The archive is “the law of what can be said” according to Foucault (1992:129), or in Kaisa Maliniemis words (2005:4): “The archiving process is not an objective action, it serves somebody’s interests.” (As cited in Rodreck, Phiri and Kamanga n.d)

 

 

Advertising is a powerful archive. Its pervasiveness supersedes time and space, it works across cultures and devices and, can influence emotions and thoughts. It also can, importantly, hold possible future actions – a feature of archives. A look at advertising at any moment in history, and it will provide what was being “said” (or what advertisers were wishing to said). Advertising is both a product, and precursor, of culture. The interests that advertisements serve, are that of authority figures (such as the advertising companies and more specifically, their clients), which is another link to how power is linked to archives. Both the above images are examples of current advertisements, in popular forms. Interestingly, both of these archive forms are temporally based: one changes with the cultural calendar, the other is on a revolving timer. However, even as they disappear, their archive will remain in another form whether it is in an image such as these, on another piece of advertising (a brochure for example), or in our memory (just as the advertisers hope).

 

 

Rodreck, D Phiri, C and Kamanga, E n.d, Discussing the arhival discourse, Academia.edu, Accessed 4 November 2014, .