This chapter in the Media Student’s Book, as the title outlines, explores the histories and main debates around major marketing related media activities such as branding and the construction of celebrity. Major controversies are addressed via case studies and examples such as ‘Brangelina’, TV ads, the term ‘spin’, Fight Club, the appeal of early 20th century advertising and consumer capitalist forms, and Hollywood’s deployment of branding practices.
A Case Study on Stars and celebrities in East Asian Media is also available on this website.
Case study: stars and celebrities in East Asian media
Chapter Links
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa022101a.htm
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n01/john-lanchester/short-cuts
http://contexts.org/socimages/
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-678466363224520614#docid=-4728804367742729519
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eNs-CjxUu4
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/jun/13/biographicaldictionaryoffil16
http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/
http://www.who.int/tobacco/statistics/tobacco_atlas/en/
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/mica-nava-neal-lawson/is-shopping-all-bad
http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/
https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/type/www/116/Theory_OtherTexts/Theory/Murdock_BuildingDigitalCommons.pdf
Updates
27/08/11
The 2011 riots in England had repercussions for brands which for years have been deploying
‘cutting edge’ images of gangster-chic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/12/uk-riots-gangster-chic-brands
Levis pulled one such ad after the riots:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/11/levis-riot-ad-uk-violence
Explore
Collect 10 ads in the weeks following the riots (to end of September) which you think show the impact
of this ‘moment’ on particular brands. These could include London itself (e.g. in ads for the Olympics) or
a series of ‘before and after’ ads for relevant brands