nature culture

What is this blog about?

This blog asks specific questions about portrayals of ‘nature’ in car advertisements; What and where ‘nature’ is, what it is comprised of and how people should BE in relation to it. Based on theories of the Production of Nature, this blog hosts much of the data for my study into the mythic forms of nature portrayed within car advertisements in National Geographic Magazine.  For the sake of this blog, I will include video car ads in addition to print images.

My purpose for doing this work is to understand the myriad ways our relationship to ‘nature’ is created, reinforced or reinterpreted by advertising. I chose car advertisements because car culture is a huige part of the American way of life, really, the modern reinterpretation of the American Dream of a house with a lawn and white pickett fence, two car garage with two cars inside! This materialist popular reinterpretation of our founding Fathers assurances of our right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ has been key in shaping our world into what it is today; afterall, it takes globalisation, the widespread degradation of ‘nature’ / the environment, the explotation of people  as workers and many other offenses to actualize that suburban middle class ideal.

All of that is to say that I find these issues of paramount importance, timeliness and in need of critical analysis and discussion with everyday people so as to raise awareness of yet another subliminal method used to continue our current explotative and unsustainable relationship with ‘nature’ and other people, that is, the world around us, our Environment.

I welcome discussion about alternative interpretations of the ads that I place on this blog. I am also interested in the ways that these advertisements are interpreted by everyday people not overly concerned with the same issues as I. Do shareyour htoughts, however brief or detailed, we are creating tomorrow, today, and can only do so with the free exchange of ideas, appreciation for various viewpoints and with a sense of unity as we move toward our collective future, together.

I look forward to many interesting conversations with you.

Creative Commons License
Myths of Nature in post-WWII National Geographic Car Advertisements by Shwandel N. Fraser is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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