The repetitiveness of the advertisements in Apple's campaign gives power to the discursive formation that it has chosen. It connects the intended meanings and brings them together within one given discourse. The similarity of the advertisements creates many different elements that are then presented to the viewer as if they are true. It creates a regularity that can be questioned or followed, but nonetheless, makes a statement about what is and how things should be. Those statements are very matter of fact, therefore bringing forth power. I previously described the advertisements and all of their elements as though they do not demand but offer. Yet, even through the offers, they are making claims that discipline "subjects into certain ways of thinking and acting" (Rose, 143). |
Discourse: Their Power and Truth |
With all of these statements, truth claims, and offers that have the power to shape and mold, "our sense of self is made" (Rose, 143). The viewers of the advertisements begin to place themselves in relation to what they are being taught and presented. Therefore as a teacher or professor has some power over a student, the discourse of these advertisements has a power that impacts viewers. This power then produces knowledge. "The most powerful discourses…depend on assumptions and claims that their knowledge is true", and that "truth" is exactly what Apple has created (Rose, 144). Apple's world has these claims and truths that greatly alter a viewer's perspective on their products. They cause people to picture these products as helpful and beneficial to the life they are currently living. Apple is persuasive, and "as we become used by Apple, the rhetor, we can simultaneously use Apple to channel our social commentary" (Pederson, 503). It is evident that Apple's preferred meaning is for the viewers to believe that their lives will be improved and therefore they should purchase a product, but what is not said and purposefully omitted from each of Apple's advertisements strengthens the discourse and its power as well as its truths. |
Each advertisement within this campaign spends its time showing the viewer what they could have while at the same time telling them that their lives are not yet adequate enough. An audible element of the iPhone4 commercials states, "If you don't have an iPhone, well you don't have an iPhone." This statement's choice to not say something like, "If you don't have an iPhone, well, you should have one" or "well, your life sucks" shows that Apple's intention is to subliminally tell the viewer that without an iPhone you can not succeed or be at ease. This carries into the visual elements of the advertisements, because they ldisc3imit themselves to only showing what life is like with a product. They show the world of wonders that they have created and leave it to the viewer to place it in relation to the world that they are currently living in. One set of iPad commercials are a discourse all on their own. The present one of the capabilities of the product, then follow it with a one-word statement about what was shown. These commercials bring together many texts and within the limits of that thirty seconds create a discourse that persuades the viewer and intends for them to understand that they need each of those capabilities. It is true that "advertising is all about influencing people-persuading them to take the actions we want" (Ryan and Jones, 3). If all of those capabilities are at their fingertips, that is even better. These products are expected to make the viewer's life easier, so when the viewer places theirs in comparison to the world Apple created on the television screen, theirs does not amount to the proper level. The truth that Apple sets forth is that their product is needed, and the viewer comes to that conclusion on their own. A life with Apple products is the life one should live.