Advertising and society

NIKE CULTURE: Robert Goldman, Stephen Papson; Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., 32, M-Block Market, Greater Kailash - I, New Delhi-110048. œ. 15.99.

THIS BOOK is about the power of television advertising images presented by the Nike Company. Nike's advertisements - a cultural document - form the primary source of data. The authors are of the opinion that advertising is a rich cultural form not simply a trivia wedged in between shows. The deep analysis of advertisements can provide an insight into the workings of contemporary culture. The questions raised here are: Is advertising changing the way we think about ourselves and about society? Does the sign-world of advertising inevitably fuse fantasy with commodities, and if so, at what social and cultural costs?

This book argues that contemporary society is, above all, a sign economy. The more that signifiers resonate through the intended audience the more economically successful the corporation will be, even though such strategies open culture to economic contradictions. This book deconstructs the themes and structures of Nike's advertising, outlines the contradictions between image and practice, and explores the logic of the sign economy.

Chapter one details the process by which Nike and its advertising agency, stand out as leaders in what may be described as a cultural economy of images. The Nike swoosh sign has rapidly gained an identification level that rivals the Coco-Cola icon. Chapter two explains how Nike has been able to make the swoosh stand out by making the icon, sports and athletes inseparable.

Chapter three talks about the company and the construction of a celebrity democracy, where the ambivalence of hero worship is used to the hilt. Chapter four explains how Nike recognises that the value of its imagery goes up to the extent that it is willing to treat its own logo in a playful and irreverent way. The pop mix of media irreverence offers a momentarily more satisfying pleasure of ``thumbing one's nose'' at some vague, but distant powers that be. Chapters five and six deal with transcendence of alienation with regard to the African Americans and gender difference. Chapter seven deals with the way Nike had hitched its business to the spread of sports culture, and tried to distance itself from the sign of over-commercialised sports, while maintaining an irreverent attitude.

Chapter nine sums up the whole study on Nike's advertisements as an example of how an advertising image works. Nike is one of the very contemporary corporate advertisers that has successfully constructed a recognisable philosophy. Since Western philosophy has an academic tradition, it says, we tend to think of philosophies as grandiose encounters with metaphysical questions about truth, reality, morality. Nike has taken up its position as philosopher in campaigns ranging from the P.L.A.Y. campaign to the women's campaigns that address the meaning of everyday life.

Being one of the first books to take an in-depth look at how an advertising image works it situates the Nike swoosh logo in terms of political economy, sociology, culture and semiotics. Highly absorbing, this book provides a great deal of detail, linked to a very authoritative analysis. A very good book for sociology, media and cultural students.

GEORGINA PETER

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