Advertising’s Illusion

Advertising is a destructive force that looks to exploit the ideals that this country was founded on. Jack Solomon’s essay, “Master of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” analyzes American advertising and its fallacy. Because of the freedom allowed in a democratic society, social mobility has always been a part of American culture. Through hard work and/or just plain luck, a person of lower class can become one of upper class in a very short time. This is very different than the majority of European societies, where the social classes are static, or mainly aristocratic. American advertising looks to exploit this characteristic of American society.
Jack Solomon and David Ogilvy both perceive advertising as something different than the other. Jack Solomon uses semiology, the study of signs, to analyze the American culture. He believes that the American paradox or the American dream is seen as being contradicted within advertisements. His main idea of adve...