Business
In Berger’s opinion the publicity images depicts same meaning as the advertising images. He identified that the publicity images surrounds us and they are exclusive to the modern society. They are temporary visual messages and they last just for a moment, in terms of both how long we consider them by looking at them and how they need to be updated and modernized repeatedly. Despite this fact they do not denote present instead they refer to the future. These images are often taken for granted because they are seen frequently. When we pass such images, we develop a perception of them that they are continuously passing us. That is the reason they appear as dynamic but we see and perceive them as static. These images can be seen from the perspective of the economic system, in which they provide benefit to the consumer by stimulating the consumption. Further, the publicity images are the indication of the freedom and free choice. They are reflective of the fact that we can choose the product according to our desire and can improve our lives.
Further, Berger has defined publicity images by describing the relationship between glamour, envy and publicity. According to him, the publicity reveals the people whose living standards have been altered by consumption and hence they have become fortunate and enviable. This fortune makes individual glamorous and the publicity enhances and stimulates glamour. The better and more enhanced the publicity; the better the spectator is alert to the things they are missing (Gold and Ward). Publicity images awaken the natural crave of pleasure but they does not offer pleasure, instead they promise on the happiness that are gained and envied by other people and this is in fact the glamour. So, the publicity images are offering pleasure in themselves. Moreover, Berger described the relationship between publicity images and oil painting that is covered by the cultural status and prestige. The publicity images usually make direct allusion to the previous art made in past, either by replicating it somehow or by incorporating that art into publicity images. There is a strong relation between the oil painting and publicity images. This relation can be explained by the examples of gestures of models, the use of Mediterranean, orthodox women, luxury materials, and lovers’ portrait for benefitting the viewers, and the sea signifying new life etc.
However, Berger considers publicity as the alternative of democracy. The individuals emphasize on their individuality and personal choice for buying the product, instead of forming momentous choices politically. This provides compensation and conceals the absence of democracy in the society. Publicity is however a philosophy that explains things and images in its own terms. Additionally, the world is also presenting publicity as it is translating the revolutions in its own meanings and terms, but there is an inconsiderate difference between the world of publicity and real world. Sometimes this fact becomes very much clear just as Berger has mentioned an example of the magazine, which is using inappropriate images of the poverty of third world countries along with the publicity images. This however raises various issues such as sarcasm on the culture that show such images. Berger does not support to lay emphasis on the moral and ethical shocks. He also points out the fact that even the advertisers consider this and as a result they have tone the publicity images associated with them.
Reference
Gold, John Robert, and Stephen Victor Ward. Place promotion: the use of publicity and marketing to sell towns and regions. 1. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1994. Print.
