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The cultural logic and expressions of Nike’s ads call to mind questions of normativity, race, sexuality, and the undertones therein that are communicated to the individuals passing by each advertisement. As Sut Jhally (1955 - ) writes, “Advertising
thus
does not work by creating values and attitudes
out of
nothing but by drawing upon and rechanneling concerns that the target
audience (and the culture) already shares” (1995:79).
In trying to decipher the mechanistic qualities of Nike’s ads, we employ Jhally’s theories about how ads as cultural icons evoke modalities of discourse and the possible implications, potentially violent, subversive, or injurious, of the subject matter. The semiotics of advertising is imperative in understanding and analyzing ads for consumers cannot, whether consciously or subconsciously, look past intersecting intentionalities, embodiments, and consequent repercussions when judging the text, pictures, and embodied persons within advertisements. The goal of our analysis is to elucidate the significance of iconicity and indexicality within the composition of these advertisements to unearth the intersection of sexuality, race, and related cultural inclinations. |
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