Films to Choose From: Art & Copy (2009) The September Issue (2009) Shop ‘til You

Films to Choose From:
Art & Copy (2009)
The September Issue (2009)
Shop ‘til You Drop Off (2010)
Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women (2010)
A Star Is Born (2018)
You are required to pick two of the film texts and compare their presentation of the promotional
industry: what is the relationship between art, the culture of rebellion and advertising? Is it possible for
the practices of advertising and promotionalism – which focus on the successful and continuous selling
of products – to become a form of resistance to capitalism, i.e. to the system that makes this form of
communication possible in the first place? What is the impact of emotions in the creation of advertising
campaigns? In what ways advertising is a form of ideological thinking and in what ways it is not? What is
our everyday relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, with the people who design
them? In what way the advertising campaign for a presidential candidate is similar to the advertising
agenda of a fashion magazine? What is your personal reaction to these similarities? Reflect on the
formal qualities of the documentaries – their objectivity, the narration, the camera work, the selection
of people for interviews. Your comparative analysis should be between 2000 – 2500 words.