Contemporary Visual Literacies: Advertising, Politics and Architecture
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The world of political communication is a realm of controversy, creativity and inevitably at times, a realm of public manipulation. It is a sub category of political science which has given rise to an almost infinite number of publications, studies and research projects aiming at understanding and improving the ability of politicians and political parties to ‘get their message across.’ Given the mediated nature of contemporary culture these studies have primarily focused on visual methods of mediated communication; the TV photo opportunity, the political broadcast and the campaign advert generally being considered the most important. Given the similarities between political communication in these formats and other more commercially orientated forms of communication, such as advertising, it is perhaps inevitable that a certain cross fertilisation has occurred. What this paper intends to do is draw out this parallel through a brief overview of the development of this relationship, followed by a direct comparison between a standard commercial advert and a recent political image. It will use a standard advertising methodology of analysis with the aim of underlining its central argument; that that during the past 50 years the techniques used in politics to ‘communicate’ with the public have become, to all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from the techniques used in standard commercial advertising. The images concerned are a typical semiotic advert promoting a branded car and an image of Barack Obama manufactured during the 2008 Presidential campaign. In both examples special attention will be paid to the role of architecture, thus setting up a tripartite analysis of advertising, politics and architecture.