1997 46 Mins 1-893521-39-7 This film has subtitles English & Spanish

Advertising & the End of the World

Commercial Images & Cultural Messages
Featuring Sut Jhally

or

Synopsis

Advertising & the End of the World features an illustrated presentation by Sut Jhally of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the producer and writer of the award-winning Dreamworlds series.

Focusing directly on the world of commercial images, he asks some basic questions about the cultural messages emanating from this market-based view of the world: Do our present arrangements deliver what they claim -- happiness and satisfaction? Can we think about our collective as well as our private interests? And, can we think long-term as well as short-term?

Drawing from the broad arena of commercial imagery, and utilizing sophisticated graphics, Advertising & the End of the World addresses the issues these questions raise, encouraging viewers to reflect on their own participation in the culture of consumption.

Making the connection between society's high-consumption lifestyle and the coming environmental crisis, Jhally forces us to evaluate the physical and material costs of the consumer society and how long we can maintain our present level of production.

Advertising as Culture | How Do We Become Happy? | What Is Society? | How Far into the Future Can We Think? | Imagining a Different Future

Release Date:1997
Duration:46 Mins
ISBN:1-893521-39-7
Subtitles:English & Spanish

Trailers

Watch the trailer

Filmmaker Credits

Producer, Writer & Editor
Assistant Editor
Sanjay Talreja
Line Producer
Kim Neumann
Research & Production Assistant
Jeremy Smith
Camera & Graphics
Sanjay Talreja
Original Music
Thom Monahan
Text Graphics
Matt Soar
Post-Sound Engineer
Thom Monahan

Resources: Downloads and Related Links

Praise

"Sut Jhally's eye-opening Advertising and the End of the World is the one single indispensible videotape anyone interested in advertising should see."
- Robert W. McChesney
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"A brilliant deconstruction of consumerism. Like a martial artist who deftly redirects his assailant's energies, Sut Jhally turns Madison Avenue against itself. This film reveals not only the enormous power of advertising, but also its essential weakness: transparently false promises of love, friendship, and happiness packaged in commodity form."
- Nancy Folbre
University of Massachusetts
"Powerful, compelling, and disturbing -- a devastating and seamless critique of advertising. Sut Jhally is one of the most important and intelligent critics of commercialism in the world today... A 'must see' video for anyone interested in media, advertising, or economics."
- Juliet Schor
Harvard University
"Offers excellent social psychological and critical perspectives on the role of advertising in contemporary society... Here, focus is on concepts of hegemony, identities, commodities, the power of the image, and the social production of consciousness. Jhally argues that advertising's promise of 'the good life' through the purchase of products is a false one. Students relate well to this."
- Donna Lee King, Teaching Sociology