Condensed Research: Extracting Points

Notes made off the back:

Brands use of mass media to expand their advertisement

(see table of definitions for source)

-       branded entertainment

-       BMW 2001 ‘the hire’ milestone

-       Top filmmakers and movie stars, evolving a genre

-       Its success started a trend and whole new era of advertisement

-       Covers all areas of consumerism – food, drink, cars, clothes

-       Christmas adverts

-       Presents technological shift in 2001

-       Multiple outlets means its reaching a mass target audience

-       Pop culture can generate whole platforms and environments for corporations to thrive

-       What’s next? Is there an opening for a shift to raising awareness of issues or promoting the ‘real women’ etc – dove campaign and bottle design

-       Branded events

-       Spatial-temporal phenomenon (Getz 2008)

-       Victoria secret fashion show – top models, musical performances by top artists (Rhianna/ Taylor Swift)  promoting the products – watched by 10s millions of people – broadcasted as an annual television show

-       Its affect on body image/ mental health

-       Highlighting consumerism and the power of celebrity endorsement

Constructive contributions – environmental education

Media treatment of the environment

Mass media used for environmental change – awareness – those in power dictate its exposure and thus popular culture is an alternative outlet that can be used to spread awareness – celebrities / social media  - a route around institutionalised media outlets

Case study: Japan

-       some of the highest newspaper circulation rates

-       ‘the average space devoted to environmental issues in newspaper grew from 0.4% in 1960, to 2.8% in 1972

-       news coverage on television quadrupled between 1960 and 1970

-       global issues getting more attention – Asahi newspaper went from having one article on the global environment in 1985 to 1218 in 1992

-       this dropped to 402 in 1996

-       ‘media in Japan tends to avoid criticising the public administration, the governing parties and potential private sector sponsors’

-       more official newspaper outlets are controlled by those answering to those who favour economic gain over environmental change and preservation

-       ‘traditional Japanese art, philosophy, literature and religious belief suggest a sensitive kinship with the natural world

-       philosopher Watsufi Tetsuro, ‘uniqueness’ of Japanese people & culture – ‘fudo’ (climate) are set of environmental influences that lie at heart of ‘nihnonjinron’ (the philosophy of being Japanese)

-       The Wests influence over the East through colonisation

-       Japan kept their values through avoiding colonisation and thus able to control the influx of ideas, philosophy, science and technology

-       Shintoism & Buddhism remained the most powerful forces shaping the Japanese view of the world and their teachings are such that present the gods as inhabiting nature

-       This shows how globalisation and industrialisation has fuelled the environmental damage of our time, and how these are environments where popular culture strives – can pop culture be to blame? Or now can we re-adjust the structures like in Japan but instead of through religion, through the existing structures of a globalised franchise of food, clothing, products – shift to environmental alternatives that can be advertised globally and sold globally

Paragraphs that summarise the research:

Branded entertainment was re-energised in 2001 when marketers discovered the Internet as a tool for promotion with the new generation of consumers. BMW’s 2001 ‘The Hire’ campaign was a series of Internet films that became a milestone in the progression of how advertisers would appeal to a populist market. Brands started to use top filmmakers and movie stars, surfacing a new genre of marketing communication. Its success started a trend and whole new era of advertisement of online branded films, a result of the 2001 technological shift. Covering all areas of consumerism – food, drink, cars, clothes – this genre of branded entertainment still thrives today with the evolution of Christmas adverts, started by John Lewis and now spread to many populist corporations like Burberry, who released in 2016 ‘The Tale of Thomas Burberry’, a three-minute hypothetical trailer written by Academy Award-nominated Matt Charman and directed by Academy Award-winning Asif Kapadia. Hence this utilisation of multiple outlets of mass media reaches a mass target audience. Pop culture can thus generate whole platforms and environments for corporations to thrive, so is there an opening for a shift to raising awareness of issues or promoting the ‘real women’. Such as done by Dove’s 2017 ‘Real Beauty” campaign where they released a limited edition collection of bottles representing varying body types.

As explored previously within the scope globalisation impacting body image ideals from the west to the east, environmental beliefs have also been at risk from populist western standards spread through a mass culture. The media in Japan play a decisive yet inconsistent role in the coverage of environmental issues (Fien,‎ Yencken, ‎Sykes, 2006).

In Japan…

 ‘the average space devoted to environmental issues in newspaper grew from 0.4% in 1960, to 2.8% in 1972

news coverage on television quadrupled between 1960 and 1970

global issues getting more attention – Asahi newspaper went from having one article on the global environment in 1985 to 1218 in 1992

this dropped to 402 in 1996

‘media in Japan tends to avoid criticising the public administration, the governing parties and potential private sector sponsors’

More official newspaper outlets are controlled by those answering to persons favouring economic gain over environmental change and preservation, however traditional Japanese art, philosophy, literature and religious belief suggest a sensitive kinship with the natural world.

Philosopher Watsufi Tetsuro explains the ‘uniqueness’ of Japanese culture to be a set of environmental influences called ‘fudo’ (climate) that lie at heart of ‘nihnonjinron’ (the philosophy of being Japanese).

The Wests held great influence over the East through colonisation, however Japan kept their values through avoiding colonisation and were thus able to control the influx of ideas, philosophy, science and technology. Shintoism & Buddhism therefore remained the instrumental players shaping Japanese beliefs, and their teachings are such that present the gods as inhabiting nature, thus keeping environmental conservation at the forefront of their principles. 

This shows how globalisation and industrialisation has fuelled the environmental damage of our time, and how these are environments where popular culture strives – can pop culture be to blame? Or now can we re-adjust the structures like in Japan but instead of through religion, through the existing structures of a globalised franchise of food, clothing, products – shift to environmental alternatives that can be advertised globally and sold globally