Deadline extended for Dossier - Critical perspectives on advertising - The packaging of the System 40 years later

Published forty years ago, Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda's book "A Embalagem do Sistema" (The Packaging of the System) (1985) pioneered a critical analytical framework for reflecting on advertising in the Brazilian social context, from a sociological perspective. During this same period, Brazilian advertising consolidated itself as a relatively autonomous field of activity, while scientific knowledge about it acquired scope, spaces for discussion, and epistemological legitimacy, establishing a platform for problematizing the processes of production, circulation, reception, and consumption, both macro- and microstructurally. By recognizing advertising as a link between monopoly capitalism and the Cultural Industry, Arruda opens the door to a broader study of this phenomenon in Brazil.

Her analysis was continued in César Bolaño's book "Mercado Brasileiro de Televisão" (Brazilian Television Market) (1988), which, in turn, begins with the Cultural Industry in general, detailing the functions it fulfills within capitalism, including advertising. Based on this work, the Political Economy of Communication emerges as the subfield in which advertising is analyzed in a more comprehensive sense. The origins of these two fields of study also share the influence of the work of the so-called Unicamp School, particularly João Manuel Cardoso de Mello's work on late capitalism. It is important to emphasize that Arminda's work, like Bolaño's, does not derive its dialectical approach from a mere application of the models proposed by Marx or the classics of the Frankfurt School. The critical perspective adopted stems, above all, from a close observation of the object itself in its national context, in direct dialogue with authors who previously produced arguments on the issue. Observing, for example, the work of Maria da Conceição Tavares, both highlight the wage conditions of the Brazilian working class in order to analyze the particularities of advertising and the Cultural Industry in the national context. Thus, it is possible to identify that dialectics as a method of analysis and exposition arises not from an external application, but from an assessment of the national configuration of its object, which continues to be a valid premise for its approach.

Over the past two decades, diverse theoretical contributions, originating from the scientific field of advertising itself and beyond, have contributed to addressing the specificities and transformations of the advertising phenomenon from a critical perspective. For example, Maria Eduarda da Mota Rocha's work (2010), dedicated to studying the new rhetoric of capital, advances Maria Arminda's original propositions to the historical period in which neoliberalism emerged as the dominant regulatory model. On the other hand, the EPC continued to expand on more general aspects, for example by identifying advertising as a fundamental organizing dynamic of digital platforms, although works specifically addressing advertising from this perspective are scarce.

What can be inferred from the above is that there are several connections between the strands that derive from Maria Arminda's work, which this dossier aims to engage in dialogue with. Beyond these perspectives, the Dossier offers a space for reflection on critical studies of advertising today. Taking the publication of "A Embalagem do Sistema" (The Packaging of the System) as a milestone, it encourages researchers to present theoretical approaches, empirical observations, and epistemological discussions that address critical strands of advertising studies in Brazil.

With the publication of the dossier, we aim to contribute to deepening the debate on the intricate links between the advertising system and pressing issues in society, such as productive restructuring, platformization, data protection, the rise of the far right, the fight against (or endorsement of) discrimination based on gender, race, class, generation, and other social markers; the exploration of diversity, among other topics that highlight the relationship between advertising and contemporary social formations. Reflections on the work of Arruda (1985) and other classics whose recovery can support the understanding of advertising in the current context are also welcome. The dossier will be coordinated by Professors Glícia Maria Pontes Bezerra (UFC) and Laura Wottrich (UFSM/UFRGS). Papers must be submitted by August 9, 2025.

The following thematic areas are recommended for publication in the dossier:

Historical perspectives on critical approaches to advertising;
Latin American theoretical perspectives on advertising criticism;
Brazilian theoretical perspectives on advertising criticism;
Economic transformations in the advertising sector;
Transformations in capitalism and advertising;
Advertising and its relationship with platformization and artificial intelligence;

Advertising and its relationship with democratic regimes;
Advertising and its relationship with the social dimensions of experience (gender, race, class, generation, geolocation, etc.)
Critical empirical perspectives on the practices of production, circulation, consumption, use, and reception of advertising.

References

ARRUDA, Maria Arminda do Nascimento. A Embalagem do Sistema– A Publicidade no Capitalismo Brasileiro. São Paulo: Duas Cidades, 1985.