Paul Mason Fotsch
Department of Communication
Office MCC 105 or 106
Office hours: Monday, Wednesday 10-11 am
email: pfotsch@weber.ucsd.edu

Course Description
Advertising is a part of our lives. This course will ask what impact advertising has on our economy and our culture. Topics will include the relation of advertising to consumption; the history of the advertising industry; the meaning of material goods in capitalist society; the impact of advertising on American politics; and approaches to decoding the messages of advertising.

Course Materials
Readings with a * are from a reader to be purchased from University Reader Service.
Books at Groundwork Bookstore:

Leiss, Kline and Jhally, Social Communication in Advertising.
Turow, Breaking Up America.

Final Project
Option 1: Choose a product and write a 6 to 8 page paper on how it is marketed. You will need to do research using business periodical literature and provide full citations.
Option 2: Requires permission from instructor. Produce a public service advertisement: either a full page print ad that can be made into a poster or a 30 second video. Note: you will not have access to equipment for this through this class, so this option is only for those who have access to media center facilities through another class or have access to computer graphics programs such as Photoshop. In addition to the PSA you must write a 3 page summary of the research you did for it. This project may be done in groups of two.

Introduction: Commodity Fetishism

Sept. 25
Hamel, "Killer Strategies That Make Shareholders Rich"*
Saporito, "Unstuck"*
Sanders and Kaptur, "Just Do It, Nike"*
Hammer, "Phil and Roger and Me"*

Theories of Consumption

Sept. 28
Luban, "The Political Economy of Consumption"*
Rowe, "Down Among the Economists"*
Durning, "Coffee"*

Sept. 30
Schor, "A New Economic Critique of Consumer Society"*
Keyfitz, "Consumption and Population"*

Oct. 2
Strudler and Curlo, "Consumption as Culture"*
Schudson, "Delectable Materialism"*

A History of Advertising

Oct. 5
Leiss, Kline and Jhally, Chapters 1,2

Oct. 7
Leiss, Kline and Jhally, Chapter 3, 4

Oct. 9
Leiss Kline and Jhally, Chapter 5, 6

Oct. 12
Kern-Foxworth, "Aunt Jemima: The Most Battered Woman in America Rises to the Top"*

Analyzing Advertisements

Oct. 14
Leiss, Kline and Jhally, Chapters 8,9

Oct. 16
Leiss, Kline and Jhally, Chapter 10

Oct. 19
Leiss, Kline and Jhally, Chapter 11

Oct. 21
Leiss, Kline and Jhally, Chapter 13

Political Advertising

Oct. 23
West, "Advertising and Democratic Elections"*

Oct. 26
West, "Political Advertising and News Coverage in the 1992 California U.S. Senate Campaign"*

Oct. 28
McConnell, "Battle lines form over free airtime"*
The Nation, "Free Air -- If You Earn it"*

Oct. 30 Midterm
Adbusters, "Reclaim the TV Airwaves" & "How to Create Your Own Print Ad"*

Looking at Women

Nov. 2
Blair, "Selling the Self: Women and the Feminine Seduction of Advertising"*

Nov. 4
Scott, "Fresh Lipstick -- Rethinking Images of Women in Advertising"*

Nov. 6
Entwistle, "Power Dressing"*

The Segmented Market

Nov. 9
Turow, preface, chapters 1-2

Nov. 11
Turow, chapters 3-5

Nov. 13
Turow, chapters 6-8

Nov. 16
Astroff, "Capitalšs Cultural Study: Marketing popular ethnography of US Latino Culture"*

Opposition or Appropriation?

Nov. 18
Frank, "The Marriage of hip and Square"*

Nov. 21
Falk, "Benneton Toscanini Effect"*

Nov. 23
Lewis and Rolley, "(Ad)dressing the Dyke: Lesbian looks and lesbian looking"*

Commercialism in the City

Nov. 25
Zukin, "Urban Lifestyles: Diversity and Standardization in Spaces of Consumption"*

Nov. 30
Davis, "The Park and the City"*

Dec. 2
Gottdiener, "Experiencing Themed Environments"*

Dec. 4
Presentations

Dec. 10
Final papers due