Extant studies on LGTBQ+ advertising are theoretically and empirically narrow, with much of the literature congregating around commercial risk associated with targeting an LGBTQ+ audience without alienating a heterosexual one. In response, this thesis critically examines LGBTQ+ targeted print advertisements and mobilises insights from queer theory to challenge both normative scholarly assertions within the literature and associated (advocated) advertising practice. Adopting an interpretivist-queer position, this study identifies the types of LGBTQ+ advertising approaches discussed within the literature, consolidating these approaches as ‘passive’, ‘conscious’, ‘tailored’ and ‘integrative’. This forms the conceptual framework for this study, illustrated in the model ‘Targeted LGBTQ+ Advertising Approaches’. The prevalence of each approach in marketing practice and the constituent images used within each type of advertisement are then captured via a large-scale Interpretative Content Analysis (n=2,214) of advertisements placed in mainstream media (GQ and Marie Claire magazines) and LGBTQ+ media (Gay Times and DIVA magazines) over a 12-month circulation period. Concepts and analytical practices derived from queer theory are then deployed to deconstruct four ‘Discursive Cases’ generated from the sample, illustrative of each of advertising approach. Through ‘queering’ each discursive case (and other illustrative advertising examples), this study exposes and problematises the hetero- and homonormativity (re)produced in LGBTQ+ advertising in both mainstream and LGBTQ+ media. The findings therefore contribute to the emergent literature on how LGBTQ+ sexualities and genders are discursively constructed and shaped by heteronormativity. Other scholarly contributions include the concept of ‘straightening out’, which is a reversed extension of Borgenson et al.’s (2010) ‘straightening up’; and the development of ‘gender anchors’, which are normative gender signifiers that co-exist alongside non-normative gender images in passive advertisements, in order to create the ambiguity required. Theoretically, this study contributes to existing LGBTQ+ advertising literature via the conceptual framework developed for this thesis and adds to the work of Branchik (2007) through the creation of additional LGBTQ+ image denotations derived via the Interpretive Content Analysis. It also expands the hitherto limited number of critical studies within the field of LGBTQ+. Specifically, it builds on the seminal work of Kates (1999) to further scholarly understanding of LGBTQ+ advertising.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/dn2p-7d93
Williams, Lindsay
Supervisors: Rumens, Nick
Oxford Brookes Business SchoolDepartment of Marketing
Year: 2021
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