Marlboro Cigarettes - Essay Example

Cultural studies When people think about Marlboro, normally they think about American cow boys and horses. All advertisements of Marlboro cigarettes depict American masculinity. It is really interesting to analyze the myth behind these advertisements. This advertisement of Marlboro cigarette focuses more on virility. They also symbolize the friendship between men and the brevity of conquering horses. The advertisement stresses the lightness of the sunlight which is golden in color.   The common gender that is used in this advertisement is the male gender. This is to resemble the taste of the cigarettes. Representation of males in the advertisements is also related to American symbols. The taste of this cigarette may be heavy. Only men could enjoy such heavy tastes. That is the reason for using male models. The connotation or idea behind the slogan come to Marlboro country has double meanings. They are the western countryside and America itself. This truly resembles American identity (Wang. 1998.). The advertisement of parliament cigarettes contains some symbolic as well as subliminal message. This type of message is transmitted through plainly visible images as well as objects. These messages aim to appeal the basic instincts of customers. Of course these advertisements have multiple meanings. One view of this ad is that the presence of a female holding a cigarette packet, depicts the importance of smoking in the lives of men is in par of woman. Cigarettes and women have some common case of attraction in the perspective of men. The other meaning could be that parliament cigarettes are not as heavy as other cigarettes. This is evident due to presence of woman in the advertisement. The main difference between the two advertisements is that, the first one depicts masculinity. It is totally male oriented advertisement. The advertisement shows hardness of the situation. However the second ad is not too hard and masculine when compared with the first one. The presence of a woman and a formally dressed gentleman clearly gives the idea that it is lighter in its context as well as attractive to all genders (Ad Analysis Parliament Cigarettes). In politics the chances of err and lie committed by people are quite high. Such behaviour is instrumentally as well as epistemically rational in nature. The practices that are followed in liberal democracy are difficult to improve so that the above mentioned problem can be overtaken. The contemporary political philosophy is an unsuccessful attempt to vindicate on moral and symbolic grounds (Guido). Democracy is regarded as the most sought after political science in the history of mankind. Liberal democracy is the highest and final political concept that civilization can desire. Nowadays democracy is practiced in a bad name and sometimes is often referred as pseudo democracy. There is a general feeling that politics is irrelevant and democracy is hollow. The fate of democracy depends on the values that are associated with robust humanism (Macllelan). There is nothing like a war to reduce the citizens of a country to a situation called mindless conformity. This means making them ready to play the act of following the leader. Nowadays democracy is used by modern day politicians as a means to protect their private agenda for acquiring wealth. They all believe in hegemony so that they can powerfully control others. They are also discursive in their approach. Moreover no empirical evidences have so far collected proving that democracy has helped the poor people in uplifting their standard of living. Winston Churchill once remarked that democracy is not perfect but there is no other perfect way to act. Formation of governing bodies through democracy is ideal in the present conditions since no better alternatives are found till now. The inherent problem that is associated with democracy is that it depends on informed and proactive electorate which is falling away (Mindless conformity or impotent protest?. 2009). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mirror stage mainly occurs when a small child who is six months of age discovers its own reflection on a mirror. After looking at the mirror, the infant looks towards the adult who is holding the baby and implores that adult to confirm with his or her appearance what it perceives in the mirror. During the mirror stage, the child identifies his true identity till he realizes that the image he saw on the mirror is a mere illusion (Laznic). The image seen in the mirror will definitely provide a compensation for the loss of original unity but is truly itself is a misrecognition. Taking such image into ourselves is necessary for the formation of our ego. It will also leave us with a sense of lack because the image is just a sign or symbol and not real (Clark. 1936). The picture that is given here shows a woman who turns her back on us. Her true identity as well as her facial expression is missing. This leaves the viewers guessing about her real expression. To make things worse different facial images pop up in the background. Each face has a different expression. Some are smiling faces, others are thoughtful and philosophic. Some are sad and some expressionless. Some have a feeling of repression embedded on them. This picture throws wild guesses from its viewers regarding the real expression that is associated with the real woman shown in the picture. The other side of this picture reveals that women have different faces. And those faces are shown in the background. It is extremely difficult to associate a single face with a woman. It is true that there exists a symbiotic relationship between terrorists and the media. The media is also interested to scoop the stories of terrorists and get wide attention. In the case of movies, the terrorists have provided situations for producing blockbusters as well as taken inspiration form many incidents depicted in the movies. Many popular Hollywood movies that were released during the 1990’s were a source of inspiration for the terrorists to plan their operations (The Portrayal of Terrorism and Terrorists.). . According to famed Hollywood director Robert Altman, many movies have served as inspiration to terrorists. The movies have depicted a pattern and these have been copied by the terrorists. The simulacrums shown in the movies are really bothering the terrorists. Many simulative situations in movies have proved worthy for terrorists in their planning (Just English). In the 1998 Hollywood movie titled The siege, a realistic terror attack on New York was shown. This played itself out on September 11 when there was terror campaign in the city. Experts on terrorism and the media often see a relation between terrorism and art. They say that self expression which is an important aspect to terrorism is also an important feature of art also. There fore the society should pay more attention towards cultural manifestations and also should be in high alert. It is quite true that movies filled with violence and crime will create an adverse impact on the society. Real life events as well as imaginary events portrayed in films will always cause disturbances in the society (Do terror movies inspire terrorists?). The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969. ... The term deconstruction is a common term that is widely used in contemporary philosophy, social sciences and literary criticism. It is defined as a process in which western philosophical texts as well as languages appear to shift as well as to complicate in their meaning when they are used or read in the luminosity of certain suppositions and absences, they disclose within themselves. All the subjects that are relevant to the term deconstruction includes meaning of philosophy according to western thought as well as the ways in which the meaning is constructed by many western writers, in texts as well as readers. The term also includes discovering, understanding and recognizing assumptions, frameworks and ideas. Which forms the basis of thought and belief? The term deconstruction is a sign of interpretation based on certain assumptions and representations that are very close to an individual’s reality. The presence of an individualistic pattern of understanding will usually supplement the rational implications behind the thought. In this picture the message clearly states the feeling of the injured man that the interpretations made on the warning was too subtle. Because of that there was injury. Moreover it also puts forward a question that should the function of deconstruction should be implemented to decode or understand every message rather than use ones own commonsense. While talking about deconstruction, the Psycho analysis of Sigmund Freud is an important reference for deconstruction (Deconstruction). Deconstruction itself can be easily said as a function of mind. According to Freud, who devised the psychoanalysis theory, human mind functions in an unconscious state. He had an opinion that compulsions, obsessions, etc are created by conflicts among the various wishes and guilt that produced anxiety. He thought that anxiety produced repression which in turn could affect the rational thinking power as well as interpretation of messages (Psychoanalysis). Reference: Ad Analysis Parliament Cigarettes. (online). Available:http://www.classroomtools.com/subad7.htm Clark.R. 1936. The mirror stage. (online). Available:http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=728 Do terror movies inspire terrorists?. (online). Availablehttp://www.masala.com/5010-do-terror-movies-inspire-terrorists Deconstruction. (online). Available:http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Deconstruction Guido.P. Rational Choice and Democratic Deliberation: A Theory of Discourse Failure. (online). Available:http://shopping.msn.com/specs/rational-choice-and-democratic-deliberation-a-theory-of-discourse-failure/itemid137909073/?itemtext=itemname:rational-choice-and-democratic-deliberation-a-theory-of-discourse-failure Just English. (online). Available:http://www.just-english.ru/hall.htm Laznic. M.C. Mirror stage. (online). Available:http://www.answers.com/topic/mirror-stage-psychoanalysis Mindless conformity or impotent protest?. 2009. (online). Available:http://forum.thefreedictionary.com/postst1426_-b-About-Democracy-----b-.aspx Macllelan. D. Democracy and ideology. (online). Available:http://www.iefd.org/articles/democracy_and_ideology.php Psychoanalysis. (online). Available:http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Psychoanalysis The Portrayal of Terrorism and Terrorists. (online). Available:http://www1.appstate.edu/~stefanov/proceedings/wagge.htm Wang.D. The Marlboro myth. 1998.(online). Available:http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/crit97_work/Marlboro.htm Read More