The Construction of Hyper-Reality of Advertisement in Consumption Culture

Abstract

In the light of Baudrillard’s theory on consumption (symbol, simulation and simulacra, hyper-reality), this thesis discusses a specific point in the process of goods circulation: creating a consumption market by constructing a hyper-reality in advertisement. On the one side, consumption and consumerism are introduced. In contemporary society consumption has already become a lifestyle. Consumerism has been internalized as a kind of social logic. On the other side, modern consumption takes symbols as the presentation of consuming. Symbol value substitutes subject value. Symbol appears; subject disappears. The reality is deconstructed. Hyper-reality is constructed. Finally, hyper-realistic advertisement is the driving force of the consumer society. Advertisement constructs a kind of hyper-realistic consumption cultural, which finally is rationalized as a general collective consciousness.