Episode 32: Advertising Christmas - a podcast by The Theory Doctors

This is Episode 32 of the State of the Theory Podcast.

Politics. Power. Popular Culture. And other stuff, probably.

In this series, we’re like super nerdy philosophical DJs: mashing up Serious Academic Questions with the most topical news and trends in pop culture. Each week, we’ll tackle a new topic and collide it with ‘critical theory’ (we’re pretty loose with our definitions, though, so expect the unexpected). Our aim is to destroy the stuff we know, explore the stuff we don’t and unsettle everything we think we know about the world. We take the obvious, the commonsensical, the certain, and then we rip it all to shreds. We are your theory doctors and we are always on call.

In this episode, we look at the phenomenon of the British Christmas Advert, and why we love them and hate them at the same time. We interrogate the ideology of humanism as it is constructed and reinforced through these adverts.

You can watch the Waitrose advert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtKYdG9r0Pk

You can watch the John Lewis advert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6lr_VRsEo

You can watch the Amazon advert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouu6LGGIWsc

You can watch the Sainsbury’s advert from this year here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5SGSCZe4E

You can watch the Sainsbury’s advert about World War 1 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoYsWavqL04

The Roland Barthes book is Mythologies (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mythologies-Vintage-Classics-Roland-Barthes/dp/0099529750/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480768513&sr=8-1&keywords=mythologies+roland+barthes)


Our theme music is "The Face of God" by The Agrarians (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Agrarians/The_Jovial_Shepherd/The_Face_of_God)

State of the Theory is brought to you by Hannah Fitzpatrick and Anindya Raychaudhuri

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