The portrayal of domestic space in advertising, 1950 - 1994

Abstract

In 1994 Beatrix Columina released a bolok titled "Privacy and Publicity Modern: Architecture as Mass Media". Columina views architecture as hovering between questions of space and the questions of representation. This report is concerned with the architectural space represented in mass media, specifically that of advertising. Space in advertising is constructed through a variety of means, including text, photographs, sketches, and graphic layout. Advertising targets consumer desire and demand and as result comments strongly on people's lifestyles and ideals. In a book titled Advertising Your Way to Success, Cort Sutton believes desire to be both conscious and unconscious and stimulated by the belief that the advertisement will satisfy a need the consumer has. He comments that "a customer cannot learn about a product without becoming involved in that product and involvement equals interest, interest naturally leads to desire and desire is what sells popcorn" Sutton, Cort Advertising your way to success, Spectrum Books, U.S.A 1981. Advertising as an important tool of promotion. It is a way of creating consumer awareness through a public message. Writer Vicky Vinaric believes "the ideals of our time are clearly based on a production/consumption model of the economy". Viaric, Vicky An Advertising Medium, The Fifth Column, V.8#2 Advertising promotes products which cater for specific markets with specific demands, both of which are based on consumer behaviour. Consumers vary in many aspects such as age, profession and ethnicity and therefore are targeted through various means. Sutton coins a term 'sizzle' which he defines as an instinctive desire that stems from everyone to be, for example, glamorous, beautiful and sexy. It is this sizzle which instantly draws our attention to an advertisement. Advertisements use techniques which hook our attention, play on our subconscious and reinforce certain values or ideals. They promote self images for everybody, reinforce sexuality and gender roles, and act as political and social image builders. Advertising is a powerful medium that works both subconsciously and consciously to shape the desires and beliefs we hold and the life styles we aspire to have.