The impact of celebrity endorsement Coursework

The impact of celebrity endorsement - Coursework Example Marketing has always been a challenge and more so for products that are costlier as the customers for the same are restricted in numbers due to need for higher purchasing power. The common products of daily use are a must for all, and although the marketers need to push these products too, due to high competition by similar products, the real test for marketing lies in pushing the highly priced premium products like watches that can only attract discerning buyers who wish to be seen as a class apart from the ordinary buyer. Brands like Rolex, Omega and Breitling fall under this category of products. The rationale of a watch is to show accurate time and almost any watch can serve the purpose. However their class, premium features, speciality materials, extraordinary quality and their aura command certain respect from both the customer and the onlooker. They exude an aura for the user and awe of the observer. What motivates the customer to buy them? How are these marketed? Is value created through normal advertising or does it need special advertising support in form of celebrity endorsement? 2.0 Advertisement Companies need to advertise in order to spearhead their marketing efforts. Earlier advertisements were informative in nature and were used to convey the properties of the products and their general usefulness. Price information became a part of advertisement in order to bring home the point about it being affordable and competitive. The homogeneity of many products needed some distinguishing factors and for this branding of products was the new method of distinctiveness. A company could have different brands for a variety of products. Later even the branding of the company became an identifying factor for excellence of products or service. 2.1 Medium of Advertisements The first medium was the print media as this was the prevalent mass method and targeted consumers could read about the products. Rival companies made campaigns out of such advertisements and from positive advertisements portraying the

'Discipline & Punish (Foucault, 1975) is not just a history of the Essay

'Discipline & Punish (Foucault, 1975) is not just a history of the emergence of the prison but a history of the emergence of a - Essay Example Thus, Discipline and Punish could be deemed as Foucault’s critique not only on the effectiveness of prison in attaining its key objective—the disciplining of the prisoner by subjecting him to conditions that are marked by extreme surveillance and control—but also on the true reason for the emergence of various social structures today such as the government, school, and other institutions (Mc Gaha, 2000). Precisely, it is Foucault’s belief that such systems had only been created to cater the elite group (which I shall explore in more detail in the next part of the paper) that bolstered his onslaught on the basic foundations of human civilization. Specifically, by recognizing the essence of prison and other social institutions as merely ‘instruments’ used by the elite to maintain and enhance their power in society, Foucault was able to question essentially the possibility of attaining human freedom in modern-day society. In a deeper regard, I co uld surmise that Foucault’s attacks on social structures could be attributed to his anarchistic mindset (though not explicitly revealed in any of the texts) as he clearly disregarded the need for such systems. Therefore, human freedom must be seen as the act of ‘letting one be’ and not ‘following what and how one must be’. His precise bastardization of naturals or ideals (as will be discussed later on) could clearly provide an ideological nexus between his anarchistic mindset and his post-modern orientation. If seen in this context, Foucault’s take on the human essence (for the lack of a better term) is slightly existentialist. In this paper, I like to delve further into Foucault’s Discipline and Punish by dividing the discussion into four parts. The first part shall emphasize on the short history of the penal system, which could be traced back to 17th century. Through this part, I aim to highlight on the fact that the development of th e penal system had shifted the punishment from physical to mental. The second part will be dedicated to reinforcing the concepts of power and control as the main thrust for the creation of modern social institutions. This will infuse the significant role of the elite in the formation of such institutions. The third part shall zero in on Foucault’s conceptualization of human freedom as hardly attainable given the flaws in modern day systems today. By having this part, I am to provide a reasoning that encapsulates Foucault’s socio-political ideologies Evolution of Punishment and the Rise of the Penal System Following the flow of discussion in Discipline and Punish, Foucault opted to start (in a more detailed light) with a detailed discussion on public tortures and executions that transpired during the17th and 18th centuries. Presenting explicitly the execution of the Damiens, Foucault (1976) narrated, â€Å"after these tearings with the pincers, Damiens, who cried out p rofusely, though without swearing, raised his head and looked at himself; the same