Cliché and Anti-Cliché: Faircloughian Reading of Women’s Representation in Iranian Advertisements

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

2 MA (English), Department of English Language and Literature, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

 
As an important part of media, advertisements have a direct influence on the audience to enhance the purchasing of the products. Furthermore, advertisements guide and direct, shape and dictate their audience’s attitude.. Benefitting from Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis, this study depicts a comprehensive image of women in Iranian State TV advertisements by covering both the stereotypical and non-stereotypical images. After scrutinizing the corpus of around 500 cases in the scope of detergents, hygiene products, cosmetics and house appliances, the study choses five frequent items broadcasted in all months of the year 2016. Concentrating on the relationship between text and context of the advertisements, the results indicate that despite what the previous researchers have reported, the representation of Iranian women in advertisement is not limited to the cliché of a “housekeeper”, “consumerist”, “passive” and “ignorant” woman. Recent advertisements have introduced a new discourse, an anti-cliché, based on recognizing and respecting women and valuing their new position in the country as an “active”, “wise” and “powerful” human.

Keywords

Strategy for Culture
Volume 10, Issue 38
September 2017
Pages 85-206

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