Ideology vs. united church of Canada’s advertisement Essay Example for Free

Ideology vs. united church of Canada’s advertisement Essay Ideology is a ‘Representation’ of the Imaginary Relationship of Individuals to their Real Conditions of Existence Louis Althusser, 1970 Many companies use advertisement as their way of attracting customers. They tend to create ideological perspective within their advertisements to show their stand on the society’s standards. Most of the time, advertisements are made for women. If men and babies’ needs were advertised, women are still part of it. It shows that in the ideology of the society, women are the determiner or the decision-maker of what should be use as a necessity or luxury. This is what advertisement for, it radicalize the essence of what is important and necessary. Advertising is significant because, in consumer capitalism, individuals depend on it for meanings a source of social information embedded in commodities that mediate interpersonal relations and personal identity. Advertising should therefore be conceived as an important institution in the consumer society because it produces patterned systems of meaning which play a key role in individual socialization and social reproduction. However, in the context of ideology and advertisement as a whole, advertisements are made because we want to prove something or we want to impose a law on a certain aspect of the society. Through this, we could be able to spread our ideas and perspectives towards different issues and arguments that exist in the society today. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze a certain advertisement in connection to the Ideological State Apparatus of Louis Althusser to determine its meaning and rationalization. The chosen advertisement is a child advertisement. The advertisement showed a picture of a baby with a medical wristband stating â€Å"WARNING: some re-assembly of priorities and beliefs may be required. † This advertisement suggests that parenthood is not an easy thing. As parents, people tend to view life more seriously. Once a baby is born, everything will change not according to plan but according to responsibility. Wandercafe. ca stated in the advertisement that â€Å"parenthood changes everything – including how you view the world. † Most often, this scenario happens if the baby is a wanted child because if it is not, parents tend to disregard their responsibility towards their children especially the fathers. Nevertheless, being a parent is a gift from God as we all know. In the perspective of the society and our culture, we view parenthood as a form of required responsibility. Once a child is born, we need to settle our priorities as based on the needs of the child and would not focus on our necessities and luxuries. In poor families, even if the parents could not eat, as long as their child has its milk, problem would not exist. This situation shows that parents can do everything and anything just to make their child safe and healthy. This is what the advertisement is trying to impose – parenthood is an obligation that should be taken into consideration because it requires re-assemble of priorities and beliefs. In the perspective of ideology and advertisement, this advertisement can be said as part of the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA). According to Louis Althusser (1970), an Ideological State Apparatus is a certain number of realities which present themselves to the immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialized institution. Because the advertisement came from the people of the United Church of Canada, it can be said as a religious Ideological State Apparatus. He also stated that the distinction of ISAs from (Repressive) State Apparatus is that the Repressive State Apparatus functions ‘by violence’, whereas the ideology State Apparatus function ‘by ideology’. This is the fact that the (Repressive) State Apparatus functions massively and predominantly by repression (including physical repression), while functioning secondarily by ideology. (There is no such thing as a purely repressive apparatus.)†¦ In the same way, but inversely, it is essential to say that for their part the Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology, but they also function secondarily by repression, even if ultimately, but only ultimately, this is very attenuated and concealed, even symbolic. (Althusser 1970) Advertisement has different impact to society and its institutions such as education, culture, and religion. In the chosen advertisement, these three factors exist as they give contribution to the perspective and ideology of the ad. It was seen through different aspects and reasons. In the institution of education, this advertisement educate people especially parents to become aware with their responsibilities and obligations towards their child or children because it was the most important thing that should be taken into account. When it comes to culture, it shows the stand of the society when it comes to parenthood because this is part of the culture – parents should abide by the rule of the law that they should love their children for they have conceived them. In the religious institution or the church, this advertisement shows what is right in opposition to evil. Church stated that parents should do their obligations not by their choice but by the rule of the church because it was the teaching of God. In the pre-capitalist historical period which I have examined extremely broadly, it is absolutely clear that there was one dominant Ideological State Apparatus, the Church, which concentrated within it not only religious functions, but also educational ones, and a large proportion of the functions of communications and ‘culture’. It is no accident that all ideological struggle, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, starting with the first shocks of the Reformation, was concentrated in an anti-clerical and anti-religious struggle; rather this is a function precisely of the dominant position of the religious Ideological State Apparatus. (Althusser 1970) In the chosen advertisement, Church is dominant and ‘repressive’ in some angle because it tried to impose a law or a rule. It was shown in the medical wristband of the baby. Using the word â€Å"warning† is an implication of notice that there must be an action to consider. The ideology of the advertisement is actually true when it comes to responsibilities of the parents but the Church overpowers the parents on what they should do and act. Though it was just a simple warning, capitalism can be seen based on its attack and point of justification. As a whole, the advertisement means more than what it wanted to say. The ideology of the church can be said as a form of repression or simply a justification of what is true as based on the standard of the society. Advertisement has different meanings based on the perceiver. It was the audience’s obligation to perceive the advertisement on their own context and ideology. Ideology is innate for all of us. It should not be taken for granted because it is an armor of our thinking, rights, and stand towards the rules and laws of the society. Culture, education, and church are underlying institutions that we need to consider in analyzing a certain advertisement because these factors are the most important aspects of humanity whether we oppose or consider their specificities from the past, present, and future civilization. Works Cited Althousser, Louis. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. La Pensee, 1970. 27 November 2007 http://www. marxists. org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology. htm Wandercafe. ca. baby. 27 November 2007 www. wandercafe. ca Harms, John and Kellner, Douglas. â€Å"Toward A Critical Theory of Advertising. † Illumination. (n. d. ) 27 November 2007 http://www. uta. edu/huma/illuminations/kell6. htm.