Study On Aesthetic Characteristics Of TV Advertising In Consumption Age

Advertisements, especially TV advertisements, have become indispensable to our daily life. Advertising not only serve as the economic weathervane and cultural weathervane but also as a written form of the social significance of the age completed in aesthetic manner.The author plans to make a study on the aesthetic characteristics of TV advertising in the consumption age based on the awarded TV advertisements from the 8th to 13th China Advertising Festivals as well as the TV advertisements in China Advertising Yearbooks from 2001 to 2005, "crazy advertisements" that won the Mobius Advertising Awards and Taiwan's Gold Award Winning Works. The author plans to make further study on aesthetic characteristics of TV advertising in consumption age and to make every effort to describe the future development trend of aesthetic characteristics of TV advertising in a foreseeable manner by starting with general rules of advertising and its aesthetics.With regard to methodology, the author utilizes the methodology for cultural and sociological study, combines quantitative study and qualitative study, uses the methods for text analysis in cultural study and statistical analysis in sociological study and chart and picture analysis, and employs the theories of culture science, sociology, communication, semiology, aesthetics etc based on content analysis to make a further analysis on the aesthetic characteristics of TV advertising in consumption age.The paper contains the following main views: firstly, in consumption age, aesthetics becomes a consumption activity. During aesthetic consumption, people consume social significance, self-identification and their own desire satisfaction. Meanwhile, aesthetics becomes production in terms of social significance and is expressed by advertising. Therefore, aesthetics has the connotation of social production and social consumption and integration of production and consumption of culture has been established. Secondly, the interaction between TV advertising aesthetics and consumption. Thirdly, aesthetics in consumption age reflects the internal consistency of "antinomy" between utilitarianism and aesthetic characteristics and the integration of utilitarianism and economy. Fourthly, aesthetics in consumption age is life consciousness of people, and concern about and pursuit of the meaning of a happy life, and representation, attention and elevation of the meaning of livelihood and life that people comprehend and grasp. Fifthly, the consumption Utopia built up with highly visual cultural power by TV advertising in the consumption age greatly impair the individual consciousness and critical rationality of consumers, which makes customers trap in the rational termination while being satisfied with virtual consumption.The important value of the paper is represented in the following aspects: firstly, at present, there is no comprehensive and systematic study on the aesthetic characteristics of TV advertising in consumption age by domestic academia. The author plans to analyze the underlying relationship between TV advertising & beauty and aesthetics, place the study on the aesthetic characteristics of TV advertising in the context of consumption age to make analysis, thus make a comprehensive and systematic analysis on the aesthetic characteristics of TV advertising in consumption age, so as to fill the gap from theory and practice. Secondly, the author analyzes the cultural industry of the age by analyzing the awarded TV advertisements and tries to make some general conclusions by analyzing the typical cases. Thirdly, the author studies TV advertising from the angles of aesthetics, literature and art, communication, economics, cultural study etc, make text analysis and statistic analysis, combines the quantitative study and qualitative study, which is new in terms of methodology.The dissertation consists of seven chapters.Chapter first is the introduction. The author has stated TV advertising aesthetic characteristics in consumption age proposition and defined the notions like consumption age, TV advertising, aesthetic characteristics. Research objective and research methods are described in this part.Chapter second, the present representation of the temporal aesthetic characteristics. In consumption age, aesthetics is life consciousness of people, and concern about and pursuit of the meaning of a happy life, and representation, attention and elevation of the meaning of livelihood and life that people comprehend and grasp. Nature included in "objectization of human nature" said by Marx represents the meaning of a conscious life. In such an age, the core of aesthetic spirit lies in people's truthfulness and kindness toward real life and concern, reform, elevation and creation toward beauty by the ways they understand. However, the realization and practice of these depend on, more or less, aesthetic standard of daily life. In this age, the aesthetic standard of daily life has already forced the cultural standpoint and theoretical perspective of classical aesthetics to make corresponding adjustment in a conscious way: the former classical aesthetics has already broken through the narrow shackles of beauty-for-beauty and deeply pierced into people's living activities, so as to strengthen the power of aesthetics in real life and exalt people's mental outlook through analysis of people's living activities in the age. Undoubtedly, the relationship between aesthetics and people's life has already become the internal foundation for aesthetical transformation in the new age. Aesthetics is now shifting its former abstract thought of ascertaining whether beauty exists or not from a fixed point of substantiality to pay attention to the living conditions of contemporary people, the value and meaning of life by its own ways. Such transfer in the perspective of the existentialism means aesthetics' involvement in building contemporary people's attitude toward existentialism by its possible means and erection of the transcendent coordinate for people's existence through its affectionate call for ideals, and thus properly shoulders the historic mission of reforming and constructing the beauty of human nature. After all, the true human concern stemmed from beauty and aesthetics is neither simply the care and goodwill expression of common sense nor abstract humanitarianism and void universal love; rather, it reveals the inner spirit, character, faith, ideal and esteem of ordinary people and carries forward the virtues of self-contained naivety, fortitude, kindness, and mutual help. All of these just conform to the truthfulness, kindness and beauty maintained by human concern.In consumption age, aesthetics becomes a consumption activity. During aesthetic consumption, people consume social significance, self-identification and their own desire satisfaction. The aesthetics in consumption age reflects the internal consistency of "antinomy" between utilitarianism and aesthetic characteristics and the integration of utilitarianism and economy. The aesthetics in consumption age pays attention to astoundment and zero distance. The aesthetics in consumption age is a sensuous "visualization", pursuing sensuous joy and excitement. This also means in consumption age, advertising looks as if conflict between utilitarianism and non-utilitarianism and between rationality and non-rationality but it actually reflects flexibility rather than conflict. That is because both the said utilitarianism and non-utilitarianism are actually based on utilitarianism. The only difference lies in their respective ways of realization and expression. Hence, it can be said that only advertising actually achieves internal consistency and integration that the traditional aesthetics fails to achieve in a temporal manner.Chapter third, the interaction between TV advertising aesthetics and consumption. The image-like characteristics of consumption age and basic characteristics of TV advertising happen to coincide with each other. The said TV advertising here mean modern video and audio advertisements broadcast by TV stations by comprehensively applying such artistic expression methods as character, image, color, sound and activity with TV sets as the advertising media and audience as object. TV advertising has had great social influence on expressing the significance of consumption age by means of TV platform. The great propagation force owned by TV makes it become the holographic text recording changes of the age. TV advertisements broadcast in the holographic text are not only an important component of contents broadcast by TV but also necessary economic source to maintain other TV programs.Chapter fourth, the relation between TV advertising aesthetics and social production. In consumption age, aesthetics also becomes social production in terms of social significance and is represented by advertising. Therefore, aesthetics has the connotation of social production and social consumption and integration of production and consumption of culture has been established. TV advertising embodies beauty by means of image, which determines that the requirements of TV advertising for visual beauty are far different from other forms of advertising. Through symbol system and visual image, TV advertising integrates the consumer into' huge social identity and symbolic significance relationship. And people determine and establish the relationship between themselves and others and their identities through consumption of symbolized commodities. Advertising gives commodities symbolic meaning, which enables commodities to reflect certain social relationship and status by itself, thus people constitutes certain significance in consumption and reflects certain cultural meaning.Chapter fifth, the relation between the aesthetic characteristics of TV advertising and social psychology. Social identity is the important factor of distribution of social resources, that is, the identity and taste identified by the society become the important factors affecting distribution of social resources, which is universally agreed as a result of prevalence of mass media. Therefore, people intentionally attain and show their social identity. Traditionally, people obtain and show their social identity based on hereditary system, bloodline, race and so on, thus it is unnecessary to obtain more symbols for acquisition of social identity. Nevertheless, in consumption age, people need more symbols to obtain their identity, and symbols directly show their social identity and indirectly affect the distribution of social resources. The occupation of social resources also means the occupation of social aesthetic resources. People with more social resources hope to occupy more aesthetic resources and be more unique, so as to optimize resource allocation.TV advertising is a production in terms of social significance. It helps people find and consume their own personality and thus realize self-identification or helps individual achieve the socialization of personality. Actually the personality is a kind of "type personality" or "universal personality", that is to say, it's the personality of a type of persons instead of a personality completely owned by individuals. Only when everyone shows his own personality at the same time without prior consultation, we can find that our personalities are identical with those of others, which brings about the birth of fashion. That is to say fashion is actually originated from the collection of similar personalities.Chapter sixth , the relation between TV advertising aesthetics and daily life. Since the motive of advertising is to persuade consumers to buy advertised products, any aesthetic pursuit of advertising is to pursue the maximum interests and the pure and rational aesthetic orientation and tastes in aesthetic expression of advertising are being replaced by worldly and popular ones. Aesthetics becomes the activity of daily life, so the core problem of aesthetics in the consumption age is the esthetic reconstruction of people's daily life.Nevertheless, due to the "sale-centered" banner, TV advertising stimulates consumers' desires with strong audio-visual and dazzling sensuous images, but its promises are rarely made good completely in the real consumption. That means consumption Utopia built up with highly visual cultural power by TV advertising greatly impair the individual consciousness and critical rationality of consumers, which makes customers trap in the rational termination while being satisfied with virtual consumption.The concluding has summarized sevral common features for TV advertising aesthetic characteristics in consumption age. In a word, the research has reached its research objectives.