Capitalismo publicitário: uma análise crítica dos cartões promocionais de LEMCO do início do século XX

Cecilia Molinari de Rennie (2020)

Bakhtiniana: Revista de Estudos do Discurso 15(4), pp. 173-192. Open access

Resumo. Neste artigo, analiso um conjunto de seis cartões comerciais pertencentes a uma duradoura campanha de marketing da Liebig Extract of Meat Co. A análise crítica dos textos promocionais produzidos na virada do século XX oferece insights significativos sobre os mecanismos discursivos que contribuíram para a hegemonização do capitalismo burguês. Diferentemente de outras formas de publicidade, os cartões comerciais não são rapidamente descartados e esquecidos; pelo contrário, eles podem se distanciar dos produtos anunciados para se tornar parte dos discursos populares de instrução em massa. Como produtos e produtores de ideologias capitalistas, os anúncios são um local privilegiado de inscrição do capitalismo e, portanto, se prestam a uma análise crítica. Minha análise mostra como os textos selecionados se baseiam e texturizam os discursos do progresso, impregnados como crenças colonialistas e desencadeando uma cadeia de ações pela qual, mesmo antes de realmente obterem os cartões, são promulgadas ações e crenças capitalistas.

Advertising Capitalism: A Critical Analysis of Early 20th Century LEMCO Trading Cards

Abstract. In this paper, I analyze a set of six trading cards belonging to Liebig’s Extract of Meat Co. long-standing marketing campaign. The critical analysis of promotional texts produced at the turn of the 20th century offer meaningful insights on the discursive mechanisms that contributed to the hegemonization of bourgeois capitalism. Unlike other forms of advertising, trading cards are not rapidly discarded and forgotten; on the contrary, they can detach themselves from the advertised products to become part of popular discourses of mass instruction. As both products and producers of capitalist ideologies, ads are a privileged site of inscription of capitalism, and thus lend themselves to a critical analysis. My analysis shows how the selected texts draws on and textures the discourses of progress, inculcated as colonialist beliefs and triggering an actional chain whereby, even before they actually obtained the cards, capitalist actions and beliefs are enacted.

Extract (EC-Blog translation). “Despite the growth enjoyed by advanced economies towards the end of the 19th century (FRIEDMAN, 2012, p.23), the contradictions of capitalism as an economic system present a challenge for all involved participants: wage-earners, alienated from the fruits of their labour, face a working life of subordination; capitalists “find themselves yoked to an interminable, insatiable process, which is utterly abstract and dissociated from the satisfaction of consumption needs, even of a luxury kind” (BOLTANSKI & CHIAPELLO, 1999, p.7). In order to make the system tenable, it must be grounded on a set of beliefs that would support compatible actions and predispositions; Boltanski & Chiapello (1999), following Max Weber, call this system a “spirit of capitalism.” A spirit of capitalism legitimizes the brand of capitalism of a particular epoch to those committing to the capitalist process of accumulation, answering why: 1) it is a source of enthusiasm and stimulation, leading to a more enlightened, healthier and prosperous life; 2) it offers security for them and their children; and 3) it contributes to the common good and can be defended from accusations of injustice.” (p. 176-177)

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