According to Berger “publicity’’ or what we know it as advertisements are constantly all around us on walls and screens especially so today with how far technology has come.  It shows us an alternative way of life and its being jammed into our thoughts at all times.  We might not remember every advertisement we see but in the moment, we take it in.  These constant simulations put us in a different place somewhere else out of out own reality something closer to dreams.  This “Publicity” or advertisements influences consumers that we should change ourselves or how we live for the better by buying something more.  They want to show consumers that you are in fact getting richer by buying said thing even though you are getting poorer by having spent your money.  These advertisements portray people who have purchased said product and are now better off for doing so.  Your envy of those people is what constitutes glamour, and publicity is the process of manufacturing glamour.

For those who owned the oil paintings the idea of glamour did not exist.  During that era everyone’s place in society was determined by birth without the social envy glamour could not exist.  As for advertisements Berger explains that it becomes more common in a society that has moved more towards a democracy, where status should be in theory open to everyone but actually is only enjoyed by a few.  The oil paintings and the publicity images actually do have things in common.  Advertisements can impersonate paintings and other works of art to portray their products in a different light.  Advertisements share many of the same roles and ideas all relate to the principal that what you own is who you are.  Oil paintings showed what the owner already had and how he lived, it did not show what the owner had done to have that wealth and way of life.  Publicity on the other hand shows us a way of life that we aspire to have but do not yet have.

The dream of a far away place influences you to come visit this city or country you can’t afford not to.  It’s a dream of laying on the finest beaches and drinking the finest liquor surrounded by beautiful women.  Not what it will cost and when its over you return to your normal life.