Marketing the television apparatus for American consumption: Producing meaning in contemporary magazine advertisements

Contemporary magazine ads for television sets have much in common with their post WWII counterparts, the latter being produced during an era when the new technology was first getting installed in homes across the United States. Much has changed in the TV landscape since the postwar years. In particular, digital technology has altered the general terrain and set choices themselves are more diverse. Digital television began penetrating the marketplace in the 1990s and is predicted to become mainstream by 2010. Even though the cultural climate has shifted since the postwar era, along with the concept of the familial and traditional notions of gender, the rhetorical strategies in advertising are strikingly similar. This essay examines 11 national ads by Sharp, Philips, Panasonic and Pioneer taken from contemporary popular women's magazines between the years 1998 and 2005. This essay considers the discourses attached to the evolved television apparatus as its digital incarnation is introduced into the private sphere of American homes. Each of the ads is placed within the framework of political economy, reading changes in the ad industry and the broadcast industry in such a context.