“Publicity is different. It appeals to a way of life that we aspire to, or think we aspire to, but have not yet achieved. A publicity picture suggests that if we buy what it is offering, our life will be different from what it is.”
“Scene after scene show us this different life.”
“Not only will our home be different but all our relationships will become radiant because of our new possessions.”
“But we can only achieve such radiance if we have money.”
“And so publicity also works on our anxieties about money.”
“Urging each of us to scramble competitively to get more, Making money appear as if it were itself magical.”
“[Publicity] promotes the illusion that a man’s ability to consume is directly related to his sexual virility. According to the rules of the dream, those who do not have this power, those who lack glamour, become faceless, almost non-existent. Publicity both promises and threatens. It plays upon fear. Often the fear of not being desirable, of being unenviable. It suggests that you are inadequate as you are, but it consoles you with the promise of a dream.”
Words: John Berger, Ways of Seeing Episode 4.
RIP John Berger
RIP Arsenal’s season
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