethnicity, violence, hegemonic masculinity, ideal beauty, rape, representation, sexual violence, 06 to 10 mins Year: 1999 Length: 7:03 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip, featuring Jackson Katz, examines popular media representations of men and masculinity in the United States. The excerpt is only the first 7 minutes of an 84 minute documentary (find more information about the film at mediaed.org). In it, Katz explores the harmful consequences associated with contemporary masculinity. Some students might perceive the examples used in "Tough Guise" to be outdated, but Katz's recent book, "The Macho Paradox," can be used effectively to update and supplement the film. Note that instructors might find this clip useful for introducing Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: capitalism, commodification, consumption/consumerism, corporations, globalization, marketing/brands, political economy, social mvmts/social change/resistance, culture industry, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2003 Length: 40:00 Access: YouTube Summary: This video is an interview and commentary with scholar/activist Naomi Klein based on her book No Logo. Using hundreds of media examples, No logo shows how the commercial takeover of public space, destruction of consumer choice, and replacement of real jobs with temporary work (the dynamics of corporate globalization) impact everyone, everywhere. It also draws attention to the resistance arising globally to challenge the hegemony of brands. The video begins by focusing on consumerism, and moves to globalization later in the film. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: consumption/consumerism, marketing/brands, media, multiculturalism, race/ethnicity, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 0:31 Access: YouTube Summary: Although this commercial exhibits multicultural marketing strategies (like this Sprite ad), casting a racially/ethnically ambiguous spokesperson, what's most intriguing about the ad is that the marketers actually name the marketing strategies employed throughout the commercial. I find this clip is useful to use with students who critique sociology for "reading too much into" a particularly situation. Also noteworthy is the product name; marketed as having "you" in mind, this new Kotex product is called "U by Kotex." But we might also point to the (not so) subliminal messaging: "you buy Kotex." Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Isaiah Mustafa Tags: bodies, emotion/desire, gender, marketing/brands, media, social construction, hypermasculine, ideal beauty, sexism, hegemonic masculinity, manliness, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 0:33 Access: YouTube Summary: The caption below this YouTube ad reads "We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it." In the span of about 30 seconds, the Old Spice model triumphs as a hypermasculine male. He has the body, the sexy voice, the self-confidence, the money, and the romance. Although the commercial appears to be poking fun at hypermasculinity, it is important to note that the commercial works because consumers broadly share a set of relatively narrow ideas about masculinity. In particular, the clip is useful for introducing R. W. Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity, which draws attention to the way masculinity is constructed in relation to other subordinated masculinities and in relation to women. For Connell, the concept is "a social ascendancy achieved in a play of social forces that extends beyond contests of brute power into the organization of private life and cultural processes." In other words, Isaiah Mustafa embodies a masculinity in the ad that is hegemonic because it is favored and promoted throughout major social institutions, and among other places, it can be readily found mass media content. A point of discussion is whether the ad uses satire to challenge this hegemonic form of masculinity, or does it only succeed in reinforcing it? Note that the clip can also be analyzed for playing a role in the construction of feminine desire. While the audience is laughing about this tongue-in-cheek form of masculinity, they are likely taking it as a given that all women want this kind of man and the diamonds he holds. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: capitalism, commodification, consumption/consumerism, corporations, marketing/brands, theory, critical theory, culture industry, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 1999 Length: 3:04 Access: No online access Summary: These 2 separate scenes from Fight Club draw on a familiar dialogue about consumers and are a great illustration of the culture industry (begin/end 4:45-5:40; 29:06-31:15). The scenes include the narrator's (Edward Norton) discussion of Ikea, and his conversation with Tylder Durden (Brad Pitt) about consumption and social control. In one scene, Norton discusses all the Ikea furniture around his apartment. He begins: “like many others, I have become a slave to the Ikea nesting instinct” as the screen pans around his apartment and overlays the space with images and text like it was straight out of an Ikea catalog. In a later scene, Norton laments the loss of all of his stuff, saying “when you buy furniture, you tell yourself ‘that’s it, that’s the last sofa I’m gonna need. Whatever else happens, I’ve got that sofa problem handled. I had it all … I was close to being complete.” Brad Pitt’s character concludes the scene stating “The things you own end up owning you,” which often facilitates very lively and interesting class discussion. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: consumption/consumerism, gender, lgbtq, marketing/brands, media, sex/sexuality, social construction, theory, masculinity, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2009 Length: 0:33 Access: YouTube Summary: This commercial for Pepsi Max, marketed as the first diet cola for men, demonstrates how masculinity (and by implication, femininity) is constructed in western culture. Unlike the consumption of traditional diet cola which suggests a concern over one's figure and a willingness to sacrifice flavor in exchange for fewer calories (i.e., appropriately "feminine" concerns), the taste of Pepsi Max is the first diet cola that is flavorful (i.e., potent/powerful) enough for men. To demonstrate men's ability to handle most anything besides the taste of traditional diet cola, this clip portrays men claiming their tolerance for pain in the face of extraordinarily painful - and dangerous - events. Significantly, this unrealistic tolerance for pain is asserted exclusively by men in the presence of other men. This clip is useful for exemplifying Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity and Kimmel's concept of masculinity as homophobia. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp
Tags: consumption/consumerism, gender, marketing/brands, organizations/occupations/work, housework, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2007 Length: 0:35 Access: YouTube Summary: The clear message sent in this Clorox commercial is that laundry is women's work. The commercial states that throughout time and despite many changes (one might even include the Women's Movement as a part of this timeline), women continue to trust Clorox. The underlying message is that laundry continues to be a form of women's (unpaid) labor. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp
Tags: bodies, children/youth, consumption/consumerism, gender, marketing/brands, media, clothes/fashion, femininity, masculinity, norms, teens, 21 to 60 mins
Year: 2001 Length: 58:26 Access: PBS Summary: This Frontline documentary, Merchants of Cool focuses on the energy and resources marketing firms devote to finding what teens collectively decide is the "next big thing" or "cool." The documentary describes these firms as the merchants of cool and suggests that they are doing much more than simply catering to the demands of popular teen culture. They are co-creators of that culture. • Among other uses, the documentary would work well in an introductory sociology class as a means of understanding what culture is and how it works. It might also be used to illustrate the concept of social norms and how social norms can be considered a component of culture. Submitted By: Lester Andrist |
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