The Populism and Elitism
By: Mike • Essay • 1,047 Words • November 9, 2009 • 1,946 Views
Essay title: The Populism and Elitism
Now in the twenty first century, there are many advertisers trying to get you to buy their product. They use a variety of ways to show us how good the product is. There are some people who may not care much the benefit of the product but they just only care about the fashion trend or the latest technology. The advertisers try to capture our attention on the product that we want to buy and some of them try to get different classes of people to buy their product. Therefore, the contradiction between populism and elitism is still apparent in American advertising and media because many consumers are still depend on the image and the significance of the product.
The definition of the populism is a political philosophy style that holds the common people to interest in it. The ad’s populism in the magazine is trying to appeal to everyone. It is not just for some certain persons or members of certain classes or groups. Elitism is opposite of the populism. It is for certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived as in intellect, social status, or financial resources. The advertiser uses the difference between the populism and elitism to capture the attention of people indifferent classes. Each of them has their own purpose to make the advertisement present the product to the consumer, in an appealing way.
The populism ad is to catch the attention of common people toward them product. They want to make sure that everyone has interest in the ad that is placed in the magazine. They want the consumer to think that the product which they see in the ad is good for them and that they can afford it. For some ads, they tend to make the consumer believe that even a common product can make us part of the higher class people. They try many different ways to get everyone have attention in that product. For example, ever year, the ad of the cars come out a new model, anybody include myself want to know how look like is. The front and back light of the BMW 525 I sedan look similar with the eagle eye for my opinion.
The elitism ad is to get some significant people or certain class of people to have the interest in that product. Most of their ads don’t get everyone’s attention. Those ads are just focus on specific person who has the interest in their product. They don’t express that everyone will read their ad and buy their product. For most of the time, these products always have a higher price than the populism product. For example, the ad is about selling the Mercedes-Benz car. The main focus of this ad is to have the intention of the rich or high class people to buy it. It is not type of car that the common people can have the money to afford it. Even though, the common people may have the interest in it, they are not the one who willing to buy it.
In Jack Solomon’s essay” master of desire: the culture of American advertising”, states that” because [consumers] are a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences” (410). There are many different types of consumers and because of that the advertisements have to make the different between the images of their product to their intended consumer. They need to make different kinds of ads to different types of people. The American advertising and media have to choose between the populism and elitism for their product. They need to choose the one that will fit their product images and help them to attract the audiences to watch it. They need to have a