Presentation of the Thematic Dossier ‘Critical perspectives on advertising - The packaging of the System 40 years later’

Abstract

Thinking about A Embalagem do Sistema 40 years later is an undertaking that recognises the important contribution of Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda's work to a Brazilian understanding of advertising. From the field of sociology, interested in the process of conservative modernisation, the work is both a document on the phenomenon of advertising in Brazil in the second half of the century, but above all a theoretical key to understanding the complex links between advertising and the modes of capital reproduction, with close attention to the processes of symbolic reproduction engendered in the period. Rescuing the work in this dossier means highlighting its contribution to the field of Communication and Advertising, which, although recognised, can still be further discussed and incorporated into contemporary debates.