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Journal of Promotional Communications

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Published

2015-07-07

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Vol. 3 No. 2 (2015): Special Issue on Voice and Representation of Marginal Groups

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Representations of Gender and Power within Luxury Goods Advertising: Generating Marginalisation of Women

Megan Sirr

Bournemouth University, Faculty of Media 7 Communication

Abstract

The representation of gender power can be found in all areas of marketing communication but few are more prominent than the representation within luxury goods advertising.  Pollay  (2000) demonstrates the powerful mirroring effect (and indeed affect) of advertising in society; therefore I will be exploring the influence that advertising has on the marginalisation of women. This paper identifies how negative and stereotypical portrayals of women in advertising influences the marginalisation of women.  As a result of the analysis of three prominent advertisements I develop The Chain of Voicelessness identifying how the underlying message of all three examples generate unintended consequences and thus implications related to power relations for women as a group. It is clear that such a chain of events is still present and that advertising messages play a clear role in the early stages.

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