Study of the concept of Lacanian's gaze in Advertising teasers and its influence on the beholder as a subject

 
He gives his post-structural analyses based on the object and develops the subject’s identity with the concept of vacuum, which requires an “other” to get filled up, centered over object, objectivism, and decentralism. He proposes a theory named “mirror Stage” to prove his claim, and states that when a little child gets attracted to her/his own reflection in the mirror, they get trapped in that picture, and regards their own picture as an allied individual. They get the very first image of self when they look at their own body in the mirror. Therefore, the separated body parts of the child get completed by the mirror. At this point, Lacan emphasizes an entity called the imaginary nature of being the master, the physical master that the child does not yet possess, the master of an alien self-image that he has always longed for. According to Lacan, this "image" is a stage or mode of existence in which the human subject is burning with the desire of self, identity and individuality. The individual is always suspended and wandering between this unreal image and its embodiment. Lacan points out that the visual creates the illusion of wholeness both in ourselves and in what we see so that the visual deceives us so that we do not realize the shortcomings existing in us and the world around us. Lacan extends his mirror theory to include the "gaze" theory.
Gaze is an object-dependent concept. In a Lacanian sense, the gaze is not an action related to the concept of perception in its psychological, and it is not limited to the mechanism of seeing or appearing physically, although it is dependent on it. However, the realm of gaze includes both the act of seeing and being seen—the act of perceiving and interpreting. In fact, when we look at an object, we are seen by that object in the first place, so we are not the ones who look first. We are called by its gaze, even though it invites us to look at it by looking at the object. considering this definition of gaze, it is possible to understand that in a film, even in a painting or commercial, the main gaze is attracted and the main object is suspended. When the function of the gaze is doubled, it appears as a spot. This spot or object of the gaze breaks the symbolic order of the work of art, disrupts its realism, and fills that conventional order. It has unusual capabilities, so the look is the surplus consciousness that affects the whole flow and structure of the work. In this descriptive study, with the use of Lacan’s “gaze” framework, efforts are made to clarify and respond to the questions and issues such as how, according to Lacan's view theory, one of the main axes of fantasy and imagination (such as advertising), can be made more effective in attracting the consumer. Also, how the subject, as a consumer in the fantasy space of advertisements, seeks to fill the void of its existence and falls into the trap of the advertisements. In order to answer these questions, one should know more about the nature of the subject or the spectator. According to Lacan, the subject is nothing but a loss. In fact, the subject is the Cartesian bearded man, a man who is trapped in the darkroom of his eyes and cannot walk out of that domain. He cannot even see himself, and the only thing he can do is seeing others through the window of this room. So the subject is nothing but a spectator, or to be more precise, an observant spectator.
As a director, Alfred Hitchcock interprets the spectator as a significant organ playing and reacting. The spectator is the only eye in opposition to the object, and according to Plato, if the eye wants to see itself, it must be looked at with another eye. The subject sees himself through another eye, and realizes his existence. In order to realize this flow, the viewer, as he enters the filmic experience, deals with the image as a narcissistic unification with the subject, and then, as he moves away from the imaginary and enters the symbolic world, his desires turn into images. This is the moment when the spectator stares at the symbolic entity or the inner reality of the image. It is the moment of being stitched and getting united with the other, which faces the viewer with the contradictory and fragmented nature of his desire. He seeks his pleasure from the sight of the object, in another unconscious, and remains confused between his self-awareness and unconscious. Here we face a hypnotic imposed on the subject (spectator) due to the collision of excess consciousness with unconsciousness or emptiness. Hypnosis is the dominant space of this symbolic world, a trance and a fluid stillness of different scenes and sequences that engulfs the viewer. It is a common experience for the subject, while he watches movies, commercials and commercials. Even when we walk in the streets, we inevitably encounter giant pieces of environmental advertising such as billboards, posters, stands, and such and are caught in the spell of advertising. The viewer suffers from blindness due to excess consciousness. Being imitated by propaganda, he now imitates someone else in the symbolic order. Advertisements create frames where one seeks his identity, as Lacan always refers to the subject as "lack of identity." In pursuit of this goal, the advertising industry emphasizes the importance of the cognitive processes of the cognitive process, which is the escape from rational constraints and the alternation between logic and the unconscious. This research that is about the process of attracting and motivating subject(viewer) was focused on three cases of advertising teasers such as Korean company LG’s 84" UltraHD television set ‘Meteor Prank’ (2013), emphasized the superior quality of the screen. Furthermore, the food company SideKick set ‘Salty Mask’ (2010) emphasizes less salt as a remarkable advantage of its product. Then, Apple’s iPhone 5c company set ‘Designed Together’ (2014), which affects appears in graphical shapes and colors as one of the best designs for a cellphone space.
Today, advertising goods has become one of the primary and essential pillars of human life, and even advertisements or commercials form the basis of some cultures. The seductive “gaze” of the advertisements causes the spectator to get bored and consequently blind, and engulfs the viewer like an artificial dream. Lacan refers to this in his eleventh seminar, and explains it this way: The status of a person during sleep and dreaming is like one who does not see and only follows. When a person looks at commercials with the gaze of the object, he passes from one space to another, from the physical or real space of our existence to another imaginary space or fantasy within the story. In order to satisfy his desire and need, he merges the space and language of the prophecy of advertisements. The source of this prediction is in the whisper coming from the depths of the discourse of these advertisements; the discourse that the spectator considers to be true, the discourse of the unseen, confusing, and astonishing him.
This effect is created by breaking and destroying the symbolic space's realism and filling the spectator with an excessive consciousness or blinding him to the lights around him. Following this process, the subject becomes confused and thirsty to possess the product or advertising object, as he is trapped between his desire and unification with the other. The method of influencing and attracting the audience by the designers of commercial teasers emphasizes the feature of this view within the symbolic order, which is inconsistent and different from the general process of the story, plot or image that breaks the regular rhythm and expectation of the real subject. It creates an attractive distortion that stares at the subject and stimulates his gaze and feeling. This gaze can take place for the visual items, color, concept or even the sound elements.