Telco-Ads: Double Fetishism and Commodification of Values

Abstract

Technology is a trend of postmodern culture and one of the instruments of this culture is media where a within weapon is advertisement. The study examines telecommunication advertisements of this age from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective with a view to exploring how the capitalist group uses advertisements to manipulate, exploit and influence their consumers to buy their product by ‘commodifying’ national and social values. A qualitative research was conducted, on telecommunication advertisements of Grameen Phone and Banglalink that are made based on nationalist, cultural, personal emotions of the country and of individuals, in five popular local television channels in Bangladesh. This study is guided by Marxist theory of ‘Commodity Fetishism’ to explore the underlying agenda of the projection of the advertisements. The findings of the study suggest that telecommunication advertisements of this era are using exceedingly heartrending incidents as the marketing policy to shape our ideology and belief to buy their products. Thus, commodification multiplies from product to values.