Paper #1

EWRT 2 – Consumerism and Advertising

Quynh Nguyen

Classical Physics Revisited: From Magnetism to Consumerism

In the subject of electricity, no matter how many sources there are, by the principle of

superposition, at a specific position at a specific instant exists one and only one electric field.

However, given the electric field at a certain position, we cannot work the problem backward

and determine the identity of the sources responsible for that field. Such is the message conveyed

by the pages of the textbook Physics for Scientists and Engineers, written by Raymond Serway

and published by Thomson Learning, to describe the world of Physics. The case is not so singly

directional in the world of consumerism and advertising, where marketers create an ad, design a

package, or decorate a store, any of which could in turn provides insights into the intentions of

its existence and reflects the culture it belongs. Even the deceptively plain packaging of Physics

speaks volumes about unrelated topics, implying a market that is almost monopolized but cannot

rule out competition, prompted by the accessibility of resources.

Monopoly can be an exaggeration for the remark that certain limitation is faced by

consumers, observed from how the book does not stress out much over polishing itself in order

to stand out in a crowd. For example, a book that has to survive in a wide selection of fiction,

such as my copy of E.O.Wilson’s Anthill, has the luxury of a dust cover, an artistic, scroll-like

banner, and plenty of blurbs promoting the author and the book. Out of similar concern for

popularity, many titles come in playful styles and sizes so that they can accommodate the diverse

tastes and circumstances of their readers. Physics, on the other hand, does not seem to be worried

with the same self-conscious needs, for its packaging lacks any ornament whatsoever: Devoid of

any excitement, the front cover depicts an architectural structure to merely demonstrate various

ideas in Physics, and nowhere on the back cover is the usual “Praises for this book” section to be

found. Even the book’s sturdy binding and high quality paper could indicate nothing more than a

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practical approach to better durability, judging from how many pages it has. Such indifference

towards popularity is understandable and can be attributed to the high cost one copy can fetch if

it sells and the mandatory nature of textbooks in general.

Not only does the consumption seem rather limited, but the market itself is narrowly

defined. Lack of a sign, like Asa Berger commented in Chapter 16 of his book Signs in

Contemporary Culture, can signify a meaning in and of itself; as such, the above mentioned

bareness may well be a deliberate act. Take, for instance, the front cover. Although the whole

page is taken up for illustration, the picture itself is only one-third occupied with more than half

being simply a blue back ground. This, along with how the image utilizes merely four colors

throughout the whole piece, suggests a high degree of refinement and elegance that not any

average person can appreciate. Similarly, the title “Physics” is straightforwardly printed in

orange, complementary to the blue background, so that readers can quickly lock on the situation

rather than having their eyes wandering around the page. Again, such frill-less manner of

thinking is geared toward a specific audience – one that is intellectual, high class, and refined,

distancing itself from others through the use of space and scarcity.

However, just as simplicity can lead to different inferences, so the packaging as a whole

lends itself to many contradicting interpretations, as the distance created by the cold front is

quickly bridged by the inclusion of a website address on the back. Like the contact information

present in most other advertisement, a website acts as a link connecting customers to companies,

giving them an impression of friendliness and proximity. It is accessible and resourceful, where

students can visit for complementary products and interactive exercises. Better yet, these

additional features are guaranteed to relieve students’ headache by the orange words printed in

bold at the center. According to Jib Fowles, advertisers can rely on as many as fifteen appeals to

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reach out to their audience. Here, the previous aesthetic banality is made up for by an appeal to

consumers’ need for guidance and achievement. As a result, these customers are more inclined to

consider the product.

Another attempt at wooing consumers, this time through their preference for affordable

convenience, can be seen through the splitting of the content into several volumes. Instead of

concentrating the full forty chapters into one book, Physics is also packaged into volumes, each

covering a unique set of chapters. This action appeals to students who dislike carrying extra

weight and paying extra money, enabling them to have more flexibility in book-budgeting: for

those in need of the whole Physics series, buying the full version will save more, whereas those

only concerned with one or two courses can be freed the burden of the later chapters. Thus,

consumers are happier, not to mention how lower prices tend to attract more customers. To add

the icing to the cake, even the solution manual is divided into separate volumes with chapter

listing, all in order to embrace the ideal of accessibility.

The book’s wish to capture the heart of the readers manifests itself in more subtle ways,

too. The dull image of the Sundial Bridge is not just a mechanical application of physical

concepts, but more importantly, it represents both the professionalism and complexity behind its

construction, as well as the everyday and relatable in its function. By inspiring awe in readers

through its mentioning of the difficulties the architecture has to withstand, the paragraph on the

back cover deliberately aims at the need for guidance and curiosity of those engineers-to-be,

while the familiarity of such feats is not to be missed from the information about the bridge’s

location. “Even though it is hard, it is within your reach, for evidence of the accomplishment is

right in front of your eyes, right here” is the message the structure stands for, and the book

designers have appropriately chosen it to their advantage.

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Something is amiss. If students buy textbook out of requirement from their professors,

then Physics has no reason to bother itself over competing with other books. That would be the

case except for that fact that schools enjoy switching texts. In fact, De Anza had been using

another title, University Physics, until only recently, at which point her Physics Department

decided that Physics for Scientists and Engineers would made a better choice. Who knows what

fate awaits the new substitute? Even when it is officially required, if the textbook is neither the

recommended reference by the professor nor the source of homework problems, students are

unlikely to purchase it; after all, they can still be well prepared for quizzes and exams without

that book, whose cost usually ranges in the hundreds. Thus, the textbook responds by improving

itself in ways that attract its market, in which the need for aesthetic sensation is usually shunned

by the need for achievement.

Even for consumers who are not bound by the constraint of school requirement but seek a

reliable self-study tool, the simplistic cover can imply more than a monopoly on the intellectual

market: it can indicate a stronger emphasis in the content. Unlike a box of eggs or a bottle of

conditioner, books are picked after the content is satisfactorily examined. Although grocery

stores do organize showcasing of their products in the form of free sample, and many books

advertise themselves with intriguing quotes and respectable praises, books benefit – or more

suitably said in this case, suffer – from the prevalence of libraries. Not only can libraries serve as

the ultimate counsel on whether or not a piece is worth buying, but these institutions have the

potential of eradicating the need to own a publication altogether. Why pay for a book when we

can read it for free at the library? Worse, while eggs consumed have to be restocked, it is rather

unnecessary to read a book over and over again unless that title is significantly edited. Thus, the

content has all the more pressure to be well worth the price.

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Has the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” lost its meaning to the advent of a

packaging culture? Perhaps not, at least literally. In a society dominated not only by advertisers’

interest in sales and consumers’ obsession with owning but also by a strong belief in accessibility

of knowledge and information, even the best tailored design could not salvage a title when its

content fails to live up to the expectation its price demands. True, appearance counts. Even as

Physics does not pour all its heart into the cover, it still invests considerable attention in the

matter. No author would agree to a sloppy image for his masterpiece, and no writer is so sure her

book would sell that she disregards its presentation. Nevertheless, publishers should only rely on

looks as far as a final touch-up to the book, for it is the inside pages that will determine its place

on the shelf of time.