Advertising and Consumption: Anthropological Studies in Brazil

This book argues for the study of consumption and its relationship with media images, particularly advertising, from a cultural perspective. Focused on Brazil, it draws on decades of research by the author and engages with theory and concepts from a range of classic anthropological works. The chapters examine how advertising professionals view their craft, the resistance to capitalism amongst native Brazilians, images of women and their bodies in magazines, and the case of the first soccer player to become a national media celebrity. Rocha supports the study of consumption as a classification system that materializes culture and creates relations between people and goods. The book presents advertising as a mode of magical thinking that mediates the passage from the machine-driven sphere of production to the humanized sphere of consumption, converting meaningless impersonal things into goods that have name, origin, identity and purpose. It will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists and others working on advertising, marketing, communications, and consumer research.

Everardo Rocha is a Full Professor in the Graduate Program in Communication of the Department of Social Communication at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil. He received his PhD in Social Anthropology from the National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). His research has the support of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for the Support of Research in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Faperj). Everardo Rocha is author of numerous books, edited volumes, and articles on the anthropology of consumption, advertising, and Brazilian culture.