1

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

Self.
Samuel D. Bates
Research Chair:
Dr. Marcy Galbreath

Introduction
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 advertisements roll in history and how people reacted to them: In the
1800s 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
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 readers
perception of advertisement informativeness in regards to the readers 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

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). Brandts
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 literacyand 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 childs 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
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 factsor 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 Sibers traffic sign analogy.
Social identity theory says that individuals live in relatively small networkswithin a
larger networkand 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
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 McAllens 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 McAllens 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
on rhetorical artifacts of the 1920s. 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 doesnt 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
Rebouls 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
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 dont 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
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 persons 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 sponsorsa parent teaching child to be skeptical of
an advertisement and an advertisement itselfmay 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 individuals 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
wont based on their beliefs. Wether or not the person looks for more information is correlated to
the influences of other sponsors in the persons 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.

When making purchasing decisions based on brand loyalty, are the individuals 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.

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
surveysimpacts the micro datainterviewswill 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.

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

1/30/2016-8/1/2016

complete the survey.

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

Appendix II
Likert Scale Survey
Demographics
What is your age?
What is your ethnicity/nationality?
What is the highest level of education you have achieved?
What is your annual income?
Survey
How 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.

Appendix III
Interview
Demographics are already recorded from survey
What 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 dont desire when the producer uses complex
dialect in the advertisement?
How do you evaluate the usefulness of a product?
Why is brand loyalty important?

Appendix IV
Informed 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
1920s 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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