Sarah Pritchard - Contexual and Theoretical Studies: January 2012

Would advertising strategies work without its reflection to Panopticism's form of discipline?

The strategies of advertising reflect the principles that have emerged from the creation of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon in the late eighteenth century, enabling ‘a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind’ (Wikipedia, 2011, online), which developed Panopticism – a form of discipline developed by Michel Foucault that introduced a way of control through the mind, rather than resorting to violence.

The role of an advertising team is to project an image that will convince the consumer, both existing and new, that they ‘need’ the product that is being advertised, even if in fact owning it would be unnecessary. In order to produce an effective advertising campaign, they must first get to know their customers and understand their needs.

…”Ordinarily the business man does not realize that he means psychology when he says that he ‘must know his customers’ wants’ – what will catch their attention, what will impress them and lead them to buy, etc”…

This role that is created for the team behind any advertising campaign is similar to the role of the guards within the central tower of the Panopticon, where they observe the consumer just like the guards observe the individuals within the cells - monitoring their every move and generating a general understanding within the way that they think. This then enables them to play on this and manipulate it in order to generate interest towards what is being advertised.

…”Thanks to its mechanisms of observation, it gains in efficiency and in the ability to penetrate into men’s behaviors; knowledge follow the advances of power, discovering new objects of knowledge over all the surfaces on which power is exercised”…

Upon observing the consumers, the advertising team obtains knowledge that they later translate into a unique selling point within an advertising campaign that will prove to be effective. ‘There is no element in an advertisement more important than the appeal – the reason you give the reader for buying’ (Caples, 1997, p73). In order to do this, the team recognizes the general aspects within the consumers’ lives, and project an image of a life that is somewhat superior to theirs which then generates a desire to have this life. This leaves the life they’re already living feeling belittled and not as good as it could be, and suggests that they could in fact vastly improve it by the one small gesture which is being recommended to them – to buy this product.

The consumer reflects the role of the individuals that were kept within the cells of the Panopticon that are monitored. ‘He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication’ (Foucault, 2001, online). Although the lives of the consumers are closely monitored and analyzed in order to appeal to them, the information that is actually discovered is never then used as a unique selling point within an advertisement. This is because what is being projected is a ‘better’ version of the consumers’ life of what it could become once this product is owned – to show them what they could have. In order for the advertisement to be effective, the advertising team must identify where the consumers’ deepest desires lay and then play on this, essentially offering it to them on a plate through the consumption of this product.

An example of a brand that grasps this concept exceptionally well is the men’s deodorant Lynx, with them now being ‘one of the largest consumer-goods companies in the world’ (Marketing Communication Plan, 2009, online) after being launched in 1983. They are targeted towards boys and young men who are forever becoming more conscious about their ‘sex appeal’ and how they are perceived by the opposite sex.

…”Lynx is Britain’s best selling men’s deodorant. The Lever Fabergé- owned brand targets young men in their late teens and early twenties. A central plank of the brand’s marketing strategy is the annual launch of new variants”…

Before the re-launch of Lynx under a ‘new brand strategy which encapsulated in the endline ‘The Lynx Effect’’, they previously ‘had revolved around the concept of attraction’ (Marketing Communication Plan, 209, online) which had worked well until during the nineties, when the brand began to loose its edge.

…”A new strategy was proposed that refocused its target market and identified a common truth: those young guys are preoccupied with the opposite sex, but often lack the confidence to do anything about it. The new campaign portrayed women finding Lynx users irresistible”…

Lynx understands that ithe importance of carefully planned communication marketing in achieving these ends can not be underestimated’ and their objectives ‘are to create sustainable brand awareness among the existing and potential customers’ (Marketing Communication Plan, 2009, online). As a result of Lynx’s close monitoring of it’s target market, it has allowed them, as did the Panopticon, to analyze and constantly review the behavior and needs of the subject, and ensure that their desires are being somewhat fulfilled without leaving them completely satisfied, ultimately causing them to want more and know what they will want next. Without this close monitoring and understanding, Lynx may not have fully grasped as well and effectively as they have that;

…”Men are increasingly concerned with their image and the image of their products is equally important…A growing number of men are said to be especially image-conscious and are particularly interested in the approval of their peers. Though deodorants are a staple item, men’s interest in grooming and physical appearance creates opportunities to target them with products that specifically address their issue, whether they are tangible, like alluring fragrances, or more ephemeral, like the projection of image through brand identification”…

An example of this is the ‘Getting Dresses’ Lynx Effect advert, where the opening of it begins with a very good-looking couple laying in bed together, before getting up and putting their clothes on. At first you see them put their underwear on, and then as they are putting other things on such as their trousers and t-shirts, you see them going on a journey which goes from a house, down lots of different busy streets, into a supermarket which then leads to two half filled shopping trolleys facing opposite directions. This promotes the image that just by wearing Lynx, no matter where he is or what he is doing he will be completely irresistible to females and they just wont be able to keep their hands off him.

By the girl in the video being really good looking, maybe even perfect in some men’s eyes thanks to the constant images of women which are presented within the media suggesting that only this type of beauty is what should be admired, suggests that not only will the male become irresistible, but also that he could be picky with which girl he would ‘choose’ to let be all over him and ultimately sleep with him. The male in the advert also represents what is classed ae the ‘perfect’ male, with his chiseled facial features and highly toned body – this suggests that even if in reality you don’t look like this, once the Lynx is applied, you will immediately gain confidence and appear like this in the eyes of any girl you wish to have.

Another good example is the advert for Lynx Twist ‘the fragrance that changes’. Consisting of a different angle to the previous example, this advert focuses in more on the fact that men don’t always know what it is that is going on in a woman’s mind, or what it is she actually wants, and suggests that by wearing this particular type of Lynx, it will do all of the hard work for them and they can just sit back.

The video begins with an average looking male with messy hair and a beard trying to impress a good looking blonde woman, but the expression on her face suggests that she is bored. Then, just as it looks like the male is about to give up, a machine appears which alters his appearance to now suit the woman’s new mood, giving him a hair cut and a shave – suggesting that this is what the smell of the deodorant will do – make the woman see the male differently to what she has been doing and not just loose interest. This happens again as the couple more on to a different location and the woman is bored once again, changing the males appearance to now suit the new mood of the woman giving him a more stylish haircut and trendy clothes.

What the advert is suggesting to its targeted consumer is that it’s ok for them not to understand what it is a woman is thinking as the changing fragrance of this particular deodorant will be able to alone keep her more than interested, meaning the male can just sit back effortlessly and still have her weak at the knees.

Although both of these Lynx adverts have different agendas, they both still link back to what they have learnt from understanding their target market by ensuring a promise to the male that by wearing this product, he will have no trouble with the opposite sex. It will make them oozing with a confidence that they wouldn’t be able to achieve otherwise, and will make them more appealing without having to do anything about it despite the fact that they are becoming more image-conscious.

In conclusion, the way in which Panopticism works as a form of discipline is reflected within the process of advertising theories as these use the same sort of principles where it is the way in which someone thinks and what they believe is what is being manipulated in order to make products more appealing to them. Without generating and projecting an idea of a ‘more perfect’ life to the consumer than what they have, and making them believe that this is what they need in order to be happy then advertising wouldn’t work as effectively as it does to generate sales because there wouldn’t be a constant need within each individual to better what we already have.

Bibliography

2007. Advertising Media Planning and Strategy. [online] Available at <http://www.admedia.org/>

2009. Marketing Communication Plan. [online] Available at: <http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/12/marketing-communication-plan-lynx-deordrant.html>

Caples, J, 1997. The Advertising Methods Fifth Edition. United States: Prentice Hall.

Farbey, A D, 1998. How to produce successful advertising. London: Kogan Page Limited.

Foucault, M, 2001. Michael Foucault: Panopticism. [online] Available at: <http://www.cartome.org/foucault.html>

Heller, S, 2000. Sex Appeal. New York: Allworth Press.

Scott, W D, 2009. The Theory of Advertising: A Simple Exposition of the principles of Psychology. Milton Keynes: Lighting Source UK Ltd.

Thelynxeffect, 2010. Lynx Getting Dressed ad. [video online] Available at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A4aFfW0bl>

Thelynxeffect, 2010. New tv ad for Lynx Twist - the fragrance that changes [video online] Available at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDISjpOVuaE&feature=relmfu>

Wikipedia, 2011. Panopticism. [online] Available at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticism>

From the reference - Foucault, M, 2001. Michael Foucault: Panopticism. [online] Available at: < http://www.cartome.org/foucault.htm> [Accessed 15th January 2012].
here are a variety of quotes which I have found to possibly include within my essay.

In order to make rights and laws function according to pure theory, the jurists place themselves in imagination in the state of nature; in order to see perfect disciplines functioning, rulers dreamt of the state of plague.

the technique of power proper to disciplinary partitioning

They are like so many cages, so many small theatres, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible

Visibility is a trap.

He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication.

The crowd, a compact mass, a locus of multiple exchanges, individualities merging together, a collective effect, is abolished and replaced by a collection of separated individualities.

Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.

one is totally seen, without ever seeing

He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection

Thanks to its mechanisms of observation, it gains in efficiency and in the ability to penetrate into men's behaviour; knowledge follows the advances of power, discovering new objects of knowledge over all the surfaces on which power is exercised.

power is mobilized; it makes itself everywhere present and visible;

The Panopticon, on the other hand, must be understood as a generalizable model of functioning; a way of defining power relations in terms of the everyday life of men.

Because, without any physical instrument other than architecture and geometry, it acts directly on individuals; it gives 'power of mind over mind'.

In short, it arranges things in such a way that the exercise of power is not added on from the outside, like a rigid, heavy constraint, to the functions it invests, but is so subtly present in them as to increase their efficiency by itself increasing its own points of contact

its aim is to strengthen the social forces

And, in order to be exercised, this power had to be given the instrument of permanent, exhaustive, omnipresent surveillance, capable of making all visible, as long as it could itself remain invisible. It had to be like a faceless gaze that transformed the whole social body into a field of perception: thousands of eyes posted everywhere, mobile attentions ever on the alert, a long, hierarchized network which, according to Le Maire, comprised for Paris the forty-eight commissaires, the twenty inspecteurs, then the 'observers', who were paid regularly, the 'basses mouches', or secret agents, who were paid by the day, then the informers, paid according to the job done, and finally the prostitutes.

Friday 13 January 2012

Essay

Thursday 12 January 2012

Essay - Lynx Adverts

Essay - Foucault Quotes

Essay - Advertising Strategies Quotes