hAD Enough? The Extremes of Advertising

The Egyptian Pharaoh discovered by Egyptologist Howard Carter in 1922, stood in front of me, taking shape in a ruffled plastic white and red Jewel-Osco bag. Iconic in his own right and supposed nephew of the controversial Pharaoh Akhenaten, King Tut now appears at different crossroads: the American marketplace. The Jewel-Osco bag, containing a loaf of bread, now represented the boy King. In bold red letters on the crinkled bag read, "King Tut." Underneath this heading the advertisement proclaimed, "May 26, 2006 - January 1, 2007. Just spend $25 with your Jewel-Osco Preferred Card and the $2.50 discount code shows up on your receipt!" There is something essentially sad and pathetic for King Tut to end up in the twenty-first century as a Jewel-Osco preferred customer savings option.

Is the ad well-placed? Yes. Will this ad most likely appeal to a wide audience, help revenue and positively shape Jewel-Osco's brand image? Probably. And should we, as consumers, disparage the marketing team for using history and historical imagery to sell goods and influence consumer choices? The author of An All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America, Gary Cross, and the authors of Social Communication in Advertising represent advertising's role more positively than one would think. The authors of Social Communication in Advertising, Leiss et al., argue advertising provides various cultural functions: goods help satiate desires, disseminate information, allow for individuality, represent and communicate lifestyle choices, provide social cues and express social status. Moreover, Leiss et al. assert influencing consumer choices is one of advertising's least important roles. Does advertising serve latent functions within society and posses facets other than simply pushing individuals to purchase products? Maybe. Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, would disagree. The importance of corporate identity and brand image have gone too far, in fact, they now breach the absurd.