System Over Lebenswelt in Communicative Action: Inner Mechanisms of the Institutionalisation of Advertising

Abstract

Drawing from Habermas’ distinction between the system and life-world, the article explores and analyses how advertising operates within both domains, influencing not only the institutional structure but also everyday social interactions, thus providing the framework for the institutionalisation of advertising as a social actor and force in contemporary society. Using Super Bowl commercials to explain the way that they reflect and shape dominant cultural values, and based on George Ritzer’s McDonaldisation, Shoshana Zuboff’s surveillance capitalism, Manuel Castells’ social capital and power dynamics, and Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of symbolic capital and habitus, the article examines how advertising has evolved beyond its commercial role to become a central institution that shapes behaviours, identities and cultural norms. It highlights the role of advertising in reinforcing social power and cultural capital, which can be identified by the data driven personalisation, narrative control and standardisation that brands use to leverage their power through their commercial narratives. It also addresses critiques of the institutionalisation of advertising which provides an understanding on how advertising functions as a powerful institution that reflects and shapes social realities in the digital and mass consumption era.