The language of advertising

United Kingdom, 1972

Film
Please note

Sorry, we don't have images or video for this item.

Episode number 4 of Series “Ways of seeing”.
One of a series of films by art critic and author, John Berger, which explore the ways in which we look at pictures. Shows how the images used in advertising and publicity are related to the tradition of oil painting, a connection which we fail to notice only because we are encouraged to believe that painting is fine art whereas publicity is simply commerce. Suitable for upper secondary and tertiary levels.

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

This work has not been digitised and is currently unavailable to view online. It may be possible for approved reseachers to view onsite at ACMI.

Learn more about accessing our collection

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

producer

Michael Dibb

production company

British Broadcasting Corporation

Duration

00:30:00:00

Production places
United Kingdom
Production dates
1972

Appears in

Ways of seeing

Group of items

Ways of seeing

Explore

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

011741

Language

English

Subject categories

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Advertising

Crafts & Visual Arts → Art criticism

Crafts & Visual Arts → Commercial art

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - Great Britain

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Advertising

Short films

Short films → Short films - Great Britain

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/74550--the-language-of-advertising/ |title=The language of advertising |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=20 May 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}