The line between manufacturing and services is not as sharp as it appears ? nor is the line between what's real and what is not
Remember that silliest of election sagas about whether David Cameron's posters were airbrushed? There were strident denials, but these cut little ice amid Tory concessions that their leader was daubed with make-up. Under harsh studio lights most politicians are, but few punters saw much distinction between one artificial improvement and another. The Airbrushed For Change stunt went viral.
Similar themes bubbled up this week, as the Advertising Standards Agency ruled against overly enhanced images of Julia Roberts in a L'Oreal cosmetics commercial. The move followed a spirited campaign by the Lib Dem MP, Jo Swinson, who is properly concerned about what happens to girls' body images when Pretty Woman is not pretty enough. And, of course, the ASA is there to burst egregiously overblown claims for products, regardless of whether these are made with pictures or words.
There is, nonetheless, something quirky about a ban on touching-up the effects of a product designed to touch-up real skin. In harsh business terms commercials are a solid activity: we journalists sit atop it as epiphenomenal froth. And yet, because advertising is about shifting perceptions, it is always a slippery subject to grapple with. Sales pitches need to be made sensitively ? witness Microsoft's toe-curling apology after an RIP tweet for Amy Winehouse which urged grieving fans to cough up for a download. Even tasteful commerce stirs intellectual unease when analysed in the abstract. Shoppers like to think they are rational and able to see through sales spin.
But dive down from imagined generalities into specific preferences over real products, and all that is solid melts into air. As the advertising guru, Rory Sutherland, explained to Stephen Fry on Radio 4 this week, few cars are bought solely to get from A to B, with no regard for look or feel, and fewer shoes are exclusively chosen because of their effectiveness in protecting feet. Like it or not, real shoppers do not operate like the calculating consumer that economists conjecture; instead they value things subjectively. Until everyone has the necessities of life, conspicuous consumption will be distasteful. But humans have always indulged in it where they can, and Mr Sutherland ventured the ingenious argument that glamour can be a green purchase, since it can be produced without belching factories.
This week's GDP figures produced the usual soul searching about whether Britain any longer makes "anything real". But from design-heavy gadgets to meticulously packaged soft drinks, the line between manufacturing and services is not as sharp as it first appears ? nor is the line between what's real and what is not.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/27/advertising-asa-airbrush-politics-editorial
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