Abstract
Advertisements surround and inundate us with stories about technology. A technology devoted to persuasion, advertising seeks to convince us that technology is what we need, need more of, and cannot do without. Advertising disseminates a narrative of ineluctable and always beneficial technological progress. TV commercials serve up parables about technology. They suggest that technology liberates, enables, and empowers us. In these micro-narratives, technology solves all problems and breeds success. A subtle form of propaganda, advertising conditions and regulates us so that we adapt ourselves to and participate in a desired pattern: existence adjusted to and in accord with the technological system. Above all, advertising tempts and seduces us with promises that technology can make life and every human being better every day in every way.
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Used with the kind permission of Hewlett-Packard.
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van der Laan, J.M. (2016). Advertising Technology. In: Narratives of Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43706-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43706-8_9
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-44030-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-43706-8
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