Space, Place and Advertising

A long, long time ago, OK a year or so ago, I read a book by Doreen Massey, called 'Space, Place and Gender', which made me think a lot. It's a great book, read it.

I then read a book by Joshua Meyrowitz, called 'No Sense of Place', which is also a great book. You can read that too.

Both of these books made me think a great deal about how the changes within space and place, and the changes within technology have affected advertising. This thinking resulted in my BA thesis, which I'm putting out in my blog for anyone to read, and comment on, if they want. I'm open to anything, so please, be honest.

Here is a taste:

"The advent of new electronic media has changed the way consumers are. The Internet, in particular, has brought about a death of distance, a shrinking of space and place, and altering our social and spatial frameworks interminably. This has had untold effects on society, as was discussed using the theories of Doreen Massey and Joshua Meyrowitz. They both agree new electronic media have changed space and place, by effectively removing boundaries and borders between ‘places’; regardless of whether these be geographical places, or social ‘places’. Partly as a result of this, and partly as a result of the new and ‘improved’ media, the media landscape consumers are faced with every day has become blurred.

The dislocation of borders and boundaries has resulted in two major upheavals. Firstly, identity is no longer fixed, and our once secure sense of place, is now lost. Secondly, information that was once only available to a certain group is now effectively available, instantaneously, to anyone. Consumers are therefore more and more aware, and no longer ‘buy’ the ‘traditional advertisement’. Today they want to create, participate, produce, and to be entertained. Faced with this want, and the homogenisation of companies, in order to break through the plethora of advertising, companies have to reconsider their branding methods."

If you want more, you can download it here.