Imago juvenil y publicidad televisiva en la era de la globalización

Abstract

It may be said that, among the multiple and varied discourses on the world of the young, that of publicity is in a preeminent place as a major space of social significance, symbolic universe that introjects signs through perception, evaluation and action schemes. A critical perspective on nowadays television publicity in Mexico, whose culture is u'1avoid¬ably qualified by U.S. consumption values, makes it necessary to explore the space of social representations. Strictly speaking, it is not about the impact and economic power that characterize the advertising industry, but about placing this phenomenon as another object of symbolic con¬sumption. Capitalization of universally acknowledged references and symbols builds up "global" life forms and life styles supported by endless tempting games anchored on the super-culture of television entertainment. It is in this framework where the contents of nowadays television publicity weaves a discourse in which the youth world emerges as one of the most recurring -and profitable¬metaphors of capitalistic society. Out of youth representations that such electronic scenarios mobilise, it is interesting to examine the social dimension of their protagonists, that is to say, the social "self' of the agents that evoke such dimension: How are they? What are their scenarios? What are their slogans? Predominance of consumption as the modernizing power of this society is decisive to the different evaluations of what it means to be young in the universe of social representations and legitimations. Accordingly then, the research theme of this article will be less the publicity discourse through television, that the place from where the symbolic objectifying of the pro¬tagonists and their world will be questioned.