2. What is the Culture Industry?
For Theodore Adorno of the
Frankfurt School of
Economics (1903-1969),
advertising creates false needs.
This is a Marxist view. He argued
that capitalism fed people with
the products of a 'culture
industry' - this was his coinage.
This is the opposite of 'true' art
and keeps audiences passively
satisfied and politically apathetic.
Adorno suggested that culture
industries produce an un-fluid,
mass of unsophisticated,
sentimental and precious
products, which have in turn
replaced the 'difficult' and critical
art forms, which might lead
people to question social life.
3. How do false needs impact people?
False needs are cultivated and
dominated in people by the culture
industries. These are needs which can
be created and satisfied by the
capitalist system that replace people's
true, actual and vital needs to survive
- freedom, full expression of human
potential and creativity influencing
creative happiness.
Products made by the culture
industry could be emotional and
possibly moving, but Adorno sees this
as cathartic - seeking some comfort in
a sad film or emotional song,
expressing this emotion with a cry
therefore feeling restored by doing
so.
