The concept of promotional culture is mainly associated with the understanding established by Andrew Wernick. According to Wernick, promotional cultures explore that “North American culture has come to present itself at every level as an endless series of promotional messages.” Wernick further shows “that advertising, besides having become a most powerful institution in its own right, has been effectively universalized as a signifying mode.” He finalizes by “this development goes far to explain such characteristic feature of the contemporary (‘post-modern’) cultural field as its preoccupation with style, self-referential, ahistoricity, and a vacuous blend of nihilism and good cheer.”
Further, Andrew shows that the contemporary use of promotion, advertising, and publicity are interchangeable, meaning the descriptive approach to a phenomenon lies in how a concept is received. In modern usage, promotional culture has been stretched to cover the entire field of public relations that goes far beyond just ads, such as every informal boosterism practice in everyday life. In other words, Wernick shows that promotional culture corresponds to price-system penetrative power.
When we look at social media culture, three very significant roles come out, and by mention, they constitute change, communication, and socialization. Depending on who is using social media, the three roles can work separately or collaboratively to play a part in either the development or destruction of the user. Therefore, society’s mandate is to limit any possibility that might destroy the user while enhancing the ones that might result in benefits. Social media has an essential role in how the efficiency of the economy can be improved.
On the one hand, through this media, consumers receive better and more information to make better decisions. On the other hand, to the producer, the same information becomes a key component in enhancing stability in the market. In the world of social media influencers, social media’s culture and economics are critical in planning their content shoots by figuring out the exciting locations and best lighting that draws consumers to the information being shared. Here, the essential point to note is that influencers, through their content, continuously engage their followers and, at times, their critics.
In this modern world, based on how organizations are using influencers in product promotion, any possible closure of the influencer community would jeopardize the way businesses operate. Linking promotional culture to the culture and economics of social media platforms and influencers, it is clear that promotional culture is relevant to how social media platforms and influencers are understood. Wernick shows that promotional culture is widely spread to incorporate the entire field of public relations.
With how social media help influencers, the relationship between the two remains relevant. For example, an influencer who is an expert in content creation for one platform knows essential in both the algorithm and culture of one social media platform, TikTok. With this knowledge, it is possible for the influencer to successfully create content for TikTok and use the understanding to create successful content for another platform like Instagram.