In your groups, read the section “Live the Fantasy” in “Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising” in order to identify:
- key terms
- the main idea
- 3 – 4 other important ideas
Post your group responses below, making sure to list the name of your group members. (20 minutes)
Key Terms: Fantasy
Main Idea: “But by bringing the fantasies to the surface, you can free yourself from advertising’s often hypnotic grasp.”(Solomon 406)
Other important main ideas: “Other chains like Wendy’s, Burger King, and Jack-In-The-Box continue to advertise and sell widely, but no company approaches McDonald’s transformation of itself into a symbol of American culture.”(Solomon 406)
“This is fantasyland, a dream world promising instant gratification no matter what the facts of the matter may be.”(Solomon 407)
“The sexual explicitness of contemporary advertising is a sign not so much American sexual fantasies as of the lengths to which advertisers will go to ger attention.”(Solomon 408)
Group 2: Wengan Ou (Owen), Hai Lin, Jing Zhu, Wanting Chen
group 1 , honey, chan ho, qing yun, wilson
key term: fantasy, advertising, corporation,
“But realism isn’t the point here. This is fantasyland, a dream world promising instant gratification no matter what the facts of the matter may be.” (407)
sex cuts through the clutter and nothing cuts through the clutter like sex”408
ads are parasitical taking its life from the creativeness of a movie.”408
how McDonnald’s advertising enrolled as a symbol in american culture. (406)
in such age it should come as little wonder that computer synthesized max headroom……. or that federal express should design a serious of tv ads featuring mechanical looking human beings revolving around strange and powerful machines.(410)
Key Terms
-signs/semiotic
-American Advertising
-desire
-fantasy
Main Idea: “By reading the signs of American Advertising, we can conclude that America is a nation of fantasizers, often preferring the sign to the substance and easily enthralled by a veritable Fantasy Island of commercial illusions.”(406)
Important Ideas:
-“The very language of today’s advertisements is charged with sexuality.”(408)
-“Instead of broadcasting a single ‘one-size-fits all’ campaign at a time, McDonald’s pitches it’s burgers simultaneously at different age groups, different classes, even different races”(406)
Group Members(Table 5):
-Xueyingying
-Victor
-Yelan
-Hasanat