Jean Grow

Advertising in Ukraine: Cultural Perspectives

Jean M. Grow-von Dorn et al. — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:52:00 PST

The Gender of Branding: Antenarrative Resistance in Early Nike Women's Advertising

Jean Grow — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:48:40 PST

Advertising Creative: Strategy, Copy & Design

Tom Alstiel et al. — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:22:25 PST

Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing (by Tom Reichert & Jacqueline Lambiase)

Jean Grow — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:03:43 PST

Symptom Information in Direct-to-Consumer Antidepressant Advertising and College Students' Perception of the Lifetime Risk Depression

Jin Seong Park et al. — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:48:42 PST

While consumers’ health cognition and behavior are likely formed through multiple influences, the current study focused on the effects of exposure to specific content elements in direct-to-consumer advertising. The study revealed that consumers’ exposure to the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) diagnostic guideline has potential to reduce their perceived lifetime risk of depression and intention to consult a health professional to discuss the health issue. The study further revealed when an antidepressant ad mentioned a long list of symptoms, exposure to the diagnostic guideline reduced risk perception and consultation intention significantly, whereas in the presence of a short list of symptoms, the APA guideline had minimal impact.

"Your Life is Waiting!": Symbolic Meanings in Direct-to-Consumer Antidepressant Advertising

Jean Grow et al. — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:00:11 PST

This semiotic analysis demonstrates how pharmaceutical companies strategically frame depression within the hotly contested terrain of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. The study tracks regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, relative to DTC advertising, including recent industry codes of conduct. Focusing on the antidepressant category, and its three major brands—Paxil (GlaxoSmithKline), Prozac (Eli Lilly), and Zoloft (Pfizer)—this comparative study analyzes 7 years of print advertising following deregulation in 1997. The authors glean themes from within the advertising texts, across the drug category and within individual-brand campaigns. The findings indicate that DTC advertising of antidepressants frames depression within the biochemical model of causation, privileges benefits over risks, fails to adequately educate consumers, and frames depression as a female condition. The authors close with commentary on the potential implications, with particular focus on the new codes of conduct, and offer suggestions for future research.

The Social Reality of Depression: DTC Advertising of Antidepressants and Perceptions of the Prevalence and Lifetime Risk of Depression

Jin Seong Park et al. — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 07:14:58 PST

This study is rooted in the research traditions of cultivation theory, construct accessibility, and availability heuristic. Based on a survey with 221 subjects, this study finds that familiarity with direct-to-consumer (DTC) print advertisements for antidepressant brands is associated with inflated perceptions of the prevalence and lifetime risk of depression. The study concludes that DTC advertising potentially has significant effects on perceptions of depression prevalence and risk. Interpersonal experiences with depression coupled with DTC advertising appear to significantly predict individuals' perceived lifetime risk of depression. The study ultimately demonstrates that DTC advertising may play a role in constructing social reality of diseases and medicine. The findings strongly suggest that the social cognitive effects of DTC advertising are far-reaching, impacting pharmaceutical marketing strategy as well as presenting issues regarding public health and the business ethics of advertising drugs to consumers.

Stories of Community: The First Ten Years of Nike Women's Advertising

Jean Grow — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:29:19 PST

This semiotic analysis of early Nike women's advertising explores the evolution of the women's brand from its launch in 1990 through 2000, and includes twenty-seven print campaigns. The semiotic analysis is enhanced by in-depth interviews of the creative team. The study is framed by a single research question. What symbolically ties these ten years of advertising into a cohesive whole and how? Ultimately, three distinct mediated communities emerge. The story behind these communities, expressed semiotically and orally, suggests that the power of this advertising lies in its mediated construction of community life. The resonance of these ads is rooted in the creatives' ability to construct signifiers that reflect the cultural and social experiences of women, with storytelling as the single most binding force across this ten-year period.

Service Learning Across the Curriculum: A Collaboration to Promote Smoking Cessation

Jean Grow et al. — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:27:17 PST

This paper focuses on how pedagogy, service, and scholarship can be combined across the advertising curriculum through service learning, which invigorates collaboration among faculty members, student teams, and advertising professionals. The authors demonstrate how service learning projects integrate curricula using a community-based client, ultimately leading to scholarship and professional outcomes. Specifically, this study analyzes the launch of a service learning-based smoking cessation campaign on a Midwest college campus.

Creative Women in Advertising Agencies: Why So Few “Babes in Boyland”?

Sheri L. Broyles et al. — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:27:16 PST

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore reasons why there are so few women in creative departments of advertising agencies and to discuss what impact that might have on the work environment of those creative departments and advertising messages they create.

Design/methodology/approach – Provides a review of published research and plus opinions of professionals who cover the advertising industry or work in agency creative departments. Personal observations from the authors’ time working in the advertising industry are also included.

Findings – Themes gleaned from the literature look at the gender gap, the creative department of advertising agencies as an “old-boys network,” reasons why women leave creative jobs, and why advertising targeting women as consumers is so bad.

Practical implications – Women opt out of advertising agencies for any number of reasons – more than just having babies. Keeping women’s voices in creative departments would give a better balance to the messages agencies create.

Originality/value – Changing creative departments to be more accommodating and flexible to women’s needs might not only make them better for women, but also better for men and for families. In addition, the messages from those creative departments may be more compelling to consumers.

Selling Truth: How Nike’s Advertising to Women Claimed a Contested Reality

Jean Grow et al. — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:27:15 PST

This study tracked the evolution of three “big ideas” in Nike’s advertising to women from 1990 to 2000: empowerment, entitlement, and product emphasis. It also takes a longitudinal look at the process from which the ads were created and the way the creative team addressed the constraints upon that process. Based on depth interviews among key informants at Nike and its two ad agencies during that decade, it is the story of how the creative team produced advertising that challenged the media norms that affect the roles of women associated with the institution of sports. Though their creative strategy was simply to speak the truth as they saw it, it frequently pitted them against the executives at Nike in a battle over whose reality would be depicted.

Breaking the Silence Surrounding Hepatitis C by Promoting Self-Efficacy: A Study of Hepatitis C Public Service Announcements

Jean Grow et al. — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:27:13 PST

Hepatitis C (HCV) is the most common chronic blood borne virus in the United States. Despite this fact, there is a startling lack of awareness about HCV among individuals who may have contracted the virus. This study, grounded in self-efficacy theory, analyzes public service announcements (PSAs) for HCV. Using focus groups to contextualize the responses of individuals living with HCV, the authors conclude that stigma and structural barriers pose the greatest challenges for health communicators trying to reach at-risk populations. The findings suggest that expanded use of celebrity appeals, realistic drug portrayals, more extensive use of social networking in tandem with non-traditional media, and tapping into veterans, while minimizing fear tactics and maximizing self-efficacy messages, offer new hope for successful health communication strategies. With 3.9 million people in the United States infected with HCV, this study offers urgently needed communications strategies to address this silent epidemic.