Transformation of Normative Values in the Commercial Culture

These advertisements were an extraordinary way to provoke public attention, draw media publicity, and apparently engender future profits. Advertisers even plug into religion to preach their commercial gospel. For example, a radio station's billboard depicted Pope John Paul II listening to a stereo headset and read: "Father Knows Best." Another billboard ad displayed a Catholic sister singing along to the tunes on her radio with the caption: "Nun Better." ⁹⁹ Other ads are similarly brash but are not always perceived as such. For example, an advertisement for extravagant jewelry in the form of a cross ran in a Florida newspaper on Good Friday in 1991; it urged readers to "Share Our Passion." ¹⁰⁰ What is even more amazing than the advertiser's boldness is that the ad drew little or no public complaint. ¹⁰¹ (We suspect that Bernardino of Siena, the patron saint of advertisers, ¹⁰² would deny his blessing to such missions.)

Such advertising is as much, if not more, a commentary on the transformation of normative values in the commercial culture as it is a description of the products for sale. In fact, the creative director who designed the startling clothes campaign professed only to be illustrating socially significant events: "[E]verybody uses emotion to sell a product. The difference here is we are not selling a product. We want to show ... human realities that we are aware of." ¹⁰³ Admittedly, such advertising, whatever its purpose, may sometimes have collateral positive effects, as perhaps in directing the public's attention to social issues. The point, however, is that the commercial culture is ultimately enhanced even when the advertiser identifies a socially significant issue as its own on which to pronounce. From this vantage point, the American culture is no longer commercial simply because it values materialism and furnishes an abundance of consumer goods. Ours has become a commercial culture in a much more intrinsic and pervasive sense. The beliefs, ideas, and behaviors that mold or reflect our national character are now re­created in a product's image. ¹⁰⁴ Once this occurs, the old norms take on a new meaning inseparable from the commercial ethic.