Hyperreality (Baudrillard) - Humans

Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality focuses on the idea that things can become ‘hyperreal’ which is when the division between an object and a simulation has collapsed therefore an illusion of the object is impossible as the object is no longer there. This can result in the audience feeling miserable as their life doesn’t line up with the world that is artificial reality. This is shown through the advertising of ‘Humans’. To advertise Channel 4 used social media and ads to make it appear as though the synths in the program were real. This included vans encouraging civilians to hand in their broken synths, eBay auctions selling synths, a shop set up in London and a website where customers could organise to return their synth. The idea was to promote the fear that the synths were becoming conscious to set up for the programme ‘Humans’ which discusses this idea. This links to Baudrillard’s theory as the marketing of the synths creates an overlap with our reality. The advertising of them as if they were real makes it harder to distinguish between the world from ‘Humans’ and our world creating a sense of hyperreality.