Book even uses Kafka to debate literature in advertising – 03/15/2024 – Market

What do works by authors such as Franz Kafka, Fernando Pessoa and Rosa Montero have to say about advertising? At first, it may not seem like much. But a careful look reveals curious perspectives on the subject.

This is the proposal of the collection “From Macondo to the Land of Marlboro”, by João Anzanello Carrascoza, which brings together 11 essays published in academic journals and focused, for the most part, on the concept of “retextualization”.

The term refers to the transposition of texts from a certain domain to another. In this case, from fiction to the scientific context, with the purpose of relating them to studies in advertising.

In the book, published in August last year, readers unfamiliar with the area’s jargon can easily understand them from excerpts from renowned writers — with some of them even focusing specifically on the subject.

For example, in the article “Frozen Peas”, the author uses a short story from the book “Nem Vem”, by Lydia Davis, to explain concepts such as consumption fetish and “appetite appeal”, manipulation of consumer appetite using makeup images of products, the so-called “mock-ups”.

“The peas pictured are three times larger than those inside the package, which, along with the dull coloring, makes the whole thing even less appetizing — it gives the impression that the peas are overripe,” writes Davis.

There is an irony in the excerpt that operates on two fronts, as the narrator complains not about the quality of the food, as would be expected, but about its packaging. Furthermore, she points out that the content is better than the form, and, after all, it is a package of frozen peas, from which you certainly cannot expect much.

“The consumer recognizes and accepts the image of perfection conveyed by advertising messages, knowing, however, that it does not correspond to the obviously imperfect physical conditions of the product”, says Carrascoza.

Meanwhile, Kafka’s short story “A Hunger Artist” is used to discuss guerrilla advertising actions. The futuristic novel “Lágrimas na Chuva”, by Rosa Montero, to reflect on the logic of interruption and “product placement” (insertion of product in program content), which is increasingly less discreet, see the phenomenon of the film “Barbie” last year.

According to the author, in the same way that advertising was nourished by the arts to build its foundations, from time to time art makes use of it, in alignment or opposition to it.

“Advertising operates through this discursive alchemy, transforming the realm of material conditions into the realm of symbolic achievements,” writes Carrascoza.

Which can sometimes seem like an exaggeration. in fact, it is also slowly revealing itself as an alternative method for investigating fiction literature.

The retextualization strategy, in fact, works in a two-way street by showing that advertising objects can even be read as art, although their discourses are generally closed to polysemy.

These encounters between literature and advertising help to remember how readers and consumers are influenced by books and products in relatively similar ways. The difference is that, in theory, only one would have purely commercial purposes.

A chapter dedicated to the role of packaging shows how they have been the stage, among various types of discourse, for the values ​​of the brands they represent.

“Packaging has become spaces not only limited to product information, but also open to the institutional dissemination of brands, their sustainability commitments and, in particular, their discursive current”, says Carrascoza.

With well-defined and accessible target audiences due to big tech algorithms, companies today establish an even more direct dialogue with their consumers.

In another example, a short story also by Lydia Davis is used to discuss the case of second-rate foods similar to regular products and the reduction in the weight of products to disguise inflation, a process known as “shrinkflation”.

Ultimately, a literature approach to understanding advertising (and vice versa) enriches the reader’s relationship with both and gives space to understand the market’s own movements.

“I saw that you claimed that the portion had six units and specified that there were around twelve and a half portions per serving. I did the math and calculated that the pot should contain around 74 units. Frankly, I don’t believe that there were 74 candies there”, writes Davis in the short story “Letter to a Peppermint Candy Factory”. Who never?