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Advertisement
and Consumer
Culture MDSB03H3
Dr. Joseanne Cudjoe
Joseanne.cudjoe@utoronto.ca
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Week 2
Stereotypes, Hegemony,
and Advertising
Sept 14th
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In this
class
session…
§ Stereotypes in ads, we will consider the encoding/decoding process.
§ Examine how ads are deconstructed to identify their dominant,
negotiated and oppositional reading.
§ Consider the role of hegemony and ideology in shaping ad messaging.
§ Using examples we will practice identifying the surface meaning ,
advertiser’s intended meaning and the ideological meaning of ads.
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Reading
Culture in
advertising
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Advertisements are
social and cultural
texts
§ Advertisements are not just messages about
goods and services.
§ Advertisements are social and cultural texts
about ourselves.
§ Embedded in ad images and messages, are
ideas that seek to influences consumers and
persuade them to act (buy, order, like, follow,
share…)
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Critical Analysis of
Advertisements
§ ad messages can be deeply political.
§ We will critically analyze images and
messages in ads to explore the broader
social and cultural implications of these
seemingly simple messages.
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Critical Analysis of
Advertisements
§ Ad messages/images/sounds can
address issues that are political, social
and cultural.
§ Critical analysis of an ad moves beyond
surface reading to examine the idea and
meaning of the ad’s images and sounds.
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Critical Analysis of
Advertisements
§ Tools for critical analysis of ads include
literacy theory, feminist critique,
postmodernism, Marxism, semiotic analysis,
etc.
§ advertisement is more than… imparting
information about products which consumers
use to make brand choices" (Domzal and
Kernan, 1992).
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§ Advertisement tells us what products signify
and mean.
§ Embedded in advertising's messages about
goods and services are the cultural roles
and cultural values that define our everyday
life (Stern, 1992).
Critical Analysis of
Advertisements
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Critical
Analysis of
Advertisements
§ The products we consume expresses who we
are, they are cultural signifiers.
§ A cultural signifiers reflect norms/idea/beliefs
from a given culture.
§ Advertisers attempt to not only show us how the
product works, but to give cultural meaning to the
product by relating it to other cultural signs/icons.
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What’s the harm
in advertising
stereotypes?
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Stereotypes
§ Stereotypes limit our ability to see people,
things, and ideas in nuanced ways.
§ Stereotypes are “pictures in our heads”
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Stereotypes
§ In Teen Vogue advertisers to young women
and girls, makeup, clothes and a lifestyle.
§ The images in this youth fashion magazines
are examples of what Laura Mulvey’s point
that the “male gaze” constructs women as
sexual objects in an “erotic spectacle”
(2006 [1975]: 346).
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QUESTIONS
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Cultivation
Theory
§ Developed by George Gerbner (1973)
§ The media have immense power over
the way we see the world .
§ Consumption of the media “gradually
leads to the adoption of beliefs about the
nature of the social world which conform
to the stereotyped, distorted and very
selective view of reality” -McQuail (2005:
497).
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Media
Expectancy
Theory
§ Media expectancy theory: After continued exposure
to media messages, media consumers believe that
certain behaviors are normal.
§ Expectancy theory suggests that “the use of
stereotypes hinders one’s view of any individual
as a complete person” (Sheehan, 2004: 83).
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§ Advertising creates an imaginary world that
teaches us how to see the real world and
how to see ourselves.
“ads seem to seep quietly into
the back room of our consciousness,
where they “try to tell us
who we are and who we should be”
(Cortese,1999: 12).
Media
Expectancy
Theory
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§ Advertising creatives have immense power
to define and shape social interactions.
§ Their use of stereotypes serves to reinforce
unequal power structures.
Media
Expectancy
Theory
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QUESTIONS
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Reception Theory
Encoding/ Decoding
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Stuart Hall
Reception
Theory
§ Stuart Hall leading British scholar in the
cultural studies tradition of media studies.
§ Hall’s Reception Theory and his 1973
essay, ‘Encoding/Decoding’ provided a
process for understanding the
communication process of media
messages.
§ Messages are encoded into media images
by media content creators to be decoded
by media consumers.
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Stuart Hall
Reception
Theory
§ creators use stereotypes as shortcuts
§ Stereotypes serve as shortcuts because
within in society consumers will learn many
of the same stereotypical ideas through
socialization and interaction.
§ Advertisers depend on this shared
knowledge to tell their stories with the hope
that consumers will decode their
advertisement messages.
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Encoding
§ Events are framed using established story
structures.
§ Editorial biases shape stories to construct
versions of the truth that are entertaining,
marketable or persuasive.
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Encoding
§ Advertisements do not simply describe a
product. The goal of ads is to stimulate a
desire for the product.
§ The encoded messages attempt to convince
consumers that the product will enhance
their lives.
§ Ad messages are produced using
production codes, and thus are highly
constructed presentations of a product.
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Key points
about
Encoding
§ To make their products seem more
appealing, advertisers make assumptions
about consumers’ taste and interests.
§ Some argue that, advertisers do not simply
predict consumers’ needs and wants,
§ they construct consumers’ wants and
needs through careful messaging.
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Key points
about
Encoding
§ The powerful advertising industry is ran by a
small number of people with a selective world
view and perspectives.
§ Advertisements may reflect their social and
political biases.
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Decoding
§ Although advertisers may encode their
messages carefully, audiences may not
understand or decode the ideas in encoder’s
intended way.
§ Stuart Hall argues that this occurs because
media images are not explicit or denotative
but they are iconic and connotative.
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Decoding
§ For example, if we see an image of a cow we
may all be able to name it.
§ However, each of us may have a different
opinion about what a cow represents/ its
connotative meaning.
§ Some may see the cow and think of the
countryside. Vegans or vegetarians might think
of animal exploited. A dairy farmer or vet may
assess the animal’s physique or monetary
worth.
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Decoding
§ Connotative readings are manufactured
through our individual experiences and
knowledge.
§ Audience members may or may not
decode an ad as it was intended
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Media
Mis-readings
Hall notes …
“ that misreading messages
occurs when when audiences
do not have the capacity
to fully understand a product’s
intended message.”
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Media
Mis-readings
Misunderstandings can occur when…
1. Ads use overly complicated narratives.
2. Ad messaging does not connect with the
everyday lives of the consumers.
3. Language or vocabulary used is complex
or unknown.
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Hypodermic
needle theory
§ Suggests the media messages inject ideas
into audiences, who offered, little resistance
§ The 1940s Hypodermic Needle theory/
Magic bullet theory suggests that when
media messages reach a consumer, it exerts
powerful and uniform effects on everyone.
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Hypodermic
needle theory
Hall contradicts this by suggesting that…
§ the encoding process is critically important to
the success of messaging.
§ The messages do not affect consumers in a
uniform manner.
§ Media consumers are not passive
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QUESTIONS
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Hegemony,
Ideology, and
Power
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Cultural
Hegemony
§ Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony
suggests that an invisible set of rules
governs and directs our behaviors and
beliefs.
§ According to Hall, hegemonies, define
what we think is ‘ “natural”, “inevitable”,
“taken for granted” about the social order’.
§ The mainstream media, plays a crucial role
in maintaining and reinforcing hegemony
22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937
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Hegemony and
Ideology
§ Hegemony refers to the control of the ideology of
a society.
§ The dominant group maintains power by
imposing their ideology on everyone.
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Hegemony and
Ideology
Ideology refers to the stories, myths,
explanations, definitions, and rationalizations
that are used to justify inequality between the
dominant and the marginalized groups.
§ For example: Mountain Dew’s racist ad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nghfsKEgzk
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Consent
§ hegemony and ideology work through social
control and consent, which does not require
violence
§ Social control is achieved through conditioning
(repeated, consistent media messaging).
§ Dominant hegemony is upheld when less
powerful classes accept stereotypical ideas
about each other.

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Maintaining
Power
§ Those with social power maintain authority
because they control the media or are able, to
forge close relationships with media makers so
that their vision of the world is communicated as
‘natural’ or ‘inevitable’ – Stuart Hall
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Dominant
Negotiated
Oppositional
Readings
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Cultural
Resistance
and Hegemonic
Agreement
§ Hall notes that as we consume the media
we are actively assessing the media
messages.
§ As a result, we can potentially resist the
ideology.
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Dominant
Readings
Dominant readings:
audiences decode media products and
accept the dominant cultural messages
produced by a product.
Here, audiences knowingly agree
with the hegemonic messages
constructed by professional media.
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Negotiated
Readings
Negotiated readings:
audiences might produce a negotiated
reading if the encoder’s message is
acknowledged in general terms,
but individual experiences lead an audience
member to question or resist some aspects of the
message. Thus, audiences knowingly
agree with some of the hegemonic statements
produced by professional
media while questioning other aspects.
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Oppositional
Readings
Oppositional readings:
audiences understand the message
but refuse to believe it or use their personal
experience/ideological viewpoint to
challenge the message produced.
In this way, audiences
knowingly produce a contrary reading
of the hegemonic statements produced by
the media.
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QUESTIONS
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Deconstruction
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Deconstruction
§ examine the whole advertising message, not merely
the surface or sales message.
§ Saussure and Foucault find the real significance of
texts not in their explicit meaning, but their
unintentional meanings.
§ The aim of deconstruction is to expose the social
and political power structures in society
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Deconstruction
§ Analyzing both product and the background
elements of the ad we can understand the
social or cultural messages buried within the
primary sales message.
§ This requires focusing on the ad’s setting: the
colors, accessories, actors, costuming, music,
interactions between actors, script, etc.
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Three steps to
analyzing ads
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1. Surface
Meaning
§ The surface meaning consists of the overall
impression that a reader might get from
quickly studying the advertisement.
§ listing all the objects and people in the ad.
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1. What is the Surface Meaning
Tiffany & Co.
August 2021
Harper’s Bazar ad
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2. The
advertiser’s
intended
meaning
§ The advertiser's intended meaning.
§ The brand’s sales message
§ the preferred reading the advertiser wishes
the reader understanding.
§ What is the ad instructing consumers to do?
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2. What is Tiffany & Co. ’s intended meaning?
Tiffany & Co.
August 2021
Harper’s Bazar ad
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3. Ideological
Meaning
§ We all "make sense" of ads by relating
them to our culture.
§ In addition to the more obvious cultural
beliefs, there are also more subtle
ideological values expressed in ads.
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3. What ideological meanings do you see?
Tiffany & Co.
August 2021
Harper’s Bazar ad
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Differences in
Deconstructing
§ People will decode an ad differently.
§ advertising only "makes sense" when it
resonates with certain deeply held belief
systems.
§ Interpretation is subjective.
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Analyzing
Social
Relationships
§ To analyze the ideological and cultural
meanings of an ad observe the relationships
being depicted between the people featured
in the advertising.
§ Ask questions about the roles people play in
our society. Who is in charge?
Who holds the power? Who is weak?
Who is dominant vs subordinate?
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Role
Reversal
§ To analyze how power is being depicted in the ad is to
describe the relationships between the characters by
exchanging the key players in the ad.
§ Substitute, a young person with an older person, or a
white person with a Black. Now retell the story, is the
message the same?
§ How has the message change? What does this say
about the roles or stereotypes that advertising
perpetuates?
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Social and
Power
Relationships
§ To analyze the social relationships or power
relationships in an ad, begin by describing
the story that is being depicted.
§ Describe the characters in the ad, the props,
the color scheme (Dyer, 1982).
§ Explain what the props or symbols signify
and how they might support certain
hierarchical relationships.
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§ You can determine the social relationships in
the ad by asking questions about power and
control.
§ Who appears to have the power or control in
the story? How is power expressed? Does one
person have power over another?
§ We can ascertain the power positions by
determining who appears to be stronger, or
bigger, or more in control of the situation.
Social and
Power
Relationships
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§ We can also ascertain historically based power
relationships by asking ourselves,
§ are certain historically favored positions being
expressed?
§ Does the ad suggest that people who are
slimmer, whiter, stronger, or richer have power
over others?
Social and
Power
Relationships
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Key Terms
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1. Advertising are…
2. Critical Analysis
3. Cultural signifiers
4. Stereotypes
5. Dominant Group
6. Cultivation Theory
7. Media Expectancy Theory
8. Power Structures
9. Reception Theory
10. Encoding/Decoding
11. Socialization and interaction
12. Production Codes
13. Misreadings
14. Denotative vs Connotative
15. Hypodermic needle/magic bullet theory
16. Hegemony
17. Ideology
18. Consent
19. Dominant, Negotiated and Oppositional
20. Deconstruction
21. Surface reading
22. Advertiser’s intended meaning
23. Ideological meaning
24. Social and Power Relationships
25. Role reversal
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• Quiz # 1
Available: Sept 16th 12 am EST -
Sept 17th 11 pm EST
Location: Quercus