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Interpretability and social power, or, why postmodern advertising works

Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada, mmorris{at}wlu.ca

It is commonplace to recognize in contemporary advertising a ‘hyperreality’ associated with the greatly expanded and intensified use of images and simulations. While the predominance of an image culture seems to de-emphasize the cognitive generation of meaning that is achieved through linguistically mediated logic, consumers are nevertheless expected to respond with far greater ‘interpretive reflexivity’ to such advertising, a response that activates their cognitive engagement. This article seeks to explain why such ‘postmodern’ advertising works with reference to the political economy of postmodern capitalism and by developing the concept of ‘interpretive power’ that is drawn from Jürgen Habermass’s theory of communicative action and his notion of intelligibility. I argue that postmodern media culture increasingly relies upon an orientation toward validity that the ‘commodity aesthetics’ of earlier advertising either minimized or did not require. Accompanying this demonstration is a contextualization and analysis of an emblematic case of postmodern advertising. I conclude that, far from necessarily signaling a profound crisis in meaning as some commentators assert, a postmodern media culture that relies more and more on the interpretive ‘communicative competence’ of its addressees suggests both greater potential power for cultural commodification as well as greater potential resistance to this by consumers.

Key Words: advertising • communicative action • consumerism • critical theory • Habermas • interpretation • validity claiming

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