The phenomenon of simulacre in consumer society: a philosophical analysis of advertising strategies based on Jean Baudrillard’s concept

Svetlana M. Maltseva, Marianna S. Kozintseva and Anna N. Komarova
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Svetlana M. Maltseva: Minin University; Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Railway Engineering - branch of the Volga State University of Railway Engineering
Marianna S. Kozintseva: Minin University
Anna N. Komarova: Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod

Russian Social and Humanitarian Studies, 2026, vol. 18, issue 2, 141-157

Abstract: Background. Relevance of this study stems from the fact that advertising, which was once intended simply to communicate product information, operates quite differently today. It creates images that are no longer tied to the actual properties of objects and refer only to themselves. Jean Baudrillard once described this logic through the concept of simulacrum, but it has rarely been translated into the language of specific advertising techniques – a gap that this article attempts to fill. Purpose is to understand how exactly an advertising message becomes a simulacrum and to identify the key strategies through which advertising constructs hyperreality. The hypothesis is that modern advertising does not reflect economic reality, but rather acts as a primary model that ascribes meaning to objects even before we encounter them – precisely what Baudrillard called the order of pure simulacra. Materials and methods. This study draws on three of Baudrillard's main books: The System of Objects, Consumer Society, and Simulacra and Simulation. The methods used included a conceptual analysis of its main categories, a comparison of advertising strategies. The novelty lies in the fact that for the first time, three specific strategies of advertising simulation have been identified and analyzed: the simulation of authenticity, the simulation of social hierarchy, and the simulation of happiness. Results. It turned out that at any market level – from luxury to mass market – a product's symbol functions not as an indication of its actual benefit, but as part of a closed brand system, where value is simply a position among other symbols. Advertising doesn't describe consumption; it creates it through its play of symbols, igniting a desire that no real object can satisfy. These three strategies work together, feeding each other, and ultimately produce hyperreality – a state in which the model no longer follows reality, but begins to define it.

Keywords: Jean Baudrillard; simulacrum; hyperreality; consumer society; advertising; sign; brand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cxm:russhs:18:2:2026:141-157

DOI: 10.12731/3033-5981-2026-18-2-582

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