Advertising – Media Dissect

I have been using Instagram for several years now. In fact, the first app I open in the morning is Instagram. I, one of the many, also interact with the platform by generating and circulating content online

Today I woke up, scrolled through my Instagram feed, while sipping my coffee, liked a lot of pictures, saw some videos on my explore page. Saw some ads – one was from an app called Vinted (they are a platform where people can sell their clothes to give them a new life, like thrifting.), next ad I remember seeing was from amazon, and I also saw an ad by getir_uk (this ad I have seen multiple times a day.) These ads are indicative of my online behaviour. It is what marketers call ‘personalised retargeting’.

I use Instagram for multiple things. To record and archive my life in images, to share posts and videos and interact with friends back home and in London. While my profile is very private, I tend to share many personal details on the app. But, this doesn’t stop the advertisers from tracking my online behavioural patterns. I, as a user, generate information that is constantly collected, examined, sold, and presented back to me in the form of targeted advertisements.

As the researcher Matthew P. McAllister has pointed out, “Social media offer businesses new, boundary-pushing opportunities to tap into people’s online activity by collecting enormous amounts of personal information and seamlessly integrating advertising and social networks.” Users formerly only valued as consumers are now a part of the production process. On these social media platforms, consumers become producers of content, integral to the platform’s existence. It is worth mentioning that the users participate voluntarily in these activities and rather enjoy posting and engaging online. But this productivity is transformed into profit by these media giants.

“The sites then capitalize on the time users spend participating in the communicative activity.”
Matthew P. McAllister

Now that value is generated by content creation, they also generate a new commodity form, known as ‘cybernetic commodity‘. Dallas Smythe was the first to identify the role the audience plays for media companies. “The notion of double commodification speaks to the dual role of social media users: a source of free labour as well as providers of information that is sold for profit or used in the process of profit generation. This practice reflects larger patterns of capitalist exploitation, under which general social relations are increasingly becoming productive.” Therefore now engaging with social media sites has been conceptualised as free labour or unpaid work time – it provides monetary value.

Consumption and Production have blurred lines because of user-generated content, we are calling it labour not because we are creating free content, but also because we are creating ‘information commodities‘.

These sites collect cookies, which track text and patterns on the website. These tools enable advertisers to personalise targetting. Advertisers can learn about what you view online, and deliver a related advertisement in real-time, tailored to your location, income, shopping interests, etc. This surveillance culture is prominent to promote behavioural targetting, an intrusion to privacy but sold as capital.

We as users/labourers do not have any control over how this data is used and indicates the significant power imbalance at work. It makes me think about how I am not rewarded, in any way, for the commodity that I produce. However, this process of value extraction through the commodification of data is a fair demonstration of Platform Capitalism. We scroll and post for leisure but it’s actually work. It is a type of work where the process of commodification extends beyond the traditional workplace and wage-labour relationship, extracting value from ever-widening aspects of our lives with just a couple of likes as a reward.

The capture of productive activity online reflects the condition of value extraction in contemporary capitalism, where work seeps into leisure time and leisure time becomes work, where autonomous communicative creation and alienation overlap, and, critically, where processes of commodification extend beyond the traditional workplace and wage-labour relationship, extracting value from ever-widening aspects of our lives.

Sometimes we forget that Advertisements exist here to sell and make profits. If you have noticed, the most popular of Ads are either emotional or address a specific social movement/ideology. The most recent and popular is harnessing the power of women empowerment and Feminism. India has also jumped onto the bandwagon. There has been a surge of such Advertisements in the Indian market. One of the many such Ad campaigns was #ShareTheLoad by Ariel India.

In this particular ad, we see a role inversion, which is a common narrative we see in feminist advertisements, where Indian men, appear to act out of character and tend to question their patriarchal role in society.

In this Ariel ad, we see the woman performing multiple household tasks simultaneously, making tea for her husband, who is oblivious to the fact that his wife is multitasking a work call, preparing his tea, preparing dinner, loading laundry in the washing machine, picking up toys, sending an email…the father, however, reads out a letter to his daughter as he watches her perform so many tasks by herself. As he mentions in the letter – how she used to play ‘Ghar Ghar’ (House House) as a kid and now manages the household completely by herself. The dad laments in the background and acknowledges his responsibility for this state of affairs.

He, in the letter, admits that he has never set a better example for his daughter and that his daughter’s stress is a direct consequence of his ignorance as a role model. In the letter, as we see the daughter read on-screen, he apologises and resolves to change his ways. The last scene of the ad shows the father loading the machine, much to the mom’s surprise. The last frame flashes the words on-screen “why should laundry be a mother’s job”? with #ShareTheLoad.

This ad very intelligently fuses the social message of switching roles with their commercial objective of selling detergent, because what better place to switch roles than the kitchen. Historically, in an Indian household, the kitchen has embodied gender segregation.

a positive response to the campaign resulting in sales growth.

The ad flows a certain way, which invokes this individualistic feeling of responsibility towards women empowerment. From a woman’s point of view, it successfully makes them feel seen, but from a man’s point of view, it rather cleverly elicits responsibility which will likely affect their buying behaviour and potentially become a consumer of Ariel. The messaging in this advertisement, and the ideas that they have communicated, are in alignment with their brand value and commercial interests, with this campaign they were aiming at a potential growth of their target group with men and simultaneously potentially expand their goodwill amongst their women consumers.

As the researcher elaborates on Karl Marx’s and Frederick Engels’ theory of ‘Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas’ in this article, “While regular citizens are busy with their day-to-day tasks, part of the ruling class take on the function of the “thinkers”, those whom we see as subject matter experts, and actively develop and promote those values and messages. The ruling class also has some control over the dissemination of these ideas.”

I can’t help but criticise the intentions of this advertisement. This ad especially exists in the ‘Economy of Visibility‘ which in her book ‘Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny‘ by Sarah Banet-Weiser is defined as the visibility of popular feminism, where examples appear on television, in film, on social media, and on bodies, but it often stops there, as if seeing or purchasing feminism is the same thing as changing patriarchal structures.

While this ad questions the role of a woman in the kitchen it doesn’t help in shattering existing patriarchal structures which affect women at a deeper and intersectional level. It clearly rehashes the age-old neoliberal idea of competitive individualism and consumerism packaged as a solution to transform patriarchal traditions.

Tag: Advertising

Femvertising.