Consumer Culture and Advertising (Kaiserlian)

North American culture is obsessed with the policing of words, oral or spoken. Words drive the major  institutions of government and society. Images, on the other hand, are a medium where individuals and corporations can make major claims without fear of legal reprisal.

This project addresses the ways women, through the objects they make, buy and display, participate in important contemporary debates about women’s creativity, crafting and feminism.  Third-wave feminists did not “discover” knitting, quilting and cross stitch; women’s traditional arts were extremely important to second-wave feminists in establishing women artists as legitimate and important.  Artists like Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro and Faith Ringgold broke new ground in incorporating patchwork, quilting, lace and embroidery into their very political and c

            Popular discourse frames the family meal as an important practice that is in decline. Research shows that children who eat with their families more often are at lower risk for drug and alcohol use and do better in school. The family meal is also seen as a symbol of stability and morality. Historically, the idealized family meal has rarely been the norm, although many contemporary families do eat together often.

This study examines Sidelines Pub, a sports bar/pub located on the University of Denver campus. The establishment was renovated in 2007 in an attempt to create a social spot for students, faculty, and staff. Integral to the renovation was the focus on a University of Denver Athletics aesthetic. Findings show that while patrons of Sidelines Pub are inundated with the University of Denver brand they may not passively consume the market strategy. Instead, tactics of resistance are used that create an alternative to what was intended by the renovation. 

The significant rise of industrial manufacturing processes in food production after World War I brought about a major change in how and what Americans ate. Consumers, no longer primarily relying upon foods grown in home gardens or purchased from trusted neighborhood markets, desired reassurance that the modern packaged products they were buying were flavorful, nutritious, and safe for consumption.

This paper argues that the act of consuming food products, and by extension the narratives used to advertise those products, is essential to the rhetorical construction of identity, both individual and collective.