Assignment 9

         After the world war there was a large need for countries to convince their citizens that their political ideologies were affective, especially in the wake of communism in Asia. America was a great endorser of this concept, pouring money into Europe to help the governments stabilize themselves. Design was a great way to convince their citizens that capitalization was the best policy and that the growing communist movement was destructive. If they could demonstrate to the citizens that they needed objects and to consume their economies would grow. Although most countries are not under the threat of communism today, there is still the need to use design to help promote political ideals.
         In major companies such as Cadbury they are often driven to design in such a way to promote the political ideologies that they support and which they think could help sales. For instance, the image shown displays the dairy milk chocolate that Cadbury sells. It is clearly stated at the top that this chocolate is fair trade. In a world where exploitation is looked down on, it can be the difference in what people buy. On other blocks of chocolate from Cadbury, where fair trade is not used, Cadbury designs the covers the same way. With a golden strip along the top, but instead of fair trade it merely says an advertising slogan. For consumers who are glancing at the covers, they believe that it is still fair trade. This is a design and marketing ploy to have consumers believe they are paying for fair trade when they aren't and Cadbury simply subsidize the cost over the range.
       Although this may seem small in comparison to whole nations changing their brand designs, it is still the same concept. It is a company trying to use design to have consumers believe an ideology. In the reading Pavitt said that "The nation's rehabilitation would be visible in... everyday goods." People believe that global rehabilitation involves abolishing any type of exploitation of workers. Fair trade is evidence of this fact and Cadbury trying to convince people that their entire brand is fair trade friendly is showing that rehabilitation is visible in everyday goods.
      I think that design is an effective tool for promoting political ideals because it is often subtle and can convince people without their knowing. After the war I believe that it was more effective now as people are not as desperate to find global solutions, but it is still a great marketing tool.

  Figure 1. (2010). Cadbury- dairy milk [Chocolate block]. Retrieved fromhttp://infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=50276