So, where were we? The housekeeping department has been away for a couple of weeks in order to see loved ones in Paris, but it is now time to return to business and get our house in order. We thus continue where we left off:
When the ethopoetic relation to textual fragments becomes constitutive of the I by which you meet your reader, your fellow, your brother, with whom you then establish a doxopoetic relation, there is trouble. The fragments are presented as a totality by the name of I. “I” is the incorporation of the different fragments who bear the rather technical name, hypomnemata, meaning memory aid or substantification of memory. But is this totality possible? Is the incorporation of hypomnemata possible without an irreducible difference or maybe even “DiffĂ©rance” between the fragments and their meaning?
It is probably time to whip up an example. L’OrĂ©al once used the slogan “Because I’m worth it”. This slogan became “Because you’re worth it” and then simply “You’re worth it”. All slogans were and are pronounced by various heroes of popular culture – models, actors and even a race car driver. I say! It’s so elegant, so intelligent!
The first slogan, of course, indicated that this distinguished representative of the entertainment industry is a delighted user of the given product. The idea probably was, that the viewer of this distasteful spectacle should cry out “I want that, too!” because the viewer wants to be just as cool, rich and recognized as the celeb. It is worth noting that the celebrity is worth it, i.e. is living up to the standard of the product and not the other way around.
The second and third slogans, who are basically identical, intimate that the viewer is now the one who is worth it. And since the slogans still come from our distinguished representative of the electric tin can soup that is modern media, the viewer is supposed to take the bate and exclaim, “Indeed I am!” Again the viewer accepts to live up the divine glory of the soapy satisfaction brought to you by L’OrĂ©al.
And this, finally, is somewhere near to what we were getting at! Accepting the message of the advertisement, thereby affirming what we with Althusser might call “interpellation”, and responding as intended, “I want that, too!” or “Indeed I am!”, the viewer tries to incorporate the magic of L’OrĂ©al in his or her hypomnemotic totality. But as long as the viewer turned consumer incorporates the proposed hypomnemata via this interpellation the incorporation is impossible. If the incorporation is a result of the interpellation, the I will only exist as long as the I demonstrates its incorporation.
We should quickly remark that according to French linguist Benveniste the subject, “I”, only exists as long as the I is pronounced. We should probably have mentioned this earlier but the combination of bloggery waffle and subtle theory is not alway straight forward. So, the subject, I, depends on the pronunciation of “I”. And what the advertisement slogan is basically suggesting is, that you constitute your “I” by the pronunciation of “I am worth it!”, i.e. “I” am only as the incorporation and continuous pronunciation of L’OrĂ©al.
We shall, of course, get back to what this pronunciation of L’OrĂ©al actually entails. But first, yet another “To be continued”…
Tags: advertising, Branding, desire, Housekeeping, it, libidinal economy, subject
