On my refrigerator door, among travel magnets, postcards and photographs, I keep a magnet from an old Volkswagen ad, published in the 60s, which says: “He: goes to work in the morning and returns at night / She: takes the children to school. Go to the fair, go to the hairdresser, pick up mom, pick up the children from school, go to the seamstress. Take mom home. Go shopping in the city. She returns her nephews, goes to visit her friends, goes to see how Aunt Celina is doing, goes back to a friend's house to pick up the bag she had forgotten, etc. etc. etc. / Isn’t it fair that she has a Volkswagen all to herself?” 

I often look at this ad and reflect on how representative it once was. Yes. Today we can find it outdated, old, stereotypical. But, just a few years ago, a woman's role was exactly and only that: taking care of the house, the children and herself.  

To use the logic of Grant McCracken, anthropologist and researcher of material culture, advertising is an instrument that attributes meaning to consumer goods based on the meanings that already exist in the culturally constituted world. Thus, associating the male figure with work and the female figure with domestic tasks seemed to be a coherent choice. After all, it worked as a mirror of what was culturally and socially dictated. 

That's why, until recently, it was common to come across sexist advertising messages (how can we not remember beer advertising?); racists; fatphobic; heteronormative. Messages that reinforced sociocultural standards and encouraged consumption for its own sake. Messages that reflected the prejudices and consumerism of an extremely unequal and segregationist society.  

I don't think we live so far from that. Often, cancel culture and organized boycotts signal errors made by various types of brands and corporations in their communications and positions. But, at the same time, we are witnessing the growth of the consumerist movement and the transformation of genuine into brand value. Advertising, therefore, has reflected and produced the desires, beliefs and needs of a changing world.

As consumers, we are more informed and, therefore, demanding. As citizens, we began to use consumption as a form of political positioning. As communication professionals, we are more attentive to the stances of the brands we work for, making sure that raising certain flags must go beyond mere communication activism. Skrivanek svetainės vertimas

In my advertising classes, I always emphasize how important it is to look at the advertiser as an agent of history. Our advertisements both represent the behaviors, values, tastes and habits of each time, and act as meaning-making machines, starring the spirit of each time. I invite you, dear reader, to a journey of understanding our culture through the advertising world.  

For those who want to dive... 

DOMINGUES, Izabela. MIRANDA, Ana Paula de. Consumption of activism . Barueri, SP: Estação das Letras e Cores, 2018.

MCCRACKEN, Grant. Culture and consumption : new approaches to the symbolic character of consumer goods and activities. Rio de Janeiro: Mauad, 2003.

PEREZ, Clotilde. Advertising and the spirit of the time : under the iconography of reflection or indication of paths? São Paulo: ECA USP, 2014.

ROCHA, Everardo. Magic and capitalism: an anthropological study of advertising. 4 ed. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 2010.