Brand Narratives, Sustainability, and Gender: A Socio-semiotic Approach. (September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ourahmoune, Nacima; Binninger, Anne-Sophie; Robert, Isabelle
• Other Names: McDonagh Pierre guest-editor.; Prothero Andrea guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of macromarketing. Volume 34:Number 3(2014)
• Page Start: 313
• Page End: 331
• Publication Date: 2014-09
• Subjects: brand narratives -- sustainability -- gender ideology -- feminism -- semiotics -- advertising -- macromarketing; Marketing -- Periodicals; Marketing -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 658.802
• DOI: 10.1177/0276146714528335
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0276-1467

Abstract

This research, based on the French macro-context, explains sustainable discourses in advertising from 2007 to 2012, during which time the concept of sustainability developed significantly and became institutionalized at a national level. This article defines sustainability broadly and explains the issue of inequality, particularly gender inequality, as originating in various forms of ascendancy over nature. Next, using a socio-semiotic reading, it identifies and deciphers five types of brand narratives on sustainability – Prometheus, Gaia, the Labyrinth, an automated world, and a sublimated nature – and their corresponding gender ideologies. Finally, the article discusses how feminist thought helps interpret major issues within sustainable communication, which reproduces both the dominant sustainable paradigm and conservative gender representations despite the national institutionalization of sustainability and a rich tradition of French feminist thought.