A Comparative Analysis of Hybrid Car Advertisements in the USA and China: Desire, Globalization, and Environment (original) (raw)
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(Full article available via Elsevier) Despite the substantial advance of environmental communication research over the past decade, studies on green marketing discourse in non-Western contexts have been relatively sparse. To address this research gap, this article examines the multimodal discursive means through which the concept of “nature” is constructed in recent automobile advertisements in China. Following the analytical frame-work of multimodal critical discourse analysis, the article analyzes a total of 24 advertisements that were produced between 2013 and 2014 by four top selling automobile brands in China. The data analysis reveals a consistent ideological separation between nature and human society in the analyzed advertisements: “nature” is constantly framed as either a valuable commodity for human consumption or an added value for high-end car models that in fact have low energy efficiency (e.g. luxury SUVs and sedans). Implicitly, these advertisements also appropriate the growing public concern on China's deteriorating environment through green consumerism. The above findings not only deconstruct the operations of specific advertisements and how they contribute to problematic environmental narratives; they also situate China's deepening ecological crisis within the broader context of neoliberalism, the ubiquitous doctrine underlying today's global economy. Overall, this article invites readers to consider the irresolvable contradiction of green capitalism and market-based environmentalism: the benefit offered by technological innovation is often offset by the endless pursuit of material consumption growth.
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
Transport choices are not merely practical decisions but steeped in cultural and societal perceptions. Understanding these latent drivers of behaviour will allow countries to develop and import policies to more successfully promote sustainable transport. Transport symbolism-what people believe their ownership or use of a mode connotes to others about their societal positionhas been shown to be one such, non-trivial, hidden motivator. In the case of hybrid and electric cars ('eco cars'), studies have demonstrated how their symbolic value varies within a society among different social groups. As yet, however, there has been scant research into comparing how the symbolism of a mode varies across national cultures, horizontally, between individuals with similar socio-demographic characteristics. Through qualitative thematic analysis, this study utilises two of Hofstede's cross-cultural indices-power differential and individualism versus collectivism-to develop and strengthen theory on how the differing symbolism of eco cars currently varies between four cultural clusters-Anglo, Nordic, Confucian and South Asian. It also deliberates how observed symbolic qualitative differences may influence an individual or group choice to procure eco cars. Finally, it discusses how policy development, transfer and marketing, within the context of eco cars, may need to be modified by national governments, in the Confucian and South Asian cultures, so as to encourage uptake and modal shift.
Consumption Markets & Culture, 2012
To explain inconsistent behaviour that is well documented in green-marketing and consumption, the authors develop the (neo)structuralist model of meaning co-creation that is based on the signifying practices of hybrid car manufacturers and consumers. The model reveals that market agents are recruited into a symbolic order that requires the perpetual reinforcement of self-opposing meanings as a condition for signification. The main problem of green practice is not the issue of market agents' authenticity/hypocrisy. Rather it represents a more interactive phenomenon – the common structure of meaning-creation – which silences important transformative action choices and thus defeats its own purpose.
Taking the SUV to a Place It's Never Been Before": SUV Ads and the Consumption of Nature (2005)
seminal thinkers in the American environmental tradition cite wilderness as one of the distinguishing marks of American culture. The image of an unspoiled natural setting as a regenerative haven and a palliative to the stress of urban life is stamped on the country's literary and historical texts. But if wilderness is the refuge of the true American spirit, the other emblem of American identity is how we get thereby car. The question, "What do you drive?" as an interrogation of identity demonstrates the profound sense of self that is lodged in our personal means of transportation. We are willing to let our cars stand for who we are. Indeed, the history of the automobile in America is fundamental to our conception of self and of our environment; and despite the obvious contradiction inherent in using a car to "get back" to nature, our current conception of nature, and the social movements to protect it, are shaped in large part by the social history of the automobile. Without cars, wilderness as we know it could not exist.
It is often assessed that the construction of nature, technology and the relation between both is in the midst of a restructuring without specifying exactly what different articulations can be distinguished and how they differ from the modern notion of nature being separated from and domesticated by technology. Through an analysis of car commercials, this study develops a typology of constellations of nature and technology. Besides the well-known modern dichotomy of nature versus technology, with the latter being superior to the former, three types of articulations were found: technology as a flexible and superior technological mimicry of nature; technological mastery as harmful to nature; and nature and technology as two holistically connected realms. Implications for theories about the changing nature of nature and the restructuring of the relationship between nature and technology are discussed.
2012
It is often assessed that the construction of nature, technology and the relation between both is in the midst of a restructuring without specifying exactly what different articulations can be distinguished and how they differ from the modern notion of nature being separated from and domesticated by technology. Through an analysis of car commercials, this study develops a typology of constellations of nature and technology. Besides the well-known modern dichotomy of nature versus technology, with the latter being superior to the former, three types of articulations were found: 1) technology as a flexible and superior technological mimicry of nature; 2) technological mastery as harmful to nature; and 3) nature and technology as two holistically connected realms. Implications for theories about the changing nature of nature and the restructuring of the relationship between nature and technology are discussed.
Organization, 2013
In this article we examine the marketing representations of the Toyota Prius, the first 'green' massproduced automobile. Drawing on an interpretive analysis of Prius print advertisements in Canadian publications between 2006-2011 and a matched sample of other automobile advertisements, we observe how the Prius advertisements invoke imagination and how this process is channelled, via the integration of text and images offered in the advertising space, to particular themes and ideas. Through the use of an ambiguous system of signs, audiences are invited to imagine and thereby co-create the significance of hybrid electric vehicles. Three areas of imagining are emphasized by the advertisement structure-nature, harmony and agency-and we analyze these imaginings as potential moments of knowledge creation about climate change. We examine how the activity of imagining in relation to these three areas influences viewers' knowledge and perception of climate change as well as their sense of responsibility for anthropogenic climate change. We discuss the consequences of using ambiguous messages to promote socially and politically charged products for consumers' understanding and imagination.
Transport symbolism-what people believe their ownership and/or use of a particular mode connotes to others about their societal position – has been shown to be a non-trivial motivator of transport choice. Furthermore, in terms of hybrid and electric cars, individual studies have demonstrated how their symbolic value varies within a particular society, for different social groups. As yet, however, no work has compared how this symbolism varies across national cultures, horizontally, for individuals with similar socio-demographic characteristics. Through qualitative analysis, this study utilises two of Hofstede's cross-cultural indices – power differential and individualism versus collectivism – to develop and strengthen theory on the symbolism of hybrid and electric cars across national cultures, at this point in time. It then goes on to discuss how the noted qualitative differences may influence individual or group choices to procure and use such vehicles. This may strongly influence the potential outcomes of transport policy formulation and transfer, as well as product marketing efforts.
Elucidating petroleum affinity in modern car culture through Monster Motors
The present research aims at tracing the human-machine interaction and interpersonal relationship in the substantial realm of modern car culture with a focus on human beings' dependency on cars as petro-products through Monster Motors (2015) by Brian Lynch and Nick Roche. With allusions to maestros of horror viz. Frankenstein and Dracula, this comic details the adventures of ace mechanic Vic Frankenstein and his android assistant IGOR against the vampire car Cadillacula which sucks gasoline out of other cars. In his triangular theory of love, proposes three components of love, viz. Intimacy, passion, and commitment. Modern car culture manifests in people's love for cars. Thus, this research is an attempt to showcase people's affinity with cars as an implication of their affinity with petroleum through Sternberg's three components of love. Thus, the research establishes the aggressive consumption of petroleum used in cars as a derivative of Sternberg's passion component and machine-intimacy of humans as a synonym of petrointimacy based on intimacy component. Subsequently, the research investigates the decision/commitment component of Sternberg in relation to understanding humans' determination for cars/petro-products. Here, it scrutinises that petro-horror-an attempt to represent oil's increasing ubiquity (Tulsi 2020, 159-181)-is a conscious choice that humans make in promoting the car culture.