Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising

(Paperback, Fourth Edition)

Available Formats

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In the fourth edition of Provocateur, sociologist Anthony J. Cortese offers an up-to-date, critical analysis of modern advertising. Though we often hear that we live in a period of unprecedented gender and racial equality, both racism and sexism persist in a most telling areathe ads with which we are inundated every day in newspapers and magazines and online. Cortese examines the ideologies surrounding gender and race by delving into the presentation of women, ethnic minorities, children, and anyone who is qualified as other in society.

Featuring a fresh selection of nearly 400 advertisements, this edition includes new scholarship from gender, racial, and cultural studies, new chapters on gay and lesbian marketing and aggression and violence in the media, an expanded chapter on race in advertising, and more. This edition is ideal for sociology, communication, and gender and ethnic studies courses as well as for use as go-to reference.

Reviews

A fascinating examination of an underexplored aspect of advertising and its impact on all of our lives. -- Jean Kilbourne
Corteses analysis should motivate readers to pay more careful attention to the multitude of images that daily bombard us through advertising. Cortese teaches readers how to deconstruct and critically respond to the sexism, racism, and heterosexism embedded in many advertisements, making Provocateur as much a call to action as it is a textbook. -- Claire M. Renzetti, professor and chair of sociology and Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair at the Center for Research on Violence against Women, University of Kentucky
Cortese continues to offer timely and important insights into how women, members of ethnic and racial minorities, and members of LGBT communities are framed and imaged in advertising. -- Jim Snow, Loyola University Maryland

Praise for Previous Editions

This volume is an excellent historical and up-to-date analysis of how advertising targets ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, as well as white heterosexuals. Academic readers will find eclectic scholarship representing feminist theory, sociology of advertising, ethnic studies, dramaturgy, postmodernism, and media literacy. In addition, Cortese provides practical advice on how readers can combat their own cultural conditioning, which may be racist. An outline for evaluating advertising is also included as an appendix. These guides, along with the excellent analysis throughout, make this an outstandingly useful volume. Excellent bibliography and index. Essential.

* Choice Reviews *
The author takes a close look behind the scenes of contemporary culture, examining the hidden messages and social meaning of advertising and its use of images of women and minorities. * Business Horizons *
A well-researched, thoughtful examination of an aspect of advertising that is seldom discussed and would be an excellent textbook or supplemental reading for advertising, media in society, and women and minorities in media courses. * Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly *
Cortese asks some very good questions, and he has a good eye for recent trends. * Ideology and Cultural Production *

Author Bio

Anthony J. Cortese is professor of sociology at Southern Methodist University.