In the thesis, we will start by explaining the importance of a brand and branding to the corporation and the means for a brand to gain its meaning, with the help of relevant literature. One of these means is advertising. We will try to find out whether a corporation uses branding to attribute itself with certain values which are desired in society, and the supposed effect it has on the corporation. The main such value is diversity. We will research the alleged profitability of diversity and its connection to the inclusion of minorities in advertisements and the appropriation of their style. We will try to link this to the concept of commodification. We will continue with research of corporate culture. Corporate culture represents the values of a corporation. We will try to show if and how corporations use corporate culture to govern the employees and appropriate their identity. We will once again try to connect the presented concept to the concept of commodification. In the thesis, we will continue by exploring whether such action is ethically questionable due to the supposed exploitation of a vulnerable part of society for profit. We will then present the concept of commodification more specifically with two case studies of branding through advertising: a historic case in the USA and a modern case in Slovenia. We will discover the positive and negative effects of such behaviour.
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