Utopias in conflict: History, political discourse and advertising

ABSTRACT

The concepts of ‘utopia’ and ‘ideology’ were key elements in political debate in the twentieth century, but seem to have disappeared from the scene in the twenty-first. After the collapse of communism, the media and intellectuals announced the demise of utopia, coinciding with the end of history and ideology. In common parlance, the use of the terms largely remains pejorative or, in academic circles, conceptually ambiguous. Despite their inherent ambiguity, this paper reflects on the role played by the concepts of utopia, hope and political imagination in the mobilisation of people. Three recent examples of advertisements are analysed in order to understand how utopian rhetoric is used and how their reception depends on their inclusion within broader cultural and political narratives.

KEYWORDS:

• Utopia
• history
• ideology
• persuasion
• mobilisation
• political action
• consumerism
• advertising
• social movements
• social media

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Núria Sara Miras Boronat is Lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. Her current research topics are contemporary social philosophy, particularly play, work, media and public opinion.

ORCID

Núria Sara Miras Boronat http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5914-1674

Notes

1. Levitas identifies five different meanings of ‘utopia’ in Marcuse's work (Levitas, 2010, p. 173). I refer primarily to the use of the term in Marcuse's ‘The End of Utopia’.

2. ‘To study ideology', writes John B. Thompson, ‘is to study the ways in which meaning (or signification) serves to sustain relations of domination' (quoted by Eagleton, 1991, p. 5). This is probably the single most widely accepted definition of ideology. The process of legitimation involves, at least, six different strategies. A dominant power may legitimate itself by promoting beliefs and values congenial to it; naturalising and universalising such beliefs so as to render them self-evident and apparently inevitable; denigrating ideas which might challenge it; excluding rival forms of thought, perhaps by some unspoken but systematic logic; and obscuring social reality in ways convenient to itself. ‘Such “mystification”, as it is commonly known, frequently takes the form of masking or suppressing social conflicts, from which arises the conception of ideology as an imaginary resolution of real contradictions' (Eagleton, 1991, pp. 5–6).

3. As I write this paper, some racist organisations, such as Pegida, Legida or Bärgida, are subjecting the meaning of the Montagsdemo to revisionism in the major towns of the former GDR: Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin. This is also indicative of the fact that once political projects (such as civil courage and calls for greater democracy) have become part of a society's imaginary, they can be updated in ways that break with their historical past, to the extent that they may even betray their original spirit.

4. Schiller wrote the poem in 1785 for his friend C.G. Körner. The poem was intended for a plaque in a Masonic lodge in Dresden. The idea of brotherhood interpreted in that context is therefore different from the meaning that we associate with the poem today.

5. Deutsche Telekom, which has its origins in the state-owned Deutsche Bundespost (the German Federal Postal Service), also ran the telephone network in West Germany, from 1947. In the GDR, the telephone service was part of the Post Office Ministry. After reunification, in 1990, the Deutsche Bundespost was divided into three companies (Postbank, Postdienst and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom), all of which remained controlled by the state. In fact, Deutsche Telekom only came into existence in 1996, after the privatisation of Deutsche Bundespost Telekom. In 2005 and 2006, Deutsche Telekom intended to fire more than 50,000 employees because of a deep financial crisis, although the conflict has been resolved. Today Deutsche Telekom is present in 50 countries and has more than 140 million clients.

6. In the months prior to 15M, a general climate of outrage had begun to emerge due to the indignation

against politicians who cared only about themselves, and against bankers who had wrecked the economy with their speculative manoeuvres, only to be bailed out, and to receive handsome bonuses, while citizens suffered early from the consequences of the crisis in their jobs, salaries, services and foreclosed mortgages. (Castells, 2012, p. 114)

7. See, for instance, the video ‘#SpanishRevolution’ calling for the Spanish people to awaken and join the movement, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSS7J3lhRWA