Memory and Advertising

Mark WalkerEnglish 701Reflections on the readings for 10/4
These articles again dispel the misconception that the Middle Ages were of nothing but ignorance. On the contrary, the way the people then dealt with the issue of memory was quite sophisticated. Considering the number of people who try to sell their memory-methods today, it is an ongoing issue.
I would like to explore the realm of advertising and how the field has made great use of methods for memory, albeit for mercenary pursuits. Oresme used imagery in his Aristotle translation to persuade (Gossett 28), but even he would have to admit that modern methods would eave him far behind. Advertising uses any existing medium, such as paper, radio, or television, and the internet. Madison Avenue bombards us with images and text, and often, there is sound as well, and the sound, image and text combine to compel the audience to remember, whether they like it or not—and buy the product. Images can be centered if on print or screen. In the computers ads may leap out of position and hijack the page for a few moments, images flashing by and text explaining what it is the producers of the ad want to sell.
The advertisers manipulate even individual letters as well. In a magazine article—Newsweek, I believe--from the 1970s, I read how the advertisers even used consonants not only to enhance memory but to fit the product. Toilet tissue was sold with s’s and soft c’s. For example, “Ceries is gentle and soft” while trucks bore k’s, hard c’s and t’s. For example “Kod trucks are tough!” The tissue is displayed lovingly, with the voice of a female. In the other case, on television, the image is of the truck, moving, bouncing over obligatory rocky Western terrain, and the deep, gruff voice of a male.
Unlike the medieval manuscripts, however, the commercial images may have absolutely nothing in themselves to do with any text. The picture of a warm family gathering may be linked with a text encouraging the reader to buy Rotgut Beer or a passenger van. Or the images may contain dialogue and a funny story, totally unrelated to the cell phone advertised.
Picture this actual advertisement, broadcast before some of the readers were born. Amidst a background of Gregorian Chant, a monk arrives from the scriptorium and tells the abbot that he has finished the manuscript. The abbot points his finger in the air and announces that he would like to have 500 copies. Desperate, the monk consults Xerox ™, which saves the day. The abbot, unaware of the association, looks at the sheaf of papers, not noticing the medium is not parchment, and declares a miracle. Both look up to the big letters of the company logo, but each for very different reasons. At this point, the Chant rallies with new vigor.
Here are multimodal considerations. The setting is in a dark monastery, the music from many monks offstage, the portrayals by the actors, and a seemingly discordant note, the Xerox™ copy machine. I don’t think the machine would be out of place, after the monks understand how it works. After all, these ignorant Dark Age primitives had developed a number of revolutionary inventions.
One more consideration is that after reading, I see that the monks wanted the readers to store information in their memory for an indefinite period, while commercials are short-term, with only one object in mind and that is the sale.