Freedom simulation constructed with advertising discoursesin consumer culture: An analysis on television advertisements

Freedom is one of the most important point of humanity's search for meaning. The concept of freedom has occupied the intellectual world of societies for centuries, and has been at the center of interest of philosophy, politics, social sciences, literature and many other social sciencesNearly every thinker in history has made absolute judgments on freedom when defining his own philosophy, and moreover, he has built up most of his semantic constructions on that concept. Life styles that have transformed through human history have also changed the semantic content of concepts. But in abstract concepts such as freedom, this transformation has been exposed to more ideological orientation. Freedom has always been a ''promise'' in different ways in diffirent periods of time. In the consumerist society, freedom is objectified and commodified through the media. It is generally accepted that the advertisement is the most powerful catalyst in this process of commodification. In advertisments, freedom is constantly being redefined and this meaning is rapidly spreading. Advertisements are used as a powerful tool in the process of objectification of the concept of freedom like many other concepts. In this study, it has been focused on the signification of freedom concept in dynamic advertisements. Philosophical debates on the concept of freedom and its reinterpretation through advertisements are the subjects of our thesis. Keywords: Freedom, consumerist society, advertisement