For this week, please read Chapter 7 from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. Choose a short passage from the text that includes one or two images. Discuss the relationship between the passage and the image(s) and consider how the two are working together to make an argument. From there, assess why the argument is problematic/relevant/interesting. Keep your response to around 300 words.
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I choose page 146 in Chapter 7 from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. In this section, Berger questions publicity and its credibility. He answers by stating that people do not care about its truthfulness as much as its potential value or “fantasies.” Publicity allows one to dream about a life full of riches and wealth. Glamour is one such fantasy and, by using a painting of Mrs. Siddons, he explains the notion of Glamour and how it works. Mrs. Siddons is indeed beautiful, charming, elegant, and wealthy; she has the aura of someone who has lived her life with affluence. So, what is the difference between someone like Mrs. Siddons and someone who reflects the idea of glamour that Berger perceives? Berger explains that Mrs. Siddons has her own qualities specifically for herself, and that very few people emanates. However, someone like Marilyn Monroe, an extremely famous model in the 50s and well-known sex symbols, was the object of millions of women’s envy and thus reached the ideal of glamour. Another picture posted was a group of glamorous women who using their money was able to become that way. Money allowed people to buy products that reflected their value in looks and style.
The argument is interesting because it doesn’t describe money, glamour, and publicity as negative points. Merely, the author is saying that they are all flaws in our capitalistic society. Publicity represents the “promise of a good life” as a way to propel people to spend more on products and is the “power” one could acquire but never fully reach. Publicity by itself is not anything important but what it represents is to others. It brings upon glamour and how people spend their money. Oil paintings, for example, were representations of one’s wealth and how the person(s) drawn would be that of the present, signifying that they want their descendants to view it as important and in a way live forever through the painting. Capitalism exploits people and publicity helps Capitalism survive, feeding on the minds of people and digging them deeper and deeper into the standard.
On page 132-133 in “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger discusses publicity and how it’s directly related to envy. He describes publicity as a strategy to lure in the consumer by being all about “the future buyer”. Publicity can never be based on the pleasure of the product being proposed because the buyer is not yet enjoying it. Instead, publicity offers consumers an “image of themselves made glamorous” by the product being sold. Berger continues to point out how these publicized products cause envy and how they’re associated with glamour and happiness. “The Skopes Swedish Collection” on page 133 showcases suits and uses the slogan, “think of it as an exclusive club for which most men will be ineligible”. This type of publicity discusses the exclusiveness of the brand, and how it will set you apart from others. It also suggests that glamour depends upon not sharing your experience with outsiders or with those who envy you. Another image in this passage publicized skin balance normalizers. The women in the image have “perfect skin” and are stereotyped as what all other women should ideally look like. They also seem as if they are uninterested and unfocused. This type of publicity causes women to be unhappy with themselves and also causes envy in the glamour of others. To become most enviable, “you are observed with interest but you do not observe with interest”. This explains why so many glamorous pictures include the faces of people who look “absent” and “unfocused”.
The argument made in this text is extremely interesting and relevant to me. John Berger discusses how a “false standard” is set in society which defines what is and what isn’t desirable. He also describes publicity as a tool to propose products by causing envy of others glamour. I see examples of false standards and publicity everyday in commercials, posters, radio channels, and even when casually walking outside. This passage has broadened my understanding of publicity and how it indirectly influences what we do in our everyday life.
From chapter 7 page 139 in John Berger’s “Ways of seeing” it is clear that the author feels that the use of publicity misleads the consumer into thinking that his or her elegant dreams would become tangible after the purchase of a certain commercialized product. Berger used the advertisement of floor tiles to show how the lavish living of the eighteenth or seventeenth century could still be possible and in style because the product in this case ” has to sell the past to the future”. So, capitalism in a sense is revitalizing the dreams of the past, it is giving the common person the opportunity to live the life of an aristocrat but in modern times. However, while the Armstrong floor tile company was trying to emulate this lifestyle on the average man or woman at the time, the company in itself was not as well known at the time so, the advertisers had to lean this product to the bigger picture which was true aristocratic “post Renaissance”living which I believe behaves as a false hope for many. While this advertisement image shows a well dressed woman, a pricey vintage chandelier,artistically styled walls and windows, the only item for sale is the flooring and this product in its entirety can only go so far as to stand out in someones home. The other items in the image are there to only tease the viewers imagination with the portrayal of extravagant living, and the sad truth is that there are people who simply cannot afford such things. It was even mentioned that “Those who lack the power to spend money literally become faceless”. But what if a persons ego surpasses his or her checkbook? Some people can’t help but feel pressured into being able to stand out from the crowd and so the person who is already barely getting by will have it a lot tougher financially later on, trying to keep on with the trends which isn’t right.
For this passage I choose the picture of what appears to be Time Square on page 131. It portrays the advertisement that we see everyday and sheds light on a problem that has been under the radar for so long. Berger notices that as our society becomes more “modern” or “advanced” our art and culture is becoming simpler losing the sophistication art once had. By looking at the picture provided on page 131 it is a clear example of where our society is headed. The cramming and piling of advertisement on advertisement on a crowded city streets is a perfect example that reinforces Berger’s point extremely well. The competition of brands trying to get their names heard or increase their publicity is shown by the picture because each sign wants to be bigger, brighter or more colorful. By giving consumers such a wide array of choices it is an ideal democracy through an advertisement medium. In summary, as the world begins moving faster and faster the sophistication of art and culture is being lost because of the desire to make a long lasting impact on the consumers during their daily lives.
Throughout history, human has always tried to sell an form of idea, belief, to just the simple things such as an automobile. Some may believe that its just some picture trying to get someone’s attention for their cause, but it isn’t as simple as it sounds. After reading Chapter 7 from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, usually there’s something that meets more than the eye. One example of publicity is the image of a light of city block full with bright lights and many different ads on page 131. As the text argues, this image is a simple of freedom, capitalism, or the “The Free World”. The object on the image does make the argument of “freedom of choice for the purchaser: freedom of enterprise for the manufacture,” as it projects a setting of many different companies’ ads as they try to capture the attention of consumers through large sings and bright lights. Although the argument and the image word simply together, its creates an interesting dilemma. As stated also in the text, it can mean a whole different world from a different point of view especially in Eastern Europe were communism and state-run government takes away those rights and freedom. “For many in Eastern Europe such images in the West sum up what they in the East lack. Publicity, it is thought, offers a free choice”. For us in the western countries, it might just be a simple city night but to others its a world that they desire. Overall the simple city picture from the past can reflect on how a world can be divided and that having many advertisements isn’t annoying but in fact a representation of freedom and choice.
On pages 132-133, John Berger discusses how publicity manipulate consumers into believing that happiness lies in the acquisition of products. People are forever in search of pleasure, we are drawn to the things that makes us feel pleasant and content with ourselves. Publicity capitalizes on this attribute by offering products that will supposedly provide us with this pleasure. However, this is only part of the truth. Berger points out that publicity acts on a human quality much darker than pleasure; envy. The image on page 133 accurately conveys this point. The first image advertises a club that is high selective. The fact that most applicants will not be able to get a membership at the club is enough for some people to begin envying and desiring this particular thing. This reminds me of the notion that people want what they cannot have. The almost invisible text next to the image is also very important because it suggests that the image itself is enough to convince people that they want to be in that club; without evening knowing what the club is about.
No matter how much one may try to deny it, we have all been envious at some point in our lives. For instance, I once found myself envious of someone because they owned a pair of shoes that, in my mind, made them look more stylish. I desired the same for myself and somehow, I came up with the idea that if I acquire these shoes, I would be happier because I will look more stylish. Berger represents this perfectly noting that, “the power of the glamorous resides in their supposed happiness…” As I established before, we are all in search of happiness and this is what gives publicity its power over us.
This is solid analysis, Gavin. I think you’re doing a good job picking apart the importance of envy in the text and in the advertisement in question. It’s interesting to consider how this happiness is “supposed”–what happens when we get those shoes? Is happiness ever actualized, or does it just move on to the next thing to desire?
After reading John Berger’s “Way Off Seeing,” page 132 stood out the most to me. In this passage of the chapter Berger is stating that advertisements, especially one’s of depicting a trip to a beautiful and what I’m assuming a tropical area, are not made to glorify the place that is being advertised. But, the true intend of the advertisement is to make the audience of the ad feel jealous and envy that they are not enjoying the wonders that the place has to offer. I find this interesting because my interpretation of an advertisement was that to persuade the audience into purchasing lets say a trip to the Caribbean, not to make the audience feel envy and jealousy that they are not in the pleasure of the “warm” and “distant sea.” I believe that the images that were provided on the page correspond to the argument made by Berger because the images depict a couple snuggled together drinking and relaxing and some kind of alcoholic drink. These images could make an audience feel envy because maybe they are upset with the jobs that they have to go to everyday and they are exhausted, which might cause one to feel envy towards the people in the image because they might want to relax and drink a glass of fine whiskey and watch the sunset or drink a glass of wine with their significant other. Overall, I found Berger’s claim about advertisements compelling because he introduced me to a new way of interpreting ads and in this era that we are living we are exposed to multiple ads daily. Therefore, having multiple ways of interpreting ads I believe is a strong quality to have in order not to be succumbed to purchase everything that is shoved in front of out faces on subways, corners, and billboards in our everyday lives.
On pages 143-147, John Berger speaks of money being life, and how publicity and money is connected. Berger speaks of how money is an important attribute of life that is used to obtain many things. On page 143, Berger states, “Alternatively the anxiety on which publicity plays is the fear that having nothing you will be nothing.”, connecting with the image on page 144, showing a headline “Already one man in 21 has a different king of spending power”, showing that publicity and money connected can become a great power. On page 144, the image also shows two women clinging onto one single male, while a mob of males are behind them, symbolizing that this single male is more desirable than the ones behind them. In connection to this image, Berger begins to state that publicity starts to sell sexuality, by making certain items and scenarios look more sexually desirable. On page 145, Berger shows a picture of a product showing a beautiful women and what seems to be a wealthy male, looking through her window, showing his interest in her. This image implies that after the use of their product, one’s dream scenario can occur, such as the male and the women meeting. The images on pages 146 and 147 show contrasting scenarios, in which one shows an aesthetically pleasing female products and another image that shows a female that isn’t as aesthetically pleasing, both were just as desirable within their time periods. All the images were presented in different ways, but were guiding audiences toward a similar result, the purchase of a product or the desire of a better lifestyle. All in all, Berger introduced many ways publicity, money and glamour in images can guide the audience toward purchasing a product or also showcase a more desirable lifestyle.
On page 131 of John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, there is a photo/artwork of what appears to be a “Times Square” spinoff sort of deal. Page 130 and 131 discuss what is essentially advertising. He states that publicity is a positive because you are exposing people to something that they don’t have in their life. It can be as simple and practical as a type of car or a type of beverage. There is seen as a good thing as it demonstrates the “free market at will.” It goes on to talk about how in Eastern Europe people see these advertisements as freedom, more specifically freedom of choice. The publicity could be showing someone who is happier with a particular item that could prove beneficial to their lives which is important because on page 130, it makes the case that it is the person who is interacting with the publicity and not the advertisement itself that is making contact with the person. The passage discussed how the person is the one moving toward the ad and how the person is choosing to listen to the ad instead of “turning down the TV.” We walk and look at the ad instead of doing something as simple as looking at the ground or at a fellow person, putting the blame on the people instead of the 100 foot billboard. It’s an intriguing concept especially when you factor in the information about how it ties into Eastern Europeans and their view on the “free market”. The wording that is placed into this article is very selective as it says things like “people who have been transformed” as if the publicity is some sort of magical therapy that just cured anxiety. I really do like the points that the author has made here, even though I do not agree with them. I feel as though he has intrigued the reader just enough to make them keep reading which is an interesting parallel to publicity itself.
This is a nice assessment of his argument, Donaldo. You make a really interesting point about how the generality of his argument parallels the non-specific promise of publicity in general–that’s a great rhetorical observation. Good work!
After I read chapter 7 from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, I feel like publicity is important to our society, although sometimes we will ignore it. On pages 132-133, John Berger points out that one way of publicity is making the consumer happy and making other people envious. Publicity is like to “wrap” the product to the perfect image, so people will envy it and buy it. The image on pg 132 shows us the publicity of the drink. People on the image are trying the drink, and we can see that they are enchanted by the drink from their faces. They look relaxed, comfortable, and they are like having the low pace of life. That is attractive to people, and make them envy. As a result, people want to buy the drink to try it. And also, the image on pg 133, there are four men that are dressed up, and from their eyes, I feel like there is a long distance between us. The words by the side tell us there is a club that is strict, most people are ineligible to apply. This makes the club being unsearchable and will make people envy the club members. I have to say that is a good publicity because people are always on the way of finding pleasure, the less you get, the more you want. Therefore, I think this is the glamor of publicity.
On page 143 of John Berger’s Way of Seeing, I found that he made a very important point about the society that we live in today. On page 143, Berger discusses the power that money has in our society. He says, “Money is life… in the sense that… the power to spend money is the power to live”. I feel like this is important because it is true. In the society that we live in, everything is about money or self-gain. When someone is given a task, that person is expecting some form of payment or gratification for completing the task. I think Berger introduces this idea because society was not always so selfish. Before the creation of publicity, there was no envy or jealousy. When people bought expensive art work, it was because they were in tune with the culture rather than just showing everyone how much money they have, and using that for their personal gain. In the picture above the selection, it depicts a news article with the title, “Derek died broke. And that broke his wife.”. This article, by itself, shows that money has dictates your life. The wife with the newly deceased husband will now become “faceless” in society and as Berger later introduces, less sexually desirable. This topic of the effect that money has on sexuality bleeds into page 144 but, still remains relevant for the initial argument that, “Money is life.”.
According to Berger, without the presence of money or the ability to show your extravagant lifestyle, this will make you less sexually desirable. However, why is this important? This connects to Bergers earlier points of envy. For example, if a woman with that lives a more conservative life is watching an advertisement where the man is admiring the woman through a window, as in the picture shown on page 145, that women will become jealous and envious. This woman, as a result, will never be happy as long as she spends less money. As Berger says on page 132, “The envy of other… is not of pleasure… but of… the happiness of being envied is glamour.”. Without that sense of someone else envying you, you will never be happy. This has created almost a competition to who can spend the most money or live the most extravagant life. It is for this reason why capitalism was created and, it is why capitalism is thriving, especially in America.
The picture and passage I chose is on page 134 where the woman is looking into a store window. I find that this image spoke to me the most. A reflection and how a person sees themselves plays a major role in society and his/her perspective. This passage discusses how publicity uses this human fault to their advantage. In this image a woman is window shopping and her reflection is in the store window, however she is not looking at the clothes her gaze is averted upward in a manner that looks like she is daydreaming. What she is doing is imagining her best self in the outfit and how amazing she would feel. However she is also imagining how envious people would feel because of the way she looks. The passage reflects this through the quote, “She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for other.” This is a way for companies to make money they showcase the skinniest manikins on store windows who rock the outfit. We may not realize it but we envy the manikin who is skinny enough to rock this outfit so therefore we assume people will envy us. Sadly envy by others is what some people look for in life but just because people envy someone doesn’t mean they have the best life. It is melancholy to think that products base their publicity on the weak/negative parts of human traits like low self esteem, addictions,envy etc.
This passage is very interesting because it goes into the depth of how publicity can falsely advertise products for their gain. Especially when it comes to window shopping and the cons. This passage is relevant to now because publicity basically runs our world it’s all around us. We as people need to not let it get the best of us we cannot believe a little product can change our lives. We need to not think materialistically and think holistically.
This is some great analysis Sam, and I’m so happy you brought the mannequin/shopping design issue into this. You’re hitting on something really interesting when you talk about this idea of projection–especially in women’s fashion/beauty, we (as consumers) are always being asked to look at products not as we would see them on ourselves, but as we would see them on some better version of ourselves. This creates a dual tension between being the observer and the observed, a topic that Berger touches in the chapter of this book we will read in a few weeks. Great work here.
In Chapter 7 of John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” on page 131 he uses a picture of a busy city block that looks like times square to show how publicity and advertisement is different in the U.S. than in Eastern Europe. He is stating that publicity is a good thing because it exposes people to something new and brings in people from all over to have a new product in their life. Publicity also offers people a choice between products, such as cars or creams, but gives off the same message to all viewers. This message that it proposes is that buying a product will “in some way make us richer, even though you are becoming poorer by spending your money.” Berger continues to state that publicity causes people to envy and in return constitutes glamour. The image of the city block helps convey his message because you can see how the advertisements are working together and against one another. Each one is trying to bigger and brighter than the other, but at the same time they offer someone who sees them a selection. Berger does a good job of using this picture because it helped me open up my view of advertisements. I knew that they are made to entice people to spend their money and achieve some satisfaction, and now I see that they can also create envy. It is apparent that publicity is a means of “manufacturing glamour’ as Berger said. I see that in the picture that he used and also in today’s commercials and billboards everywhere. Companies want to be known as the best and biggest in order to make money so they tend to offer people a form of false hope. They do this by making you feel as if the product is a necessity and that it will significantly increase your value of life. Based on the image, I see that publicity hasn’t changed over time and that it is still a competition of which brand is more “glamorous” than the others.
On page 143, John Berger explains two points that contradict each other when talking about oil paintings. He first describes the oil painting as a sign of wealth, “the good life,” but then proceeds to argue that it is also a sign of wisdom; a cultural value that devalues the need for materialistic things. The image depicted is actually an oil painting “Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe.” A half naked woman is depicted alongside two men and there’s also a magazine article who plays on the provocative element behind the painting and writes “we could all use a little romance.”
The argument in of itself is actually quite interesting because, in my opinion, brings up a valid point on human logic. The oil painting represents the life of the envied and the wealthy, however it’s also a sign of someone who is enriched by the history of it, not by the materialistic side of it. These are two points that contradict each other, but at the same time makes some sort of perfect sense. It’s relatable to that of a person who “boasts about being humble.” It’s either one or the other, they cannot co exist.
You’re making an interesting point here, Jocelyn, although I think you may be mistaking the nature of his argument about oil painting. Berger believes that oil paintings are essentially there to enforce the status of the wealthy, less so to enrich. However, the Manet painting is a particularly interesting case, as Manet was a particularly subversive painter. If you look into the history of Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe, you’ll see that when it was painted, it was super controversial, as the nude women were seen to be prostitutes. What happens when we take something as important as this out of context and use it to sell something? That might be a point of questioning for you to look at more closely.