The Interplay of Religious Symbols and Cultural Values Theory in Advertising (original) (raw)

Capitalizing on Faith: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Consumer Responses to the Use of Religious Symbols in Advertising

Journal of Global Marketing, 2019

The use of religious symbolism in advertising is increasingly ubiquitous, and has extended beyond the promotion of religiously-associated products to products in general. However, limited attention has been given by the scholars to the use of such symbols for promotional purposes, and rarely in a cross-cultural context. In this article, the authors examine the attitudes of Christian and Muslim consumers in Egypt and the United States toward religious symbolism in advertisements. The results indicate that a consumer's religion, country, and level of religious commitment, as well as an ad's level of symbolism explicitness directly influence attitudes toward religious symbols in advertising. However, some of the relationships between religious affiliation and attitudes toward these types of ads is moderated by country, and Christians and Muslims differ in the extent to which their cultural context and minority religious status influences their attitudes toward ads containing religious symbols.

The Commodification of Religion as Symbolic Interactionism in Advertising

International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2021

The power of media is not to simply inform, but to transform the viewers' beliefs, and to influence people positively and/or negatively based on their interpretations. Thus, this study was conducted to understand Islamic commodification signs on advertisement and to explore the effects of semantic noise interpretation based on the visual communication design meaning used. Symbolic interactionism and communication model are the two important theories in the visual field that are used as the main framework of the study. The study began with content analysis of 7 billboards as case study and continued with semi-structured interviews to get in-depth feedback from 12 informants. Maximum variation sampling was selected ranging from industry practitioner, educator to students from the same field. Thematic analysis is applied in this qualitative study, and subsequent analysis using symbolic interactionism theory in describing the result. The Islamic element is often appear in images and text as part of culture preferences. The ads seem to be more influenced by religion which raises issues of ethical that can mislead content; convey religion-related messages about products. The commodification of visual communication design has become the mediating link to greatly enhance the effectiveness of advertising even though it may cause confusion that affect the recipient's understanding of the actual message (communication noise). Even though the used of Islamic symbols is emotional stimulus that engage ideas to the targeted group (Malay-Muslim) but these ads do not symbolise a highly significant guarantee as a successful motivation aspect of communication. Advertiser should emphasize more over everything else such as product type, function and benefits of the product itself. Although cultural elements are very important in advertising, an understanding of the appropriateness of a symbol in the communication element is necessary to marketer or advertiser to avoid exaggeration and misrepresentation of products by the multi-racial audience.

Culture, Advertising and the Play with ‘Religion’

2019

Purpose – The primary purpose of this article is to identify theoretical fundamentals that can be used in research in the context of culture and advertising research. An additional aim is to identify future research directions for advertising building theory in relation to religion. Design/methodology/approach - A conceptual framework is grounded in the literature review. As few cross‐cultural studies have been absorbed, the theories and their presentation will likely progress in the future. Finding – There is a choice for moving advertising strategy onward from religious advertising and its influence in our culture to one in which the focus is on the exchange of values beyond selfinterest. Research limitations/implications – Since this article is only a primary attempt to develop an understanding of the advertising approach to social and cultural trends in society, which provides a strong stimulus for the further conceptual development of the symbolic religious consumption concept ...

Capitalising on Religiosity of Consumers: A study of Commercials of Olper's milk

International Journal of Business and Management Sciences, 2022

The use of religious symbols in advertising is pervasive, especially in Islamic countries. Religious symbols, themes and rituals are depicted in advertising of strong brands. In this article we have discussed islamic religious symbols and themes in the advertising of olper's milk which is a popular milk brand in Pakistan. We have used an interpretivist framework and have adopted a semiotic visual analytic approach. We have given a classification of the symbolism and have found that these are abundantly used in these ads. We claim that all this symbolism has origin in the ideology and is adopted for popular cultural use. The common symbols used include the primary static symbols like a crescent, calligraphy, patterns of herbs, shrubs and flowers; while the dynamic symbols like salah, Hajj and fasting are also widely applied. These symbols then give rise to secondary symbolism which is used as abundantly as the primary ones. These symbols are especially used in ads during religious events like ramazan.

The Role of Religion in Advertising: Case-Study on the "Batman" TV Commercial

Journal for The Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2014

This article tells, in academic terms, the story of a famous Romanian TV ad: the one where two men throw a priest from a tower mistaking him for the famous Batman movie character and hoping he would fly. As expected, this spot gave rise to a lot of discussion and debates over the years. But this is not the main reason that recommends it for this type of analysis. The most interesting aspect about this spot is the fact that although it was subsequently censored and it was aired on TV only for one day, it is still incredibly popular and it still receives important awards at various advertising festivals. Besides its popularity, this TV commercial is bringing forward very important aspects regarding the interesting relation between orthodox religious symbols and advertising. In the first section of my article I shall focus on the way profane media myths are responsible for framing the social reality. The second section consists in an empirical research conducted on first-year students ...

The Role of Religion in Advertising: The Case Study of the "Batman" TV Commercial

Journal For the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2014

Impact of Islamic Religious Symbol in Producing Favorable Attitude Toward Advertisement

2012

A review of the literature on religion and advertisement led to the identification of three lines of studies examining the influence of religion on advertising. These three lines of studies focused on attitude toward advertising of controversial products, presence of religious values in advertisements executions, and the consumers’ reactions to advertisement containing religious cues or symbols. The latter line has been followed modestly in Christian context but not in Islamic context of advertising. Hijab as a significant religious cue might peripherally generates a favorable attitude toward advertisement among Muslims. It is suggested that information processing theories like Elaboration Likelihood Model provides a pertinent theoretical framework to examine this effect empirically.

Consumer Culture: Selected Essays

By standing for something greater than their products, leading brands aspire to establish their own ‘corporate religions’. Apple, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Disney, Harley-Davidson, and Nike operate more like religious cults than commercial enterprises, converting their consumers into devoted believers and loyal followers. These brands have managed to replace a culture of needs with a culture of desire and worship. In this process of cultural transformation, the world of branding has taken refuge in the world of sacred and assumed almost religious dimensions. Brands have become modern-day totems – commercial idols around which a meaningful existence is formed. This, in return, has triggered the emergence of what has now been referred to as ‘consumer religion’. Unlike most people think, branding is not only a marketing concept, but also a system of belief that is integral to our culture.

Advertising communication and spirituality: a critical approach of academics and professionals

Communication & Society, 2019

This article explores advertising as a space where spiritual discourses are reproduced from the critical approach of academics in communication and sociology, along with professionals in the advertising sector. Therefore, a qualitative methodology of semi-structured interviews with a panel of fifteen experts was used. This research aims to develop a discourse derived from the interviewee's experience of the meaning provided by advertising as a transcendent dimension. The interviews were analysed by applying a spiral model by simple induction. The study identifies a compensatory character between brands and religions based on a functional definition of the latter, where brands have acquired the ability to construct social meaning, offer an existential programme to the individual, and arouse identity and awareness through their own narration. Without disregarding the economic objective of corporations or the different levels of transcendence expressed by brands and religious forms, there is consensus on advertising's attempt to follow the same scheme of adhesion, claims, symbology, and evocations offered by religions, assuming a post-materialist turn of the advertising discourse towards transcendental values, even superficially or banally. The list of interviewees and the use of this technique, which has not previously been applied to the interactions between advertising discourse and spirituality, provide an original perspective on this emerging study field.

Rhetorical motives in advertising: a theory of advertising genre as religious discourse

2011

Variously argued to be information and news about products or studied to be made a more effective sales discourse, advertising, most especially national brand advertising, is ubiquitous and unrelenting in all public spaces in our society. We see and hear more advertising discourse than any other kind of discourse and it attempts to persuade us not only toward more consumption, but also toward a core value system based on consumption and commercial transaction. This study argues that, in fact, advertising functions as a kind of religious discourse and that it constructs a view of audience that has ethical consequences and implications for civility in society and for actions taken to be in the public's best interest. The work is interdisciplinary in nature in that it draws on sociological theories of religion and identity and on qualitative studies of advertising, and it also uses rhetorical critical methods to theorize generalities of brand advertising.

The Interplay of Religious Symbols and Cultural Values Theory in Advertising (original) (raw)

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