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

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.