Capitalism posing in the trenches
Monday, September 28, 2009 by Anonymous
In the lecture we looked at examples of how corporations can re-appropriate an 'in the trenches' and/or DIY aesthetic aesthetic in a blatant way in order to strike up an affinity with its consumer base e.g. the Ray Ban sunglasses ad, Blair Witch project (+ numerous other examples e.g. Nike football ad campaigns are often based on a grainy, handheld camera aesthetic e.g. see here). There is also a parallel development to this that is taking place far away from the bright lights of advertising and official corporate mediation - Rampton (2007) notes (near the bottom here) the practice of "flogs" whereby Walmart employees are being paid to pose on 'grassroots' blogging sites like paidcritics.com and slam (ironically) "paid critics who are smearing Wal Mart." This is an interesting counterpoint to the oft-celebration of the anonymity the internet provides - whether its in Second Life circumventing offline social limitations or bloggers being able to get their stories out of warzones or totalitarian regimes - because anonymity also opens up the opportunity for largely undetectable corporate control.
PS - My first impression of the official Windows 7 Launch Party video was that it was actually intended to be a self-reflexive critique of the way big corporations try to re-appropriate this aesthetic (reminding me of other adverts that ironically refer to their own discourses) because it seemed sooo artifical. the lampooning of it represnts the irony of technology's revenge effects here - microsoft creates the hegemonic platform for computers (windows), decades later releases its windows 7 marketing campaign to widespread ridicule but then can do nothing to retract it!
Yes, there's been a lot of discussion as to whether the ad could be self-parody but that theory is hard to sustain when you look at the accompanying 'party activities' videos on the YouTube channel (plus - as some have mentioned - the lack of evidence in the past of MS's sense of self-deprecating humour!). The Walmart 'flogs' is a great example...