Marketing Animals
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Antennae ISSN 1756-9575 Issue 23 - Winter 2012 Marketing Animals Adele Tiengo and Matteo Andreozzi – Eat Me Tender / Barbara J. Phillips – Advertising and the Cultural Meaning of Animals / Adele Tiengo and Leonardo Caffo – Animal Subjects: Local Exploitation, Slow Killing / Claire Molloy – Remediating Cows and the Construction of Ethical Landscape / Concepcion Cortes Zulueta – His Master’s Voice / Cluny South – The Tiger in the Tank / Iwan rhys Morus – Bovril by Electrocution / Louise Squire – The Animals Are “Breaking Out”! / Gene Gable – Can You Say, “Awww”? / Sonja Britz – Evolution and Design / Hilda Kean – Nervous Dogs Need Admin, Son! / Katherine Bennet – A Stony Field / John Miller -- Brooke’s Monkey Brand Soap / Sunsan Nance – Jumbo: A Capitalist Creation Story / Kelly Enright1 – None Tougher / Linda Kalof and Joe Zammit-Lucia – From Animal Rights and Shock Advocacy to Kinship With Animals / Natalie Gilbert – Fad of the Year / Jeremy Smallwood and Pam Mufson by Chris Hunter – The Saddest Show on Earth / Sabrina Tonutti – Happy Easter / Bettina Richter – Animals on the Runway / Susan Nance – ‘Works Progress Administration’ Posters / Emma Power -- Kill ‘em dead!” the Ordinary Practices of Pest Control in the Home Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture Editor in Chief Giovanni Aloi Academic Board Steve Baker Ron Broglio Matthew Brower Eric Brown Carol Gigliotti Donna Haraway Linda Kalof Susan McHugh Rachel Poliquin Annie Potts Ken Rinaldo Jessica Ullrich Advisory Board Bergit Arends Rod Bennison Helen Bullard Claude d’Anthenaise Petra Lange-Berndt Lisa Brown Rikke Hansen Chris Hunter Karen Knorr Rosemarie McGoldrick Susan Nance Andrea Roe David Rothenberg Nigel Rothfels Angela Singer Mark Wilson & Bryndís Snaebjornsdottir Global Contributors João Bento & Catarina Fontoura Sonja Britz Tim Chamberlain Concepción Cortes Lucy Davis Amy Fletcher Katja Kynast Christine Marran Carolina Parra Zoe Peled Julien Salaud Paul Thomas Sabrina Tonutti Johanna Willenfelt Copy Editor Maia Wentrup Front Cover Image: Original image - Pirelli, Atlante, 1954 © Pirelli 2 EDITORIAL ANTENNAE ISSUE 23 his issue of Antennae was developed around the idea that advertising can be much more than a pivotal marketing tool in capitalist societies. Over the past few years, through the increased popularity of social networks advertising strategies have more and more come to play a pivotal roleT in communication and can be understood as a cultural thermometer of our identities and desires. The conspicuous presence of animals in advertising is therefore a phenomenon that deserves study; it is not a new phenomenon in itself but it is one that nonetheless demands renewed attention and scrutiny through a human-animal studies lens. Whether photographed, illustrated, animated or filmed the ambivalent presence of the animal, initially seems to facilitate the delivery of consumeristic messages. However, things are much more complex. What does the animal sell to us and what do we effectively buy through these instances of visual consumption? What role does the animal play in the persuasions processes enacted by advertisements? In the attempt to provide some answers to these questions and more, besides a traditional call for academic papers, Antennae also solicited short commentaries on advertisements chosen by our readers and contributors. The colourful variety of examples submitted contributes to the outlining of an extremely diverse range of animal appearances in advertising greatly varying on the grounds of what is to be sold and which target audiences are to persuade. These shorter entries have been interposed between longer and more complex analyses of specific animal presences in advertising. One of the unexpected result gathered from the collection of the excellent submissions we received, highlights a perhaps not too surprising, current, overriding interest for mammals against any other animal group. Anthropomorphism may be an inevitable expedient essential to the success of the identification process lying at the core of all advertising intending to sell us commodities. This is rather well demonstrated through the publication of a portfolio of vintage adverts with which this issue comes to a close. For this essential contribution we have to thank Nigel Rothfels who on a warm June afternoon in 2011 walking lazily around the streets of Zurich came across a very unusual archive. As Nigel recalls, “I was in the city to attend a small conference on science and before long, I found myself staring into the windows of the Swiss National Bank! A quite fascinating exhibit had been organized in the windows by staff at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich focusing on the history of animals appearing in advertising posters. I went from window to window enjoying the posters and taking pictures. Through the generosity of Dr. Bettina Richter and Allesia Contin at the Museum, we are now able to bring a selection of this rarely seen and remarkable collection to Antennae’s readers”. Besides considering a range of well known and lesser know advertisements, this issue also looks at the more ethically driven consideration of the use of animal imagery in the advertisements produced by animal advocacy and conservation organisations through a thought-provoking piece by Joe Zammit-Lucia and Linda Kalof, whilst an interview with creative teams at Young & Rubicam Chicago demonstrates how the presence of animals in advertising can be used to the advantage of animals through some astonishingly simple but impressive communicational inventiveness. Lastly I would like to take the opportunity to thank all involved in the making of this issue of Antennae. Giovanni Aloi Editor in Chief of Antennae Project 3 CONTENTS ANTENNAE ISSUE 23 6 Eat Me Tender Love can be dangerous when it comes to cooking. In this image, the evidence that a ‘lover’ wants to possess his woman just like a ‘meat lover’ wants to eat his steak is exposed in a grotesque way. Sexist discrimination and animal exploitation are here associated to ‘love’, understood as an abuse mitigated by tenderness and care in the act of possessing and killing. Text by Adele Tiengo and Matteo Andreozzi 9 Advertising and the Cultural Meaning of Animals One explanation for the proliferation of animal trade characters in current advertising practice proposes that they are effective communication tools because they can be used to transfer desirable cultural meanings to products with which they are associated. The first step in examining what messages these animals communicate is to explore the common cultural meanings that they embody. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the common themes found in the cultural meanings of four animal characters. In addition, it demonstrates a method by which cultural meanings can be elicited. The implications of this method for advertising research and practice are discussed. Text by Barbara J. Phillips 20 Animal Subjects: Local Exploitation, Slow Killing The city of Milan will host Expo 2015, with the theme “Feeding the Planet. Energy for Life”. In view of this occasion, the interest for culinary tradition and the global challenge of food security is rapidly growing. Farming and livestock raising traditions plays a major role in Italy, homeland of the worldwide renowned Slow Food. Text by Adele Tiengo and Leonardo Caffo 23 Remediating Cows and the Construction of Ethical Landscape Concern about the impact of livestock on the environment has generated debates about how best to manage dairy farming practices. Soil erosion and compaction and loss of biodiversity from grazing and silage production, ammonia and methane emissions, as well as high levels of water consumption, have all been identified as direct effects on the environment from dairy farming activity.[i] Whilst the issues have been well reported in the press, there has been little in the way of imagery to accompany the environmental critique of milk production. Instead, much of the popularly available imagery of dairy farming has been generated by advertising which continues to deploy culturally-specific visions of contented cows in rural landscapes. Text by Claire Molloy 28 His Master’s Voice A white dog with brown ears sits in front of a gramophone, head directed to its brass-horn and slightly tilted to one side. The original painting was purchased in 1899, along with its full copyright, by the emerging Gramophone Company from the artist Francis Barraud. Text by Concepcion Cortes Zulueta 31 The Tiger in the Tank Despite the complexities and inconstancies of the human-animal relationship non-human animals [1] have been intimately interwoven within human culture for thousands of years. Representations of animals exist across many mediums, with roots clearly visible in Palaeolithic cave paintings and early carvings, evolving human language, music and drama, and narrative fables and folk stories. Unsurprisingly then animal representations continue to be rife throughout our modern lives and across much popular media. Text by Cluny South 39 Bovril by Electrocution I first came across this illustration whilst browsing through Leonard de Vries’s fascinating collection, Victorian Advertising, about twelve years ago. I was looking for something else at the time – examples of late Victorian electric belt advertisements as part of a project on nineteenth-century medical electricity. Instead, this one jumped out of the page at me. Text by Iwan Rhys Morus 42 The Animals Are “Breaking Out”! This paper explores recent TV adverts in which the animals