Advertisements and Identity: An in Depth Analysis of the Advertisemental Influences on the

Self.

Samuel D. Bates

Research Chair:

Dr. Marcy Galbreath

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Imagine waking up to the alarm goes advertising something. You check your phone, more

junk mail adverting something else. You take your dog outside; another advertisement, this time

on the side of the cable service truck at the neighbors house. More advertisements on the

television while you make breakfast. This is the life of most Americans; within ten minutes of

waking up brings exposure to countless advertisements. American life is rife with

advertisements, and companies use them for one reason; they work.

These advertisements create intense discourse among academics. Several theories have been

developed to try to explain how these advertisements function in society. The two main schools

of thought are that advertisements either reflect or create desires. Very few contemporary

paradigms combine these two ideologies. My intention is to do this. I will first do an in depth

analysis of a study done in 1980 about advertisements. I will follow it with a review of theories

revolving around literature, sociological, and advertising. The theories revolving around

advertising will be the most comprehensive; as that is where I am working to fill a gap in

contemporary research. I will then propose a research design in hopes of understanding how

advertisements influence the identity of the audience.

First, a brief history on advertisement’s roll in history and how people reacted to them: In the

1800’s the means for companies to sell product and to create a desire for their product was

through door-to-door and traveling salesmen (Vow & You, 2013). Advertising allowed for the

products to be sold at one place by contacting several people at once and creating a desire to

make the consumer go to the seller. The rise in advertising created two different reactions.

Reaction one was a large acceptance to the ease of advertising. Reaction two was distrust in the

legitimacy of the product being sold (Vow, 2013). The negative attitudes towards advertising

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were to the extent of newspapers and other sources of media to not print any advertising; when

advertisements were printed, heavy regulations by the media restricted what the producer could

and could not say about their product. This is the variable Bee & Dallas found in their research

of sports; that is that newspapers were scared that if consumers did not agree with what the

advertisements said, it could decrease their profits by potential readers not reading their paper.

This concept of people not buying a product because of perceived associate will be explored

throughout the literature review, and this research.

Textual Analysis

In 1980, the researchers Pride and Earl did a study on advertisement sidedness and product

features. They took into consideration that some advertisements only market the “positives”

while other advertisements market both the “positives” and the “negatives”. One of the vital

cultural variables is the time, this study was done in 1980 when print advertising was the main

vessel for information. In more contemporary times, advertisements are electronic. The

individual may open a new window on their computer or device to research the product; when

advertisements are not electronic, they still have a device near that they can use to research the

product. This cultural variation is important because researchers were asking about “the reader’s

perception of advertisement informativeness” in regards to “the reader’s awareness of product

features.” Access to information is powerful variable that may change the results.

The Pride and Earl study lays the base for my study. They looked at the individuals ability to

differentiate between a products actual features as opposed to what the producer of the product

says the features are. I am interested in how the audiences reasons through advertisements, and if

the reasoning process has any influence on their identity. I will be looking at this in an

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ethnomethodological framework and using a combination of literacy and sociological theories to

create and explore a niche in contemporary conversations.

Literacy Theories

The primary literature theory I will utilize is literacy sponsorship (Brandt, 1998). Brandt’s

definition of sponsorship is:

any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as

well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some

way” The interests/intensions of the two parties, the sponsor (advertisements) and the

sponsored (audience) do not need to aline. The interests may conflict, but it still works to

educate or inhibit education to the individual in some way.

This means that that sponsors can be both beneficiary, thus helping an individual become more

informed, or detrimental, thus doing something to keep the individual from learning. In terms of

literacy sponsorship, it is vital to think in nontraditional terms of literacy, that is thinking of

bigger things other than written text. A parents influence on a child’s knowledge is a sponsor. A

broken school system designed to favor one class is a negative sponsor that hurts another group

of people. I will be exploring advertisements and how types of sponsors can influence

purchasing decisions.

Brandt refers to literacy as “a great engine of profit”. This may be interpreted in two different

ways, both work for this discussion about advertisements. The first interpretation is that the

literacy used by companies towards consumers needs to match the literacy of the consumers,

therefore the consumers will understand why they may need the product. The other interpretation

is parallel to the deceptive advertising interpretation, and that is that the literature used in

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advertisements must be greater than the literacy of the consumers. This will manipulate the

individual into buying products they do not need. Brandt consistently refers to “economic

forces”. Economic forces are the umbrella term, and I will be focusing on advertisements. These

economic forces are literacy sponsors that work to increase profits.

Sociological Theories

I will be framing advertisements as both social facts and literacy sponsors. This creates

the ability to frame these social facts that alter the identity as literacy sponsors. A social fact is a

sociological concept from the functionalist perspective. “Durkheim defines social facts as ‘ways

of acting or thinking, recognizable by the distinguishing characteristic that they are capable of

exercising a coercive influence over individual consciousness’ (2004: 56)” Tyulenev, S. (2014).

Durkheim was differentiating biological functions from conscious actions in the individual.

These social facts—or social forces to use a more contemporary term— are external of the

individual, and work to govern the individuals behavior. Matt Siber uses the example of a traffic

sign. These signs are external of the individual and help govern the way people behave on the

road. Advertisements work in the same way as Siber’s traffic sign analogy.

Social identity theory says that individuals live in relatively small networks—within a

larger network—and all of their interactions enforce and reinforce their identity as individuals

(Stryker, S., & Burke, P. J. (2000). As individuals interact with one another, meanings are

attached to interactions, these meanings help to create the identity as well. These social facts

(advertisements) get shown to an individual repeatedly, and thus builds upon, or changes the

individuals understanding of their needs for the product, thus altering their identity. In regards to

advertising, there is the individual and the advertisement. The individual sees the advertisement

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and uses knowledge based on other interactions to help interpret the advertisement. These

interpretations build on each other to create an identity for the individual.

The primary sociological theory I am using is functionalism; however, the construction of

meanings between individuals is part of this discourse. These meanings are usually referred to as

“symbols” (Denzin, 1987). Denzin sufficiently defines what qualifies as a symbol within

symbolic interaction. Denzin quotes Dean McAllen’s 1976 work “The Past and Future of

Symbolic Interaction” and gives a definition for meaning: “[T]he relationship between the aspect

of a social situation and its associated idea”. Symbolic interaction is generally thought of to be a

result of conversations among several individuals. By McAllen’s definition, it has to do with

what is a “social situation” and how people interpret that social situation. This is important for

advertising. It has to do with the “social situation” the advertisement may be reflecting, and how

people interpret the reflection.

Advertising Theories

The two predominant theories in advertising ask if advertisements reflect cultural desires,

or create them. Mayer, R. responded to the question “does advertising draw upon the given

‘nation ideal’ or does it create it?” with the questions about myth (1998). Mayer points out that

modern myth works like a cultural ideal of a memory. This myth is a tool for marketing rather

than just an object. Mayer exams the advertisement of Pall Mall cigarettes that circulated in the

1920s. He uses the symbolism the cigarette happened at the time to create the argument for

advertisements show use a myth rather to create a desire. Advertisements are aimed at specific

ideologies, not specific desires. Mayer has a similar attitude that I have towards research done

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on rhetorical artifacts of the 1920’s. He believes that the question is not “do advertisements

reflect or create desires?” but rather “what role does myth play in advertisements?” He does a

thorough job exploring this argument, but he doesn’t talk about how the myth is created in the

first place.

Marcoci uses the term “advertising discourse” throughout his/her study. Marcoci explores

the idea that the “discourse” between producer and consumer is a conversation of symbolic

goods. Marcoci believes that advertisements take the symbolic goods that have been negotiated,

and exploit them. This is important because of “elocution” which is the part of the conversation

between the consumer and advertiser that works to attract the consumer. Marcoci quotes Olivia

Reboul’s definition of “stylistic undertakings (1984: 35). They therefore represent style turns

designed to make the expression of the thought and feeling alive, to give it more brilliancy and

force in order to persuade.” This is the how and why advertisements use word games to create

various emotional meanings appeals in the audience.

This elocution is a form of “deceptive advertisement”( Xie, Madrigal, and Boush, 2015).

Deceptive advertising occurs when consumers are unable to efficiently evaluate the

advertisement and their needs. The FTC definition of deceptive advertising is “a representation,

omission, or practice is likely to mislead the consumer acting reasonably in the circumstances to

the consumers detriment”. This shows the relativity of these types of advertisements; It is when

the consumer does something they would not usually do that creates the deceptive

advertisements. This idea of deceptive advertising creates a gap in the understanding of how

advertisements may alter how consumers understand themselves. This idea of identity will be

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full explored in a later section of the paper.

This research was done on advertisements revolving around sports, albeit, the findings

could be generalized to other realms of advertising thus making it applicable to my study (Bee &

Dallas, 2015). Companies often work with one another to use the cultural ideals associated with

said companies to attract the pathos of the consumers. Studies have been done on the

implications of negative views on companies because of the team the company is affiliated with;

but this study is more concerned with how it impacts the “social identity” of the fans. Social

identity, in short, says that people know things about themselves, and they intensionally surround

themselves by certain people and engage in certain activities to enforce and reinforce what they

know about themselves. When this theory is applied, individuals may dislike a product, and

because the dislike that product, they don’t like anything associated with that product. If they do,

it creates strain within their identity. Bee and Dallas are looking for a very specific variable.

There is a sports team and the sponsor; they are looking for the difference in loyalty to the sports

team and the level of strength the argument from the advertisement must be to work. There

findings for this variable were not significant, but they did find that fans of sports teams were

more loyal to sponsors of said sports team. This is study is very important. It shows how

regardless of strength of the argument, an individuals perceptions of a team or product could

influence later buying decisions.

Theoretical Framework

An ethnomethodological approach is best for understanding how advertisements impact

the identity of the audience. These advertisemental influences run deeper than surface level

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variables. From the ethnomodology perspective, every time a person sees and advertisement,

their understanding of themselves is influenced. How their identity is impacted is also influenced

by their past experiences. It may reinforce the person’s reasoning skills by making them

question if they need that product. It may make them question the validity of the advertisement.

It may make them do other research on the product and find out what other people who have

bought it has said. This implies that different sponsors—a parent teaching child to be skeptical of

an advertisement and an advertisement itself—may work against one another. The person sees

the advertisement and the next thing that happens is their identity is either reinforced or altered in

some way.

If an advertisement is framed as a literature sponsor, and the individual’s access to other

information about the product is also framed as a literacy sponsor, it is possible to understand

how the these sponsors may work to alter the identity if the individual. The access the individual

has to information on products outside of the advertisement itself may be real or imagined. If the

individual does not believe it is an option to research the product, for them, it is not an option. It

is than not correct for a producer to say people can research their product, because the person

won’t based on their beliefs. Wether or not the person looks for more information is correlated to

the influences of other sponsors in the person’s life.

I have presented information from various disciplines and diverse theories. The following

are the variables I am exploring:

• Why or why not do individuals research products before purchasing.

• Where were these behaviors learned from.

• Do certain decisions in regards to purchasing influence how people view themselves.

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• When making purchasing decisions based on brand loyalty, are the individual’s moral

beliefs impacted?

• What sponsors must be present in order for an individual to purchase or not purchase an

item.

Methods

This will be a multi-method research process combining various types of qualitative and

quantitative research. The first thing that will happen after IRB approval is the survey will be

administered through the Institute of Social and Behavior Sciences (ISBS) department at

University of Central Florida. The sample will be a convince sample of students at a Florida

university. The survey will circulate for six months. The data will be analyzed in SPSS. SPSS is

not the standard data analysis software, but it is convenient for the college student. It also allows

for anonymity by turning all participants into a random number. I can organize these random

numbers however I need to, and also look for specific variables. At the end of the survey,

participants will have the option to leave contact information to be contacted to be a participant

in another part of the study. At this point, they will be able to view the informed consent letter in

the case they have hesitations about leaving their contact information.

In the time that the survey is circulating, I will be doing a content analysis on video

advertisements. My intension is to create a compilation of advertisements that each do one the

following:

• Show both sides of the product, the good and the bad.

• Show one side of the product, the good.

• Use a logical fallacy.

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• Use some form of deception.

After I have a compilation of advertisements, I will begin contacting the potential participants. I

would show them at least one advertisement from each category, and proceed to ask questions

about what they would do next. The point of showing multiple advertisements under each

category would be to diminish potential bias. A musician may act differently towards an

instrument advertisement containing a logical fallacy than a person who is not a musician. The

survey, interview, and informed consent letter may be found in Appendixes II, III, and IV.

This quantitative-qualititative design gives me the opportunity to do a statistical analysis on

how various variables may impact purchasing decisions. The survey allows for an up-to-date

variation of the Earl and Pride study to be executed. My research examines both macro and

micro aspects of various disciplines, meaning knowledge of how some of the macro data—

surveys—impacts the micro data—interviews—will be indispensable. Data from the interviews

allows for exploration of variables such as examination of how advertisements may function to

enforce what individuals know about themselves. The time line may be found in appendix I.

Conclusion

I hope I have given enough evidence for project approval. The is a lack of rhetorical

research on this topic. The advertisement theories do not include all aspects of the conversation.

The sociological research is outdated. The data gathered will be useful in multiple areas as well

as areas outside of academia.

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Appendix I

Timeline

Submit proposal to IRB 1/30/2016

Submit survey to ISBS 1/30/2016-8/1/2016

Begin contacting participants as they

complete the survey.

1/30/2016-8/1/2016

Interviews. 3/1/2016-9/1/2016

Analysis of survey. 9/2/2016-10/1/2016

Analysis of interviews. 10/2/2016-11/1/2016

Writing the research project. 11/2/2016-3/1/2017

Submit to editor 3/2/2017-4/1/2017

Revisions 4/2/2017-5/1/2017

Submit for publication 5/2/2017

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Appendix IILikert Scale Survey

DemographicsWhat is your age?What is your ethnicity/nationality?What is the highest level of education you have achieved?What is your annual income?SurveyHow often do you make purchases outside of the basic needs such as food, water, clothing?How many pieces of internet accessible technology do you have?What are the reason(s) for not having more or not having less?How do you get the information for these products?Do you tend to buy more things “spur of the moment”, or do you take your time?Will you buy, or not buy a product based on the brands affiliation with other organizations?Are you willing to be contacted for a face-to-face interview? If so, please read the consent letter below, and fill in the box with your name, phone number, and email.

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Appendix IIIInterview

Demographics are already recorded from surveyWhat goes through your mind when you see an advertisement for a product you want?What goes through your mind when you see an advertisement for a product you do not desire?How does complex rhetoric create hesitations in purchasing decisions?How long does it take you to make a purchasing decision?What kinds of purchasing decisions did your parents promote, if any?What do you think about products you desire and don’t desire when the producer uses complex dialect in the advertisement?How do you evaluate the usefulness of a product?Why is brand loyalty important?

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Appendix IVInformed Consent Letter

Title: Better Questions: An Analysis of Theories of Advertisements

Name: Samuel Bates

Research Chair: Dr. Marcy Galbreath

Purpose: My name is Samuel Bates, I am a senior student at University of Central Floridan with a major in sociology and a minor in writing and rhetoric. I am doing a rhetorical analysis of a 1920’s advertisement under the research supervisor Marcy Galbreath. Dr. Galbreath will be the contact person for this study. I would like to know if you would be willing to take part in an open-ended interview. The project is a study about theories revolving around advertising with a sample of academics in the fields of history, rhetoric, sociology, and marketing.

Procedures: I will be reserving a private room in the university library for the interview to take place.

Confidentiality: The interview will be entirely confidential. Each participant will be given a number and the names and contact information will be destroyed. You will have the option to end the interview at any point for any reason. You may refuse any question for any reason. Unfortunately, we can not offer any type of compensation, but we are very grateful for your participation. If you have any questions, you may contact Dr. Galbreath.

Agreement:

If you read and agree to everything, please sign and date below. Send it back either by mail or email, and we will contact you to set a day and time for the interview.

Name:

Date:

Sincerely,

Samuel Bates, Marcy Galbreath

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Brandt, D. (1998). Sponsors of literacy. College Composition and Communication, 165-185.

Earl, R. L., & Pride, W. M. (1980). The effects of advertisement structure, message sidedness, and performance test results on print advertising informativeness. Journal Of Advertising, 9(3), 36-46. http:// eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? sid=bb94b11e-b91b-4f1d-a585-2f39acfe58af%40sessionmgr114&vid=5&hid=112

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