The Culture of American Advertising

Recently in our class, we were assigned to read an article entitled "Masters of Desires: The Culture Of American Advertising" by Jack Solomon. In the beginning of this article, Solomon writes about a French aristocrat by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville. Tocqueville arrived to New York City to observe the society of America. Tocqueville discovered that even though America promises equality, there is still a competition to be more successful than everybody else. This paradox still continues to this day. This occurs quite often when it comes to articles. A common technique in ad's are selling something as if only a successful individual is able to obtain it. For example, advertisements Rolls-Royce attempts to appeal to the people who are financially successful rather than the general population. This is just one of several techniques used in advertisements.

I really enjoyed reading this article. It accurately shows the ways that a company does to draw the attention of the viewers. I believe people are smarter now than before and don't often fall for these type of advertisements. Although a majority of the population can see through the advertisement, there are still people that fall for consumerism. A regular person really doesn't need a luxurious Cadillac in order to go from point A to point B, but advertisements attempt to make us believe that we do need a luxurious vehicle.