Chapter 26

This chapter discusses how powerful advertising in a capitalist society really is. Each advertiser has a specific target audience, which is used as a commodity. However, the problem with this is that commodity aesthetics is taking "possession of people" because of the goal to promote sales. The two ways advertising companies resolve this problem is to follow a career of the labor market and to gain the respect of and attract others. You have to market yourself as if you are marketing a product. These ideas of Wolfgang Haug suggest that advertisers tempt us into buying products that will make us happier in our lives as consumers. Advertising in a capitalist society has been taken to a whole new level. Advertisers know how to effectively promote a product by targeting our jobs and our sexuality. They reach out to us and try to make us "happy" while tempting us to buy a new suit so we can look more professional or to buy a certain beauty product so we can look prettier in the eyes of others. Humans are being degraded to objects. We can now be compared to a dog, while advertising companies are the humans trying to bribe us to do something by giving us a treat. These companies make us consumers by advertising something that we think will better our lives. The "dog treat" or whatever form of promotion they are doing, has to be packaged correctly so that we are even more prone to giving them business.  Haug argues that because of this commodity problem, men and women have developed new relationships with their bodies. This is true because now, people use their bodies as a way to advertise themselves. A woman who dresses sexually probably is looking for a man, and a man who dresses professionally wants to show off the hierarchy principle which shows how he is upper or middle class and has a more professional status.