广告影响下的消费者主体变迁研究

Research on the Changes in Consumer Subjectivity Under the Influence of Advertising

  • 摘要: 消费者的广告抵触行为对购物决策与企业绩效有显著影响。 本文以福柯的权力-话语-主体观为视角,分析消费者在古典时代、印刷时代、电子时代和数智时代四个广告发展阶段中的主体变迁。研究发现,在古典时代,广告对消费者的塑造较为有限;在印刷时代和电子时代,广告的影响力显著增强;在数智时代,广告通过个性化、机制化和程序化手段,塑造了高度受控的消费者,并促使其在自我规训中转化为主动购物者。同时,广告借助评论与净化机制,引导并强化消费者的认知与行为,部分消费者甚至成为广告的合谋者。基于上述分析,本文提出广告与消费者的和解之道:企业应削弱广告规训,推行广告共创模式,强化帮扶功能,促进广告产业良性发展,并引入第三方制衡;而消费者则应通过以直言为核心的自我技术,成为践行自由的伦理主体。

     

    Abstract: Consumers desire to maintain self-subjectivity and control over their lives, yet advertising often objectifies them into subjects aligned with promoting specific products. This transformation frequently provokes resentment, disgust, and complaints. While such resistance reflects consumer dissatisfaction, it also hinders access to valuable shopping information, disrupts decision-making, and reduces marketing efficiency and business outcomes. Despite the growing complexity of advertising strategies and their profound impact, neither academia nor industry has provided a viable solution for addressing advertising resistance. This study explores how advertising shapes consumer subjectivity and the forms of subjectivity that emerge as a result. Without viewing consumers as moldable subjects and analyzing the issue from this perspective, it remains challenging to interpret resistance behavior or reconcile the relationship between advertising and consumers. The research addresses two central questions:How does advertising shape consumer subjects? What kind of subjects do consumers become under such influence? Among theoretical frameworks, Michel Foucault's perspective on power, discourse, and subjectivity provides a compelling lens. Foucault explains how power and discourse interact to shape subjects and offers insights into resulting subjectivities. Building on his concepts, this study defines the consumer subject as a “moldable form” and views advertising as a mechanism for exercising power and practicing discourse. This study adopts a temporal perspective to trace how advertising has shaped consumer subjectivity across different historical periods and analyzes the mechanisms by which contemporary advertising continues to shape consumer behavior. In doing so, the research aims to propose effective strategies to address the challenges of advertising resistance. At the theoretical level, this study utilizes the power-discourse-subject framework to conduct a holistic and process-based analysis of the role of advertising in shaping consumer subjectivity. It aims to expand the research boundaries of marketing, advertising, and consumer behavior. At the practical level, the study seeks to establish a reconciliation pathway between advertising and consumers, ultimately improving the effectiveness of advertising communication and promoting the sustainable growth of corporate performance by mitigating advertising resistance. The findings reveal that in the classical era, advertising's power and discourse mechanisms were underdeveloped, resulting in minimal influence on consumer subjectivity. Consumers could easily resist advertising's effects. During the print era, institutionalized power strategies, discursive dividing practices, and truth-based knowledge dissemination enabled advertising to exert greater influence. Consequently, consumers found it harder to resist, aligning their behaviors more closely withadvertising goals.The electronic era saw further advancement, with institutionalized and systematized power mechanisms, authoritative discourse, and repetitive messaging amplifying advertising's influence. Resistance became even more challenging, and consumer behavior became more aligned with advertising objectives. In the digital-intelligent era, advertising reached unprecedented sophistication, employing personalized, programmatic, and systematized strategies. Functions such as discourse commenting and purification further refined its influence. This led to the emergence of two distinct consumer identities:highly controlled consumers and self-driven, active shoppers. The latter actively engage in consumption, shaped by advertising mechanisms. The digital-intelligent era thus underscores advertising's profound impact on consumer subjectivity. To reconcile advertising with consumers and address resistance, the study proposes six strategies:respect consumer autonomy and avoid manipulation; adopt a co-creation model for equal collaboration; emphasize advertising's supportive role by providing meaningful information; foster an independent advertising industry to ensure ethical practices; involve third-party institutions as checks on advertising power; and encourage consumers to become ethical, autonomous subjects who resist passive shaping.

     

/

返回文章
返回