on the use of narrative discourse in advertising

RESLA 22 (2009), 291-306
ON THE USE OF NARRATIVE DISCOURSE IN ADVERTISING:
HYBRIDITY, TEXTUAL VOICES AND GENDER IDENTITIES
BEGOÑA NÚÑEZ PERUCHA*
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
ABSTRACT. This article deals with the use of narrative discourse in advertising
and its effects on the ideological construction of gender identities. Specifically, it
examines hybrid advertisements that contain first and third person narratives with the
aim of pursuing a twofold objective. First, it seeks to investigate the structural
organisation of these narratives and its contribution to the overall purpose of the
advert. Second, it explores the issues of textual voices and reader positioning by
analysing how the narrator and the advertising firm/charity organisation address
readers. The results reveal differences regarding the structure of first and third person
narratives, the latter showing a tendency to present the commodity as the solution to a
problem or to an unexpected situation. In addition, the narrative voice appears to serve
both a persuasive and an ideological function inasmuch as it invites readers to enter
the narrator’s fictional world and represents gender identities.
KEY WORDS. Narrative discourse, advertising, hybridity, narrative voice, gender identities.
RESUMEN. Este artículo aborda el uso del discurso narrativo en los anuncios
publicitarios y su influencia en la construcción ideológica de identidades de género. De
manera específica, examina anuncios híbridos que contienen narrativas en primera y
tercera persona con un doble objetivo. En primer lugar, investiga la organización de
dichas narrativas y su contribución al propósito comunicativo del anuncio. En segundo lugar, explora las voces textuales y el posicionamiento del lector analizando cómo
el narrador y la compañía publicitaria/organización benéfica se dirigen al lector. Los
resultados muestran diferencias estructurales entre las narrativas en primera y tercera
persona. En éstas últimas el producto tiende a presentarse como la solución a un problema o a una situación inesperada. Además, la voz narrativa parece ejercer una función tanto persuasiva como ideológica en la medida que invita a los lectores a entrar
en el mundo creado por el narrador y representa identidades de género.
PALABRAS CLAVE. Discurso narrativo, anuncios publicitarios, naturaleza híbrida, voz narrativa, identidades de
género.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Typically, adverts consist of images accompanied by descriptive language, slogans
or imperatives that address the reader to buy or request information about the advertised
product (Verstergaard and Schrøder 1985). Although the most popular idea is that
advertising is about selling a product, several authors have put forward that it can also
aim at selling an idea, enhancing the image of an organisation or gaining financial
support for charities and fund-raising groups (Cook 1994; Goddard 1998; Chouliaraki
and Fairclough 1999). In fact, over the last decade there seems to have been an increase
in the number of adverts that campaign on social and political issues. These adverts, just
like the ones that advertise more conventional commodities (e.g. cars or perfume), are
also subject to aesthetic design and to the commodified language of the market
(Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999: 12). Precisely, because they combine the language of
advertising with the language of social and political engagement, they are characterised
as hybrid texts (Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999: 13)1. Accordingly, those adverts that
contain narratives, thus mixing persuasive and narrative discourse types, can also be
classified as hybrid.
The analysis of narrative discourse in advertising has been mainly carried out in
connection with the notion of narrative voice and, more specifically, with the
identification of the pronominal referents (i.e. who is speaking in the advert?) – see Cook
1994; Goddard 1998; among others. However, less attention has been paid to the effects
that using first or third person narratives may have in the way readers construct meaning
and interact with the advert. By focusing on hybrid advertisements that contain first and
third person narratives, the present article explores the function of the narrative text
within the advert. More specifically, it addresses the following questions: (i) the
structure of the narratives and its contribution to the overall purpose of the advert; and,
(ii) the textual voices and positioning of the reader, especially focusing on how the
narrative voice and the advertising voice address readers and, ultimately, construct
gender identities for them.
This study draws on the analysis of eight print advertisements, four containing first
person narratives and four, third person narratives2. The adverts were selected after
examining a total of 12 newspapers and 8 magazines, which may point to the low
recurrence of narratives in advertising discourse. Another point worthy of mention is that
adverts containing first person narratives were less frequent than those using third person
narratives.
The advertisements analysed here belong to three different British newspapers
with wide national circulation, namely The Times, Daily Mail and METRO, and two
inflight magazines, High Life and Business Life, which are available on British Airways
(BA) flights. According to the information published on the BA webpage, these
magazines are distributed among all seats. Regarding reader profiles, High Life readers
are characterised as “typically time poor and cash rich” and Business Life readers as
“important decision makers”3.
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The paper is organised into five sections. After this brief introduction, section 2
offers some theoretical remarks on the features involved in the study of narrative
discourse in advertising. Section 3 analyses the articulation of first and third person
narratives in order to explore its relation to the aim of the advert. Section 4 examines the
issues of textual voices and reader positioning by addressing the connection between the
interpersonal dimension of advertising and the ideological representation of gender
identities. Finally, section 5 offers the main conclusions drawn from the analysis.
2. ADVERTISING DISCOURSE AND NARRATIVE FICTION
Cook (1994) views advertising as a type of discourse. As such, the study of adverts
needs to consider the analysis of the text in relation to its context. In Cook’s (1994: 1) view,
text means linguistic forms whilst context includes different elements such as substance
(or the physical material in which the text is placed), music, pictures, paralinguistic
features, the situation surrounding the objects and people appearing in the advert; the cotext preceding or following the actual text being analysed, the intertext or reference to texts
belonging to other discourses, participants (generally described as senders, addressers,
addressees and receivers)4, and finally, the function that the text is intended to serve.
Advertising has typically a persuasive function, although, as mentioned in the Introduction,
this may not be its only function. As Cook (1994: 5) observes, adverts can also aim at
(mis)informing, warning, worrying, pleading or seeking support. Goddard (1998: 14-16)
and Chouliaraki and Fairclough (1999: 10-16) provide detailed analyses of adverts seeking
support by shocking readers through emotional language and disturbing images that
deviate from more traditional advertising methods.
It should also be noted that those adverts whose function is to persuade people to
buy a product or apply for a service, like most adverts under consideration in the present
study, aim to achieve contact between the fictional world in which the product is first
located and the real world in which the product can be bought. The ultimate aim is in
Cook’s (1994: 177) words “to push this product via the world of fiction and fantasy into
the real world of the consumer”.
2.1. The real and the fictional worlds in advertising
Among the different worlds where adverts are found to exist (Cook 1994: 177),
two become particularly relevant for the purpose of the present paper: the fictional world
of the characters and the real world of the receiver. One can expect the fictional world
of the characters to be created by the narrative text, and the real world of the receiver to
be addressed by the advertising company. Further, it can be argued that the more
similarities the imaginary situation bears with the real world, the more likely it would be
for the reader to identify with the fictional situation and buy the product.
It cannot be denied that language plays a crucial role in creating fictional worlds, as
Hidalgo Downing (2000) has demonstrated. In particular, drawing on this author’s analysis,
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the connection between the fictional world and the real world can be achieved by means of
two different strategies: (i) addressing directly the reader by means of the language or the
gaze of a character; and, ii) positioning characters and readers as sharing the same context
in such a way that the fictional and the real worlds are merged. In the case of advertisements
that contain narratives, one might expect that these strategies will be used to invite readers
to enter the fictional world made present in the narrative discourse.
2.2. Narrative structure
In Labov’s (1972) analysis of oral narratives of personal experience, a distinction
was made between minimal narratives and more fully developed narratives. Whereas the
first consisted of two clauses arranged in a temporal sequence, the latter exhibited the
following six-part structure:
1. Abstract: one or two clauses summarizing the story.
2. Orientation: a section giving information about the participants, time, place and
their activity or the situation.
3. Complicating Action: the sequence of events.
4. Evaluation: the means used by the narrator to establish the significance of the
narrative, that is, what the narrator is getting at and why the narrative was told.
It answers the underlying question “so what?”
5. Result or Resolution: the termination of the series of events (i.e. what finally
happened?).
6. Coda: the means used by the narrator to signal that the narrative is finished, as
when the narrator says “And that’s it”.
According to Labov (1972), in a complete narrative these categories appear in the
above order, except evaluation, which can be found in various forms throughout the
narrative text. However, differences regarding the number and ordering of these
categories have been observed in other types of narratives, such as news stories. Bell
(1991) compared the structure of oral narratives as proposed by Labov (1972) with that
of news stories and found the following dissimilar features (after Bell 1991: 239-244):
• Whereas the Abstract is optional in personal narratives, it is an obligatory
element in news stories.
• In news stories Evaluation is mainly found in the lead rather than near the end or
at some other point of the narrative account.
• The actions in news stories are not always temporally ordered.
• While personal narratives tend to include a Resolution part, news stories often
avoid presenting clear cut results. If shown, these would appear in the lead
instead of towards the end of the story.
• News stories lack Coda.
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As can be observed, the main differences between the structure of oral narratives
proposed by Labov (1972) and that of news stories found in Bell (1991) concern the
importance given to each of the categories and the order in which they occur5. The
question arises as to whether the narratives that appear in advertising display a similar
type and ordering to those found in Labov’s (1972) or show striking differences.
2.3. Narrative voice
Whether oral or printed, simple or complex, the recounting of events in a narrative
is, in general, spatiotemporally distant and made present by means of the narrator or
source of the narrative (Toolan 1988: 2-3). The narrator, then, becomes another
distinctive feature of the narrative.
In advertising, the narrator or storyteller is constructed by the writer(s) of the
advert in order to convey a particular message to the readers (Goddard 1998: 28-29). In
many cases adverts contain more than one voice, as when the narrator’s voice and the
advertising company’s voice are brought together in the same text and stand in an
intertextual or dialogic relation (cf. Fairclough 1989; 1992; 1995)6.
A typical way of engaging the reader in a dialogue is by addressing him/her
directly by means of the pronoun “you” in a more formal/distant or informal/intimate
tone, depending on the characteristics of the product or the age of the targeted group
(Cook 1994: 180). In this connection, Machin and van Leeuwen (2007: 139) suggest that
the use of direct address in advertising style is due to ideological and practical reasons:
Ideologically, it [advertising style] has always sought to address you, personally
and individually, and so to transcend its nature as a mass medium. Practically,
advertisements need to persuade readers and viewers to do or think certain things,
and hence they are replete with imperatives (which also address readers and
viewers directly).
From a critical discourse analysis perspective, the ideological work of advertising
is related to the way adverts interact with readers and construct subject positions for
them (Fairclough 1989: 206). As will be shown in section 4, these subject positions may
contribute to reinforce gender asymmetries.
3. THE ARTICULATION OF NARRATIVE DISCOURSE IN ADVERTISING
In the eight adverts analysed in this paper, differences are observed in the structure
and function of first and third person narratives. More precisely, both types of narratives
differ in terms of the components of the narration and the role of the narrative with
respect to the overall message.
Among the four adverts that contain first person narratives, three advertise a
commodity –in a wide sense of the term, namely, an online casino (The Gaming Club
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Online Casino), a place (Mexico), and a bank (Intelligence Finance). Only one aims at
gaining financial support (British Heart Foundation). In all these adverts, the initial
piece of attention-seeking language, that is, the hook (Goddard 1998: 106; Lacey
2005: 8), bears connection with the actions described in the narrative text.
Interestingly, differences arise between the structure of the narratives included in the
adverts that have a selling purpose and the narrative of the advert launched by the
charity organisation.
In those adverts of commodities what makes the story significant is the rewarding
experience of the narrator with the product. For this reason, the Complicating Action
part tends to be followed or preceded by Evaluation, as illustrated by examples (1)-(3)
below. In the Evaluation part, emphasis is placed on the positive qualities of the product
by means of personal comments that signal the uniqueness of the narrator’s experience
(e.g. “That morning was something else”, in (1)), adjectives presenting a subjective
description (“incredible”, “impressive”, in (2)), or comparative structures (“30 times
more interest”, “more than 40 times the interest it would at Natwest”, in (3)):
(1)
It was 11 o’ clock in the morning [1]. You should have seen her face when I donned
my lucky dinner jacket, poured myself a cognac, lit up a Montechristo and sat
down at my computer... [2]
I logged on to the Gaming Club Online Casino [3] – within 15 minutes of playing
slots, I hit a $50,000 jackpot! [4] That morning was something else [5].
[1] Orientation
[3] Complicating Action
[2] Evaluation + Orientation
[4] Resolution
[5] Evaluation
(2)
“I never thought I’d have the nerve to climb volcanoes like El Pico de Orizaba or
El Nevado de Toluca [1]. But when I visited this land, I realised that even less
adventurous people feel attracted by the incredible volcanic landscape [2]. It’s as
impressive as the colonial treasures I found in every little corner of the country [3].
In Mexico I found a new world with every step [4].”
[1] Orientation
[3] Evaluation
[2] Complicating Action + Evaluation
[4] Evaluation
(3)
I’d always been a Natwest customer but after fifty years I decided to move to
Intelligent Finance [1].
I’ve now got a current account with them which means that I get over 30 times
more interest than with my old bank [2].
But I’ve also added my savings and because intelligent Finance links my accounts
they pay me the savings rate on my current account as well [3]. So now my current
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account earns more than 40 times the interest it would at Natwest [4]. I’m better
off [5]. And you don’t have to be a mathematician to work that out [6].
[1] Orientation + Complicating Action
[4] Evaluation
[2] Evaluation
[5] Evaluation
[3] Evaluation
[6] Coda
In contrast, in the advert seeking financial support the story gives way to the
British Heart Foundation’s appeal for money. In order to interpret the narrative and its
function in the advert, readers need to draw on co-textual information. For instance, the
connection between the first two sentences of the narrative in (4) can only be made after
reading the preceding text in capitals (“If you have a heart attack, the hospital has a good
chance of saving your life. Trouble is, first you have to get to the hospital”). Likewise,
the text after the narrative makes it possible for the reader to infer that the character had
had a heart attack and his life could not be saved because the ambulance had not a
defribillator machine.
(4)
“He was only 45 or so [1]. We tried to resuscitate him [2]. We tried everything [3].
But the traffic was nose to tail [4]. When we got to the hospital, the doctor just
shook his head and said ‘Too late’” [5]. Ambulanceman, Waterloo.
[A few years ago, stories like this were commonplace.
At the British Heart Foundation, we decided to do something about it.
If you’ve ever watched television programmes like ‘Casualty’ you may have seen
hospital stall use a special machine on heart attack victims […]]
[1] Orientation
[4] Complicating Action
[2] Complicating Action
[5] Resolution
[3] Complicating Action
As can be seen, there is no Evaluation in the narrative. Rather, the Complicating
Action and Resolution categories become central for the British Heart Foundation to
introduce the cause that they fight and the need to gain financial support for it.
In third person narratives, the advertised product, or the one that inspired it, is
presented as the solution to a problem. As such, it is commonly found in the Resolution
part of the narrative, as illustrated by examples (5) and (6). In (5) the Complicating
Action sequence (i.e. the main character had forgotten his wallet and the waiter accepted
his business card as an IOU) serves as the source of inspiration for the advertised card
(the British Airways Diners Club Corporate Card), which is presented as the solution to
similar incidents.
(5)
When businessman Frank McNamara found he’d forgotten his wallet after
entertaining guests in a New York restaurant, the owner –who knew him– was
happy to accept his business card as an IOU[1].
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While McNamara’s good reputation saved the day, the incident inspired him to
devise a card which would guarantee the holder’s ability to pay – no matter where
they were [2]. That was back in 1950 [3].
[Since then, Diners Club has become the charge card of choice for millions of
businesses – and their business travellers. Here’s why: [...]]
[1] Complicating Action + Evaluation [2] Resolution + Evaluation [3] Orientation
In (6) the product, Glenmorangie Whisky, is metaphorically viewed as a marriage,
as a happy union between some Glenmoragie single malt and a new oak cask, whose past
is initially presented as potentially problematic (“But his new cask has a past”).
(6)
After 10 happy years together, some Glenmorangie single malt leaves its American
oak cask and moves in with another [1]. But this new cask has a past [2]. It’s only
recently separated from sherry, port or Madeira [3]. The result? [4] A marriage
made in Heaven, the smoothness of the wine perfect complimenting the warmth of
the whisky [5]. [For the full story of this happy union and to hear our head distiller
uncork, sip and reveal more secrets of the range, visit the website. Better still,
uncork one for yourself].
[1] Orientation
[4] Evaluation
[2] Evaluation
[5] Resolution + Evaluation
[3] Complicating Action
However, not all the third person narratives analysed here present a Resolution part
where the advertised product is located. In other cases the solving function of the product
has to be inferred from the context, as illustrated by examples (7) and (8).
In example (7) the narrative ends with the category of Complicating Action and
leads to an exhortative discourse, which, as will be further discussed in the next section,
invites the reader to use the product and cope with the unexpected situation (“Just pick
up Business Pages”).
(7)
Everything is going clockwork [1]. Then suddenly there’s a spanner in the works
[2]. The electricity has packed in [3]. Just pick up Business Pages. With its huge
range of businesses there’s always someone to call upon […]
[1] Orientation
[2] Complicating Action
[3] Complicating Action
Example (8) shows four instances of minimal narratives containing two or three
clauses temporally ordered. The last action is always one involving the character’s use
of the First Direct bank service. This service is presented as one that will change people’s
lives by saving them time. That is, the problem is one of “time”, which is assumed to be
socially shared, and the solving function of the bank service has to be inferred from the
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connection between the actions contained in the last part of the narrative clause and the
information that precedes them, namely, the time at which those actions take place and
the picture showing someone holding a telephone and, presumably, performing the
actions expressed in the minimal narrative:
(8)
06:30 (+ picture) Ian Francis enjoys his breakfasts and settles his Visa bill.
11.15 (+ picture) Jake O’Sullivan teases his mother as she asks about her mortgage.
16: 18 (+ picture) Yeboah opens the scoring, Andy Smith celebrates and raises his
overdraft.
23:30 (+ picture) Bob Sparks wakes with a start and calls to pay his gas bill.
In general, although there is a lack of a fixed narrative pattern in advertising, some
common narrative features can be identified in the adverts of commodities. In first
person narratives the advertised element tends to be placed within the Complicating
Action or Evaluation sections in order to emphasise the character’s rewarding
experience with the product, place or banking service as well as their positive qualities.
In third person narratives, the advertised commodity is likely to be found as part of the
Resolution section, since it is presented as a solution to a problem or to a situation that
can initially be seen as potentially problematic. Indeed, the problem-solution pattern has
been found to be commonplace in advertising (Machin and van Leewuen 2007: 108). In
this sense, Goddard (1998: 91) observes that “part of the discourse of advertising is to
problematise aspects of life that can then be ‘solved’ by means of a product”.
4. TEXTUAL VOICES AND READER POSITIONING
This section focuses on advertising as a site where different voices meet and
interact with readers. In particular, it deals with how the textual voices (i.e. the voices of
the narrator, the advertising company and the charity organisation) address readers and
construct subject positions for them which may be ideologically based.
4.1. The transitional role of the narrative voice
In first person narratives the narrator’s voice is clearly distinguished from the voice
of the company or charity organisation, which is represented by the “we”/”our” pronominal
form. This use of “we” matches Cook’s (1994: 155-156) remark on the uses of first person
pronouns in advertising: “We’ is the manufacturer; ‘I’ is often the adviser, the expert, the
relator of experiences and motives leading to the purchase of the product”.
In the adverts analysed here the first person narrator’s voice gives way to the
advertising voice. In other words, the narrative discourse can be understood as playing
a transitional role and leading to a different type of discourse, which can be described in
the following terms:
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(i) persuasive discourse, which invites the reader by means of imperatives to buy
the product/service, visit the advertised place, or find more information about
them.
(ii) the discourse of emotional appeal for help, which encourages the reader to
make a donation, as in the charity advert.
This change in discourse type is signalled by visual means, such as differences in
typeface size, use of italics or bold – to name a few. The use of quotations or typeface
resembling handwriting can contribute to the presentation of the narrative as a real story
which is addressed to a private reader, as in example (9)7:
(9)
I never thought I’d have the nerve to climb volcanoes like El Pico de Orizaba or
El Nevado de Toluca. But when I visited this land, I realised that even less
adventurous people feel attracted by the incredible volcanic landscape [… ]
For more information about Mexico call 0870 900 9866 or www.visitmexico.com.
In other cases, the shift from narrative to persuasive discourse implies a change in
discourse style, as is the case of the Intelligent Finance advert. Here the more intimate
tone of the narrative of personal experience in example (10a) below evolves into a more
authoritative and regulatory discourse which represents the bank’s voice, as shown in
(10b) and (10c). This voice shift is also reflected in the lay-out, as indicated by the fact
that in (10a) and (10b) both discourse types are preceded by different headings placed in
a box and given typographical emphasis.
(10a)
HOW INTELLIGENT FINANCE MADE ME BETTER OFF
I’d always been a Natwest customer but after fifty years I decided to move to
Intelligent Finance. [...]. So now my current account earns more than 40 times the
interest it would at Natwest. I’m better off. And you don’t have to be a mathematician
to work that out.
(10b)
HOW YOU COULD BE BETTER OFF
• Having just £1 in an Intelligent Finance savings gives you 4.05% AER GROSS
on your current account as well.
[…]
• Interest calculated on the basis of daily balances.
(10c)
We may monitor or record your telephone calls. You can open and operate an
Intelligent Finance plan if you live in the UK and are 16 or over. Credit facilities
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are only available to people aged 18 or over. We take into account your personal
and financial circumstances.
As can be observed, the informal language used by the “I” narrator (e.g. contracted
forms, use of conjunctive items such as “But”, “So”, “And”), and the way in which he
describes the benefits obtained from the bank (“now my current account earns more than 40
times the interest […]”) contrast with the more formal, regulatory and technical language
used by the bank’s voice (“[…] 4.05% AER GROSS on your current account”, “Interest
calculated on the basis of daily balances”, “You can open and operate an Intelligent Finance
plan if you live in the UK […]”, “Credit facilities are only available to people aged 18 or
over”). Nevertheless, though regulatory, the bank’s language also contains some instances
of toning down, such as the use of modal verbs that reduce imposition, as in “we may
monitor or record your telephone calls”. In fact, the bank’s voice can be characterised as
“hybrid”, in the sense that it combines features of the persuasive nature of advertising
language with the expository character of financial language (cf. Fairclough 1992: 116).
In the British Heart Foundation advert, the reader is positioned as a social agent
through the discourse of charitable appeal (cf. Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999: 13). In
particular, the reader is depicted as a socially engaged person that can contribute to
reduce the number of deaths caused by heart disease:
(11)
But there is still much to be done. Coronary heart disease remains Britain’s number
one killer.
We receive no money from the government. Every single penny comes from
fundraising. If you think you’d like to help in this, our thirtieth year, please fill in
the coupon below.
TAKE HEART. WE’RE HERE
[Coupon]
Regarding textual voices in third person narratives, the narrator’s voice seems to
be blended with the advertising company’s voice. This is specially noticeable in those
adverts where the narrative and persuasive types of discourse are placed within the same
paragraph, as in (12) and (13):
(12)
After 10 happy years together, some Glenmorangie single malt leaves its American
oak cask and moves in with another [...] For the full story of this happy union and
to hear our head distiller uncork, sip and reveal more secrets of the range, visit the
website. Better still, uncork one for yourself.
(13)
Everything is going clockwork. Then suddenly there’s a spanner in the works [...]
Just pick up Business Pages. With its huge range of businesses there’s always
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someone to call upon. Which means finding help needn’t drive you up the wall. For
your copy call 0800 671 444.
As can be seen from these examples, the storyteller and the advertising company
seem to be represented as one voice that invites readers to enter the narrator’s fictional
world. It may be argued that in these cases the text functions as a unity where the
narrator’s fictional world and the consumer’s real world are merged in such a way that
readers are positioned as characters of the narrative.
4.2. The ideological representation of gender identities
According to Fairclough (1995: 17), the wider social impact of media is not just
related to “how they selectively represent the world” but also to “what sorts of social
identities, what versions of ‘self’, they project and what cultural values (be it consumerism,
individualisms or a cult of personality) these entail”. As forms of media discourse,
advertisements can greatly influence the way people construct their identities (Goddard
1998: 3). On this basis, the remaining part of this paper examines the identity of the
narrator and the characters as well as the implications that this may have for the positioning
of readers and, ultimately, for the ideological representation of gender identities.
Of the four first person narratives analysed here, three contain gendered voices and
these happen to be male. The narrator’s identity is accessed from the printed text, in the
case of the story told by the ambulanceman (British Heart Foundation Advert) and from
the image, as in the adverts of The Gaming Club Online Casino and Intelligence
Finance. In these two adverts the image merits special attention as it makes a powerful
contribution to the social representation of gender roles.
In the Online Casino advert, the picture represents an attractive man in his early
forties in the foreground sitting at a computer and logging on to the Gaming Club Online
Casino. The man is wearing a suit, holding a cigar in his hand and smiling, as if he were
enjoying the pleasure of winning. On the table next to the computer there is a glass and
two bare feet and legs, which, as can be inferred from the text printed in large white font
below the picture, seem to represent metonymically the character named “Julia”8:
(14)
Julia was baffled when I sat down at the computer with my dinner jacked on-but
when I started to win...!
The picture seems to function itself as a narrative structure in the sense proposed by
Kress and van Leeuwen (2006: 59). That is, the man, as the Actor, is connected by a
diagonal vector to the Goal (the computer, which allows access to the advertised product).
In the Intelligent Finance advert, the two images depict the narrator as a happy man
in his late sixties. The bigger one shows him on a bicycle, as if he had stopped riding to
tell readers how he increased his savings thanks to the Intelligent Finance bank. This
picture also contains information about his name and profession (“Dominic Delahunt,
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Retired Head Teacher”), thus reinforcing the identification of the character with a real
man. The smaller picture presents the narrator from the side looking into the distance, as
if there were no reason to worry about the future.
From these descriptions it can be suggested that in these two adverts the image
does not only construct the first person referent as an active participant in control of
money matters but it also plays a role in the way readers interact with the narrative text.
The two male narrators can be thought to represent specific social groups with whom
readers of The Times and High Life are likely to identify. As Goddard (1998: 114)
rightly notes:
Copywriters give careful consideration to the type of people they want to represent
– or, it would be more accurate to say, to re-present, as every image is a representation of something; it is never a ‘natural’ phenomenon. As soon as people
are pictured, they become representative of the social groups they are seen to
represent – groups such as gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, social class, occupation
and region. But the people are also not simply static pictures. They are part of the
way the text interacts with us, the readers.
In the case of third person narratives, of the four adverts analysed in this paper, two
contain human characters. The main characters are all male, have names and surnames
and are assigned the role of Actor in the clause (cf. Halliday 2004), as shown by the
following examples:
(15)
When businessman Frank MacNamara found he’d forgotten his wallet, the owner
–who knew him was happy to accept his business card as an IOU. [...] the incident
inspired him to devise a card [...].
(16)
a. Ian Francis enjoys his breakfast and settles his Visa bill.
b. Jake O’Sullivan teases his mother as she asks about her mortgage.
c. Yeboah opens the scoring, Andy Smith celebrates and raises his overdraft
d. Bob Sparks wakes with a start and calls to pay his gas bill.
It is worth noting that in (16b) although the female character is the one that uses
the banking services, she is presented as a participant asking for information, that is, as
involved in a process of saying (“she asks about her mortgage”). She is given the role of
Sayer rather than that of Actor. It is his son who is the Actor and the point of departure
of the clause. Besides, as Caldas-Couthard’s (1996: 227) suggests, the fact that she is
firstly referred to by her role of “mother” illustrates her identification with the private
sphere. Another factor that contributes to minimise the woman’s role as an active
participant is the image. Indeed, the picture that accompanies the narrative shows only a
partial image of her from the back, while focusing on the boy teasing her by playing with
the telephone cable.
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In summary, five of the eight adverts examined in this article contain gendered
narrative voices and characters. Male narrators appear in first person narratives about
personal experiences involving social action and jobs typically labelled as “male”, as in
the case of the ambulanceman’s story in the British Heart Foundation advert, or in those
narratives where they, as protagonists, deal with money matters, as in the adverts of the
Gaming Club Online Casino and the Intelligent Finance bank. Similarly, male
protagonists are used in third person narratives where the actions are connected with the
public spheres of business and banking. This is the case of the British Airways Diners
Club, created by businessman FankMcNamara, and of the First Direct advert. In
contrast, female characters, when present, are linguistically represented as observers or
as participants asking for information. If, as Cook (1994: 5) notes, “advertising can tell
us a good deal about our society and our own psychology”, it might be argued that the
adverts discussed in the present subsection draw on gender ideological assumptions that
assign men and women different social roles.
5. CONCLUSION
This small-scale study has examined the role of narrative discourse in the
construction of advertisements as hybrid texts. Specifically, it has analysed the
articulation of the narrative discourse and its contribution to the overall purpose of the
advert. It has also explored how textual voices address readers and construct subject
positions for them and how these positions may, ultimately, reinforce ideological
representations of gender identities.
The analysis has shown that there is variation regarding the structure of the narratives
used in advertising. It has been observed that such variation appears to be related to the aim
of the advert and the type of narrative. For instance, the first person narrative in the charity
advert focuses more on Complicating Action and seems to justify the advertiser’s appeal
for a donation. In contrast, in the adverts of commodities, the point of the story, its value,
is to show the advantages of the advertised product, place or banking service, by locating
it within specific sections of the narrative. Thus, first person narratives tend to emphasise
the main character’s interaction with the advertised commodity, which is usually placed
within the Complicating Action and Evaluation sections. On the other hand, third person
narratives show a tendency to present the commodity as the solution to a problem or
unexpected situation, and hence, it appears generally in the Resolution part.
With regard to the issues of textual voices and subject positioning, the narrative
voice has been found to play a transitional role, as it gives way to a different type of
discourse represented either by the charity’s organisation voice or by the advertising
company’s voice. In the first case, the reader is positioned as a social actor that can help
to save lives by making a donation. In the latter case, the reader is persuaded to buy the
product/service, visit a place or find more information about them. As an overall
persuasive strategy of advertising, the narrative voice serves to make the fictional world
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present in the consciousness of potential consumers. Instead of being overtly told to go
and buy the product, readers are persuaded to do so in a less obtrusive way.
This article has also suggested that apart from having a persuasive function, some of
the narratives appear to operate ideologically. The examples discussed in the last subsection
have provided evidence that gender stereotypes are still at work in the representations of
men and women in advertising. From an ideological point of view, by assigning male
characters stereotypically masculine roles, advertising may contribute to subtly reinforce
gender assumptions and power asymmetries. As Lazar (2007: 9-10) remarks, modern
power is mostly cognitive, and this is precisely what makes it invisible and effective.
NOTES
* Correspondence to: Begoña Núñez Perucha. Departamento de Filología Inglesa I. Facultad de Filología. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Ciudad Universitaria, s/n. 28040 Madrid. E-mail: begonia@filol.ucm.es.
1. This notion of hybridity is similar to the concept of interdiscursivity in the sense that both stress the
interaction between different discourse types (whether styles or genres). (Cf. Fairclough 1992; Bhatia
2004).
2. This is the list of the adverts analysed in the present paper:
Adverts containing first person narratives:
The Gaming Club. First Casino on the Net. High Life, December 2001, p. 75.
Mexico. High Life, December 2001, p. 41.
Intelligent Finance. The Times. Saturday December 8 2001, p. 3.
British Heart Foundation. Daily Mail. Friday August 23 1991, p. 43.
Adverts containing third person narratives:
Business Pages. METRO, Monday November 3, 2003, p. 10,
The British Airways Diners Club Corporate Card. Business Life, December 2001/ January 2002, p. 32.
Whisky Weds Wood. The Times. Saturday December 8 2001 p. 5.
First Direct. The Times. Saturday February 17, 1996, p. 26.
3. Information available at http://www.bamedia.co.uk/inflight.html Last accessed on 17-01-2009.
4. Cook (1994: 2) distinguishes between senders and addressers, on the one hand, and receivers and
addressees, on the other hand. Whereas the sender is the advertising agency, the addresser may not always
coincide with the sender, as in the case in which a celebrity addresses the audience. Likewise, the addressee
may be a specific target group for whom the advert is intended and the receiver would be anyone who
happens to see the advert.
5. See also van Dijk’s work on news schemata. According to this author, news stories consist of the following
categories (1985: 85-88): Summary, under which the categories of Headline and Lead are grouped together;
Verbal Reactions, Main Event, Previous Events, Background (including the categories of History and
Context); Consequences (or category organising those events that result from the Main Event), and, finally,
Comment (i.e. conclusions, expectations, speculations, etc.). Far from being fixed, the order of these
categories (except that of Headline and Lead) may vary due to relevance or immediacy reasons.
6. In Fairclough’s work the notion of intertextuality accounts for the dialogic property of texts (cf. Bakhtin
1981).
7. Goddard (1998: 16) notes that an italicised print tends to connote an older writer, whereas a rounded, joined
up script where “hearts”, for instance, are used instead of dots over the letter “i” would suggest that the
writer is young.
8. As Lacey (2005: 105) observes, “the appearance of a character in the image is important”. In particular,
pleasure is given concrete representation in attractive men and women, who, as iconic stereotypes, boost
the suggestive potential of the image (Vázquez and Aldea 1991: 83).
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