virtualization of design and production a thesis - Bilkent University

well. This doesn't occur under late capitalism, however. As Horkheimer and
Adorno have put it, "what might be called use value in the reception of cultural
commodities is replaced by exchange value."(Adorno 128) How can exchange
value come to attain such autonomy in the sphere cultural production? Only
through a widespread process of fetishization. The consumer is paying, not for
the product but for the packaging. Rather than assessments of value based on the
qualities of the product, judgments about the qualities of the product are based
upon its exchange value, its price, its top-ten rating. This is the height of
commodity fetishism. (Welty 1) For Adorno, if the commodity combines use
and exchange value, exchange value deceptively takes over possession of use
value. This is distinctively visible in objects whose worth rises exponentially
through design. (either of the form or advertising) in spite of the lack of
enhancement in its utility value. “The more inexorably the principle of
exchange value destroys use values for human beings, the more deeply does
exchange value disguise itself as the object of enjoyment” (Adorno 34)
2.6. Advertising as a Medium of Sign-Value Generation
Advertising medium is one of the most powerful tools when we consider the
basics of the system to promote and sell the commodities that it produces. If
consumption consisted simply in the satisfaction of basic needs or in the rational
application of tools and implements, advertising would have no other function
but to inform people where they can obtain the tools they require for need-
satisfaction, how they should use these tools, on what sort of terms they are
available and what sort of effects they have. In other words advertisements
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