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1 – 3 of 3This paper aims to explore how and why ideas regarding “intersectional” approaches to feminism and Black activism are drawn on in marketing content related to the concept of being…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how and why ideas regarding “intersectional” approaches to feminism and Black activism are drawn on in marketing content related to the concept of being “woke” (invested in addressing social injustices). It considers which subject positions are represented as part of this and what they reveal about contemporary issues concerning advertising, gender, race and activism.
Design/methodology/approach
This study involves an interpretive and critical discursive analysis of so-called feminist advertising (“femvertising”) and marketing examples that make use of Black social justice activist ideas.
Findings
Findings illuminate how marketing simultaneously enables the visibility and erasure of “intersectional”, feminist and Black social justice activist issues, with the use of key racialised and gendered subject positions: White Saviour, Black Excellence, Strong Black Woman (and Mother) and “Woke” Change Agent.
Research limitations/implications
This research signals how brands (mis)use issues concerning commercialised notions of feminism, equality and Black social justice activism as part of marketing that flattens and reframes liberationist politics while upholding the neoliberal idea that achievement and social change requires individual ambition and consumption rather than structural shifts and resistance.
Practical implications
This work can aid the development of advertising standards regulatory approaches which account for nuances of stereotypical representations and marketing’s connection to intersecting issues regarding racism and sexism.
Originality/value
This research outlines a conceptualisation of the branding of “woke” bravery, which expands our understanding of the interdependency of issues related to race, gender, feminism, activism and marketing. It highlights marketing responses to recent socio-political times, which are influenced by public discourse concerning movements, including Black Lives Matter and Me Too.
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Francesca Sobande, Alice Schoonejans, Guillaume D. Johnson, Kevin D. Thomas and Anthony Kwame Harrison
Grounded in experience of co-organizing a two-day photography-based workshop in Paris, this paper explores how photo-dialogues can facilitate anti-racist pedagogy and generative…
Abstract
Purpose
Grounded in experience of co-organizing a two-day photography-based workshop in Paris, this paper explores how photo-dialogues can facilitate anti-racist pedagogy and generative discussions about how race and racism function in marketplace contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on the authors' involvement in a cross-national and cross-disciplinary team of scholars who worked with local community stakeholders—including activists, artists and practitioners—to discuss, theorize and photo-document issues regarding race and racism in the Parisian marketplace.
Findings
This paper contributes to the literature on visual culture studies and critical race studies as it demonstrates the potentials of photography combined with dialogue to challenge the White supremacy over archiving and visuality in the context of urban spaces. This new methodology is an opportunity to reflect on archetypes of visuality that depart from the traditional Parisian flâneur to be consistent with and reinforce anti-racist stances.
Originality/value
Photography and visual methods often play peripheral roles in anti-racist education across various disciplines and research areas, including critical marketplace studies. This paper expands understanding of the potentials of using photographic methods as part of critical and anti-racist work related to racial and racist dynamics, including issues regarding power, White supremacy and public space. It outlines the use of photographic dialogues in a context (Paris, France) where discussion of race is regularly societally discouraged. Thus, this work shifts the focus away from decontextualized research that regards race as an object, to specifically foreground understandings of racialized experiences and how the photographic gaze produces and is produced by racialized viewers.
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