Advertising as Religion

I found Jhally’s article, especially his ideas about Advertising as Religion really interesting. We’ve talked a lot about advertising creating an experience for consumers in order to make them feel like they need the product, and that “the function of advertising is to refill the emptied commodity with meaning”(221). In today’s world, where religion is often being replaced by other ideas, advertising can create that awe-inspiring vision for a person that needs to fill a void. Sometimes the consumer may not even know they have a void until they see an advertisement, but with proper marketing techniques the producers can trick the consumer into thinking they need to buy something to make their life better. This all reminds me of a documentary called “What Would Jesus Buy?” in which a famous activist who goes by the name of Reverend Billy, goes on a campaign to stop the “shopocolypse” that is world is facing. Reverend Billy uses religious themes to shock people into taking a step back and to question whether they really need a product, where it was made, under what conditions etc. Jhally brought in a quote by Jesuit scholar John Kavanaugh who argues, “advertising is part of a gospel based upon the commodity form –a world where people are identified through the things they consume as well as being dominated by them”(226). Today in a consumer-based world, advertising is only reinforcing the idea that people need what they are buying. People like Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping use the same techniques that advertisers use to sell products, sensationalizing etc., to try to dissuade people from over consuming. Below is the trailer to “What Would Jesus Buy?” it’s a pretty entertaining and interesting documentary.