{"id":74,"date":"2024-09-19T09:47:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T09:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/mediaethics\/?post_type=content&p=74"},"modified":"2024-09-20T10:01:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T10:01:51","slug":"chapter-9-the-commercialization-of-everyday-life","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/mediaethics\/students\/part-2-persuasion-in-advertising\/chapter-9-the-commercialization-of-everyday-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 9: The Commercialization of Everyday Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tHome<\/a>\n<\/span>\/<\/span>\n\tStudents<\/a>\n<\/span>\/<\/span>\n\tPart 2: Persuasion in Advertising<\/a>\n<\/span>\/<\/span>\n\tChapter 9: The Commercialization of Everyday Life\n<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n
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Chapter 9: The Commercialization of Everyday Life<\/h1>\n\n\n

This chapter focuses on the relationship between media advertising, with its attention to microtargeting recipients, tracking the behavior of digital media users, and the public concern about invasions of privacy resulting from standard practices. Users have become creators in the digital world, complicating advertisers\u2019 effort to gain purchase with audiences. The rise of influencers, too, has made this task more difficult. Advertisers understand that people trust other people more than brands or messages themselves, thus requiring new forms of advertising such as the deployment of flash mobs to gain attention. Critics complain about ad creep and, more insidiously, the commercialization of everyday life, which seemingly makes advertising ever harder to identify. Advertisers are increasingly forced to employ unconventional tactics to cut through the clutter of the digital environment, leading to ethical concerns when platforms are seemingly hijacked or people find themselves subjected to blandishments they never anticipated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chapter 9 – Video Introduction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Mark Bartholomew writes about ad creep: \u201cnew technologies and marketing strategies now inject advertising into almost every physical and virtual space.\u201d This chapter explores another dimension of our commercialized landscape\u2014the commodification of everyday life. Again, using Bartholomew\u2019s words: \u201cAdvertising never stops.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key questions for the chapter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. What is commodification?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. We live in a marketing economy. What does it mean to live in a marketing society<\/em> ?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. How does the commodification of institutions, ideas, and processes change our perceptions of and relationship to those institutions, ideas, and processes?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    Case 37<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Discussion Questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    This effort might be viewed as something of a hybrid of a virtual product placement and guerilla marketing and shares many of the ethical concerns surrounding those strategies (see e.g., Case 36).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. Product placement is inherently deceptive given that the audience is often unaware that they are viewing promotional content<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. The ethical concerns surrounding this effort are perhaps amplified by the \u201cguerilla\u201d aspects of the photo insertion. How so?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Does the fact that Wikipedia operates on a foundation of communal editing enter into your assessment of the ethicality of the \u201chack\u201d in this case<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. Some might view this scenario as relatively benign, not rising to the level of deception. The North Face photos went unnoticed until the video celebrating the effort emerged, suggesting that were relatively innocuous. Wikipedia viewed many of the inserted photos as \u201clovely,\u201d and chose to retain some of them after removing the North Face logo. Do you agree? Why or why not?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. Wikipedia is not an entertainment platform but an informational resource. How might reader expectations be diminished by the North Face effort? What possible long-term consequences for all involved may emerge?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    6. Who benefits from the Leo Burnett\/North Face effort?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Weblinks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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      1. Video resource: North Face \u201cTop of the Images https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wMLTsCWGqlw&t=4s<\/a>\n