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Keywords Ethics, Marketing concept, Marketing communications, Advertising, Imaging, Global marketing
Abstract This paper examines visual representation in marketing communication from a distinctive, interdisciplinary perspective that draws on ethics, visual studies and critical race theory. An ontological approach is offered as an alternative to phenomenologically based approaches in marketing scholarship that use consumer responses to generate data. Suggests ways to clarify complex issues of representational ethics in marketing by applying a semiotically-- based analysis that places ontological identity at the center of societal marketing concerns. Analyzes representations of the exotic Other in disparate marketing campaigns, including advertising, tourist promotions and music, as examples of bad faith marketing strategy. Music is an important force in marketing communication, yet marketing studies have rarely considered music and its visual representations as data for inquiry. Feels that considering visual representation within marketing from an ontological standpoint contributes additional insight into societal marketing and places global marketing processes within the intersection of ethics, aesthetics and representation.
Introduction
Marketing communication depends largely on visual representation to produce meaning, brand images and spectacular simulations that create associations in consumers' minds. Despite their importance in creating meaning, a theoretical consideration of visual issues is fairly rare in marketing scholarship. Most marketing communication research focuses on persuasive effects of communication from a consumption orientation. Visual representations in marketing communication can also be considered socio-political artefacts; they create meaning within the circuit of culture that often extends beyond what may be intended by photographers, art directors, advertising agencies, and firms whose products are advertised.
A key strategy of contemporary marketing representation is to create a compelling, unique image for a product or service by linking brand names to an identity of their own. Pictures of people - models, spokespersons, average consumers, employees - make up a large part of advertising imagery. At times this image creation draws upon and reinforces simplified, even subordinating, representations of cultural difference, group identity and geographic specificity. That such representations, harnessed in the attempt to create a product image, potentially undermine the full human status of represented groups and individuals is of great concern (Cortese, 1999; Davila, 1997; Goffman, 1979; O'Barr, 1994; Schroeder and Borgerson, 1998; Stem, 1993; Williamson 1978). Representations that are exoticized, sexist, or racist damage the...