R CIHRF-11 HANKERING AFTER THE SUBLIME 'BODY': A STUDY ON THE PERVASIVE ADVERTISING IDEOLOGIES WITH REFERENCE TO SELECTED ADVERTISEMENTS

Anusree
2016 www.researchinsight.co.in   unpublished
Advertisements propagate fabricated ideologies which is pervasive and dominant in all walks of human life. The repeated body motifs in the advertisements of fairness creams, bath bars, hair oils, nutritious foods, tooth pastes and other fat controlling medicines and fitness equipments institute an ideology on the need of a sublime body. Body gets prominence and its flawlessness is portrayed as the ultimate goal in all these advertisements. Is the flawless body a necessity to survive? Do the
more » ... rtisements create false ideologies? Why do people prefer white skin, thin body, shiny hair, healthy teeth, and perfect shape to live? By analyzing some selected advertisements of fairness creams, bath bars, hair oils, nutritious foods, tooth pastes and other fitness medicines and equipments, I reach into a conclusion that the necessity of sublime body is socially constructed. With reference to Althusser's and Zizek's notion of ideology, I propose that the advertising ideology of adoring sublime body is misleading and fraudulent. The worship of immaculate perfect body draws ideological fantasies and toughens social life. The implication of this analysis can be applied to all societies which are affected by the manipulated advertising ideologies. Slavoj Zizek and Louis Althusser analyzed and problematized the concept of ideology in different contexts. To explain ideology, Zizek adopts the well known phrase from Marx's Capital: 'sie wisen das nicht,aber sie tun es'-'they do not know it, but they are doing it' and he explains ideology as a "lie experienced as truth"(Zizek 24-26). Human beings live with a set of ideologies and desires, and they accept the ideologies to be true. Althusser defined ideology as the "representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence" (Easthope, McGown 44). I propose in this paper to study the concept of ideology, cynicism and ideological fantasy as probed by Zizek and Althusser, in the context of certain advertising ideologies with reference to selected advertisements. Advertisements are the main agents of ideologies which are ubiquitous and effectual in human life. The pervasiveness of advertising ideologies facilitates changes in language, human interests,
fatcat:7b2dzrh2trblhch4h7yfdltjyu