Transcript These exercises are intended to help you get started in studying the

These exercises are intended
to help you get started in
studying the anthropology of
stuff and the material culture
of everyday life. Questions to
bear in mind are: where did
the stuff come from, who
invented it and why, what
does it say and do, what effect
does it have on our lives?
©2011 Taylor and Francis
Perfume and cars
The world of advertising is full of made-up narratives about stuff. Perfume and
cars provide many good examples.
•
Exercise 1: Pick one or several examples of perfume and car advertisements,
and analyse what story or stories you think they are telling. Where did you
see the advertisements – in a magazine or newspaper, on television, on
YouTube or Twitter? How did the medium affect the message? Are they
aimed at different consumers, do they use different language?
•
Exercise 2: Design and write a perfume or car advertisement of your own, one
that tells a story through stuff.
•
Exercise 3: What are the similarities and differences between perfume and car
advertisements? © 2011 Taylor and Francis
Food and drink
Food and drink are examples of ‘stuff’ that are heavily loaded with meaning and values
embedded in stories. In the case of food, ‘love’ and ‘good times’ are frequent
narratives.
•
Exercise 4: A Pillsbury advertisement of the 1950’s and 1960’s said – Nothing says
loving like something from the oven, and Pillsbury says it best’. In other words – stuff
helps you to show you love a person or your family and friends by buying and preparing
particular foods for them. Find examples of ‘love narrative’ advertising, and analyse
them. What are they saying and how are they saying it?
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Exercise 5: The Coca Cola company is well known for it’s slogans – such as Things go
better with Coke’, Have a Coke and a smile, Live on the Coke side of life – and highly
visual advertising campaigns going back to the 1880’s. These ads not only show changes
in American culture over time, they have also been credited with creating American
culture, through promoting images of the ‘good life’, and popularising the familiar
image of a red-suited and bearded Santa Claus. Find advertisements for Coca-Cola from
different periods (the internet is great for this) , and compare them – what are the
similarities and differences?
For images see: http://www.beautifullife.info/advertisment/history-of-coca-cola-in-ads
•
© 2011Taylor and Francis
Stuff as people
• Sometimes stuff turns into people. Not real people – but
imaginary characters who are associated with particular
kinds of stuff. Sometimes these are aimed at grown-ups,
like General Foods Corporation’s character ‘Betty Crocker’,
the imaginary ideal home-maker, whose name and face are
found on a range of foods. More often, they are aimed at
children – think of all the breakfast cereal characters like
Tony the Tiger, or candy characters like the M&M’s that you
probably grew up with.
• Exercise 6: Find an imaginary character or characters
connected with particular kinds of stuff, and describe how
the characters make the stuff appealing to us.
©2011 Taylor and Francis