Advertising on the Edge of the Abyss: The Discomfort of Living and Consuming in an Age of Uncertanties

Abstract

What can consumption do? This rhetorical question leads us to consider that the advertising and consumer market exists on shifting sands, whose uncertainties are its pillars. Brands, products, and services are in constant metamorphosis. We consume and experience with the desire for these moments to be unique. Thus, the product life cycle undergoes a dizzying variation. This text intends to discuss contemporaneity and volatility in the advertising field, as well as to reflect on these changes arising from an era mediated by the internet, digitality, and the exacerbated use of diverse Artificial Intelligences. From this, it becomes urgent to consider the professionalisation of the advertiser, faced with a world whose representations are in digital, virtual format and online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is a need for studies and work in the field of media, artistic, advertising, and ethical literacy to form consumers who are more reflective and attentive to demands not only individual but also collective. To reflect on such issues, we engage with Le Breton (2015) regarding the transhuman and the virtualisation of the self, Foucault (1987) on surveillance and punishment reverberated in self-confessions in the media, generating an identity kidnapping, Maestrutti (2011), questioning nanotechnological and e-codable imaginaries, and Kotler (2021) discussing Marketing 5.0 directed by data and how to create a data ecosystem for better target market selection. We conclude that it is imperative to rethink the advertising field, target audiences, and the market, to collectively promote media, human, and ethical literacy for all.