NUMBER: 22TITLE: Decoding Advertisements
AUTHOR: Judith Williamson
STARTED: February 4, 2006
FINISHED: March 9, 2006
PAGES: 180
GENRE: Media Studies
FIRST SENTENCE: Advertisements are one of the most important cultural factors moulding and reflecting our life today.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] How to read the hidden ideological messages in advertising,not merely to make us buy things to sustain the economic status quo but also to maintain and encourage the social conditions which make these things seem necessary.
REASON FOR READING: Assigned in MDIA 524: The Rhetoric of Advertising
THOUGHTS: Aside from her love of run-on sentences (Seriously how often can you use semi-colons and commas to extend the life of a sentence? Let it die already.), this book was not bad. She has great insights into the thinking and manipulating that goes into advertising. Her use of past psychoanalytic thinkers only helps her argument. However I sometimes think Williamson goes WAY over the top with some of her readings. I can't give advertisers THAT much credit.
MISCELLANEOUS: A very dense book. Thank god it was short.
KEEP/SHARE/CRINGE(?): Selling back.
RATING: 6/10 [Good]
CR: The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman
RN: Hope's Captive by Kate Lyon
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