“Capitalist Realism” in Africa: Realities and Myths in Advertising is a multifaceted analysis of the role of advertising in the national development of Nigeria, and by extension, other African Nations. The book examines the unique political, cultural and religious systems that create the context for advertising in African countries and describes the unique historical, social, economic, communication and political context within which the practice of advertising takes place. Since the end of the Cold War, the several African nations (or "emerging countries") have undertaken concrete efforts to reform their political, social, and economic institutions as they strive to join the global economy and improve the socioeconomic conditions of their citizens. To achieve these goals, administrators have relied on various forms of mass media – including advertising – to promote these reforms and socioeconomic development. Despite some unique challenges and opportunities as well as controversies surrounding the role of advertising in developing economies, advertising literature relevant to African countries remains in a blind spot. “Capitalist Realism” in Africa: Realities and Myths in Advertising bridges this gap by offering an in-depth analysis of advertising in an area of the world that has been largely neglected and provides a ground for generating a discussion about the practice of advertising in an African context.

Annotation "Capitalist Realism" in Africa: Realities and Myths in Advertising is a multifaceted analysis of the role of advertising in the national development of Nigeria, and by extension, other African Nations. The book examines the unique political, cultural and religious systems that create the context for advertising in African countries and describes the unique historical, social, economic, communication and political context within which the practice of advertising takes place. Since the end of the Cold War, several African nations (or emerging countries) have undertaken concrete efforts to reform their political, social, and economic institutions as they strive to join the global economy and improve the socioeconomic conditions of their citizens. To achieve these goals, administrators have relied on various forms of mass media - including advertising - to promote these reforms and socioeconomic development. Despite some unique challenges and opportunities as well as controversies surrounding the role of advertising in developing economies, advertising literature relevant to African countries remains in a blind spot. "Capitalist Realism" in Africa: Realities and Myths in Advertising bridges this gap by offering an in-depth analysis of advertising in an area of the world that has been largely neglected and provides a ground for generating a discussion about the practice of advertising in an African context.

The mass production and diversification of media have accelerated the development of popular culture. This has started a new trend in consumerism of desiring new consumption objects and devaluing those consumption objects once acquired, thus creating a constant demand for new items. Pop culture now canalizes consumerism both with advertising and the marketing of consumerist lifestyles, which are disseminated in the mass media. The Handbook of Research on Consumption, Media, and Popular Culture in the Global Age discusses interdisciplinary perspectives on media influence and consumer impacts in a globalizing world due to modern communication technology. Featuring research on topics such as consumer culture, communication ethics, and social media, this book is ideally designed for managers, marketers, researchers, academicians, and students.

Keywords offers a conversational journey through the overlying terrains of politically engaged art and artistically engaged politics, combining a major statement on subversive aesthetics, a survey of radical film strategies, and a lexicon of over a thousand terms and concepts. No other book combines an ambitious essay on radical politics and aesthetics in film with a lexicon of terms and ideas, many of which are new and innovative Creates and illustrates over a thousand terms and concept, drawing its examples from a wide range of media Provides a broad timespan, covering the very ancient (Ramayana, Aristotle) to the most current (digital mashups, memes) Uniquely discusses the areas of film, television and the internet within one book No other book combines an ambitious essay on radical politics and aesthetics in film with a lexicon of terms and ideas, many of which are new and innovative

Composed with a touch of the panache of a former advertising copywriter, Kelso challenges readers to reflect on the social impact of advertising from multiple angles. The book uniquely combines personal anecdotes with a penetrating look at some of the most critical perspectives toward the field advanced by media scholars. A play on David Ogilvy’s legendary Confessions of an Advertising Man, the text disrupts the creative guru’s account with a highly accessible critique of advertising suitable for classes in disciplines as various as cultural studies, marketing, media studies, political science, and sociology. The book reflects the latest industry trends, especially the migration from legacy to social media vehicles like Instagram and Snapchat. Topics covered include a brief history of modern advertising in the United States, advertising’s influence on the so-called non-advertising content of the media, the ideological themes advertising inadvertently delivers, how advertising can privilege or marginalize various social constructions of identity, the controversial practice of targeting children, and how corporations often use advertising to superficially present a positive face while masking their profoundly darker sides. Incorporating a media-literacy approach, Kelso also offers an insider’s overview of the typical procedures advertising agencies take in strategizing, conceptualizing, and delivering campaigns.

Our economy is neither overwhelmingly capitalist, as Marxist political economists argue, nor overwhelmingly a market economy, as mainstream economists assume. Both approaches ignore vast swathes of the economy, including the gift, collaborative and hybrid forms that coexist with more conventional capitalism in the new digital economy. Drawing on economic sociology, anthropology of the gift and heterodox economics, this book proposes a groundbreaking framework for analysing diverse economic systems: a political economy of practices. The framework is used to analyse Apple, Wikipedia, Google, YouTube and Facebook, showing how different complexes of appropriative practices bring about radically different economic outcomes. Innovative and topical, Profit and Gift in the Digital Economy focusses on an area of rapid social change while developing a theoretically and politically radical framework that will be of continuing long-term relevance. It will appeal to students, activists and academics in the social sciences.

This deluxe hardcover survey, featuring profiles of 50 artists on the rise, is the definitive guide to contemporary African art. With African artists attracting sizable audience numbers to museums, setting sky-high auction records, and appearing in mainstream press, it has become impossible to overlook the cultural significance of contemporary African art today. Author and curator Osei Bonsu's engaging profiles of leading African artists—along with gorgeous full-color reproductions of their work—introduce readers to a generation of movers and shakers whose innovative artwork reflects on Africa as both an idea and an experience. Using diverse forms, languages, and expressions to articulate what it means to be a part of the world, these artists generate alternate histories and imaginative futures—work that is both personal and political, universal and incredibly specific. Their work helps define contemporary African art as a vast artistic and cultural movement. STELLAR ROSTER OF ARTISTS: Amoako Boafo, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Bronwyn Katz—from household names to up-and-coming artists, African Art Now features some of the most exciting artists working today. IMPORTANT AND TIMELY: Over the past two decades, contemporary African art has become part of the global mainstream, inspiring countless exhibitions, fairs, and auctions around the world. And yet, African art remains overlooked as an area of dedicated study due to continued academic and cultural bias. This book shines a spotlight on the artists whose wide-ranging accomplishments represent the shifting dynamics and boundless possibilities of African art today. Perfect for: Artists, art collectors, art lovers, and museumgoers Educators and students Anyone interested in learning about contemporary African art

As the world has been reshaped since the 1970s by economic globalization, neoliberalism, and financialization, writers and artists have addressed the problem of representing the economy with a new sense of political urgency. Anxieties over who controls capitalism have thus been translated into demands upon literature, art, and mass media to develop strategies of representation that can account for capitalism’s power. Reading Capitalist Realism presents some of the latest and most sophisticated approaches to the question of the relation between capitalism and narrative form, partly by questioning how the “realism” of austerity, privatization, and wealth protection relate to the realism of narrative and cultural production. Even as critics have sought to locate a new aesthetic mode that might consider and move beyond theorizations of the postmodern, this volume contends that narrative realism demands renewed scrutiny for its ability to represent capitalism’s latest scenes of enclosure and indebtedness. Ranging across fiction, nonfiction, television, and film, the essays collected here explore to what extent realism is equipped to comprehend and historicize our contemporary economic moment and what might be the influence or complicity of the literary in shaping the global politics of lowered expectations. Including essays on writers such as Mohsin Hamid, Lorrie Moore, Jess Walter, J. M. Coetzee, James Kelman, Ali Smith, Russell Banks, William Vollmann, and William Gibson, as well as examinations of Hollywood film productions and The Wire television series, Reading Capitalist Realism calls attention to a resurgence of realisms across narrative genres and questions realism’s ability to interrogate the crisis-driven logic of political and economic “common sense.”

The author, Jürgen Weber, brings together the results of various disciplines and his own research and experience as a sculptor and painter and stitches together an exciting new theory of perception of form. In doing so, Weber - who also has a scientific background - explores the fascinating question of what additional information the thing that is seen conveys. How do we tell the difference between a cheerful and a gloomy face? Why do we see that a bud will open shortly? Why do we find some phenomena to be dangerous and others to be desirable? These question have not yet been investigated in a systematic and scientific way, although they are of vital importance to our behaviour. No doubt, this book represents a unique and timely contribution to the many disciplines concerned with the wonders of perception.

Now in paperback, Fredric Jameson’s most wide-ranging work seeks to crystalize a definition of ”postmodernism”. Jameson’s inquiry looks at the postmodern across a wide landscape, from “high” art to “low” from market ideology to architecture, from painting to “punk” film, from video art to literature.