rhetorical motives in advertising: a theory of advertising genre as religious discourse

277 Pages·2011·0.71 MB·English

RHETORICAL MOTIVES IN ADVERTISING:
A THEORY OF ADVERTISING GENRE
AS RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE

A Thesis Submitted to the College of
Graduate Studies and Research
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Interdisciplinary Studies: Rhetoric and Popular Culture
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon

By
Jeanie Wills

© Copyright Jeanie Wills, Sept. 2011. All rights reserved
PERMISSION TO USE

In presenting this thesis/dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Graduate
degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may
make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this
dissertation in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the
professor or professors who supervised my dissertation work or, in their absence, by the Head of
the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood
that any copying or publication or use of this dissertation or parts thereof for financial gain shall
not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be
given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of
any material in my dissertation.

Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this dissertation in whole
or part should be addressed to:

Head of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A1
Canada

OR

Dean
College of Graduate Studies and Research
University of Saskatchewan
107 Administration Place
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A2
Canada
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EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Dr. Doug Degenstein Dean/Associate Dean, Dean’s Designate,
Dr. George Khachatourians College of Graduate Studies Research & Chair of Advisory
Committee

Dr. John Moffatt Supervisor, Graham Centre
Dr. Richard Burton College of Engineering
Dr. Barbara Phillips Edwards School of Business
Dr. John Thompson Professor Emeritus, St. Thomas More College

Dr. Kendall Phillips External Examiner, Professor; Associate Dean of Research
& Graduate Studies Syracuse University
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Abstract
Variously argued to be information and news about products or studied to be made a
more effective sales discourse, advertising, most especially national brand advertising, is
ubiquitous and unrelenting in all public spaces in our society. We see and hear more advertising
discourse than any other kind of discourse and it attempts to persuade us not only toward more
consumption, but also toward a core value system based on consumption and commercial
transaction. This study argues that, in fact, advertising functions as a kind of religious discourse
and that it constructs a view of audience that has ethical consequences and implications for
civility in society and for actions taken to be in the public’s best interest. The work is
interdisciplinary in nature in that it draws on sociological theories of religion and identity and on
qualitative studies of advertising, and it also uses rhetorical critical methods to theorize
generalities of brand advertising.
The first chapter offers an interdisciplinary overview of critical studies of advertising,
while the second chapter shows how rhetorical criticism contributes to advertising studies. The
third chapter offers a rhetorical analysis of key texts written by the early men who shaped public
opinion about advertising discourse. They relied on metaphors of religion to convince audiences
for their memoirs that advertising could be a useful tool for American business. The dissertation
contends that these strategies infused and shaped the advertising genre itself, enabling modern
advertising discourse to use persuasive strategies inherent in the discourses of religion and the
remaining chapters elaborate this argument. Rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke’s work that
describes how language itself manifests the structure of the Christian guilt, mortification,
redemption drama is used to show how advertising functions in a structurally similar manner.
This study also makes use of sociologist Hans Mol’s contention that religion functions to
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sacralize identity, and uses his argument to posit that advertising, as a religious discourse,
sacralizes individuality and, thus, makes the pursuit of individualism as crucial to identity.
The dissertation shows how, as a result of advertising’s parallels with religious discourse
and in its sacralization of individualism, the genre paradoxically implies that mass consumption
is a way to express individualism. Advertising suggests this belief through its enthymemes,
which rely on individual’s audience members to believe that each of them has an entelechial
drive toward an idealized and attainable perfection of self. Advertising constructs its audiences
as people who are narcissistic, and this focus on self-realization results in advancing a corollary
of beliefs and ideologies that have repercussions for our understanding rhetorical civility. The
unstated ideologies implicit in advertising are explained using Symbolic Convergence theory.
This study has found that advertising’s persuasiveness is a result of its ability to speak to people
about their deepest human needs in seemingly meaningful ways.
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Acknowledgements
As I have learned in the process of writing this dissertation, writers do not write in
isolation. Therefore, I owe a debt of gratitude to several individuals.
First, I would like to thank my academic supervisor, Dr. John Moffatt. He has always
encouraged me and asked many questions to help me clarify my arguments. He has returned
draft after draft promptly and with thoughtful comments. Without his generous guidance, this
dissertation would never have come to be. I aspire to become the kind of academic supervisor
that he is. Further, my committee members have been a dream team: Dr. Richard Burton,
College of Engineering; Dr. Barbara Phillips, Edwards School of Business, and Dr. John
Thompson, Professor Emeritus of St. Thomas More College. They recognize both the difficulty
and the necessity of conducting interdisciplinary studies. Their unflagging support and
encouragement, professionalism and thorough critiques have helped me to become a better
scholar. Finally, my external reader, Dr. Kendall Phillips, asked questions that have helped me to
plot a course for my future research and suggested directions that will be very fruitful for me to
explore.
In addition, I would like to thank the College of Engineering and especially Dr. Bob
Gander and Dr. Malcolm Reeves who have supported the study of communication. I would also
like to acknowledge Ron and Jane Graham, and Dr. Jennifer MacLennan for her role in creating
the Ron and Jane Graham Centre for the Study of Communication in the College of Engineering,
and for the time she spent teaching rhetorical criticism, theory, and practice. I am also deeply
grateful to my colleagues in the Graham Centre, Rebekah Bennetch, Dr. Corey Owen, Deborah
Rolfes, Burton Urquhart, and Gwen Jones who have provided collegial support as well as
friendship and encouragement. Each of them has helped to make the Graham Centre a
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welcoming laughter-filled place to teach, study, and work. I am grateful to them and especially to
Burton for his thoughtful discussions with me.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank my husband, my dearest John Butler, for
persevering with me through a process that has been difficult and exhausting, even as it’s been
thrilling.
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Dedication
To my dearest friend Margaret Halabura for pushing me, for believing in me, and for being so
generous in her support of this endeavor.
I am a lucky woman.
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Table of Contents
Introduction: The Everyday Miracles and Wonders of Advertising ............................................... 1 
1.1.  Buying in to Advertising ................................................................................................. 1 
1.1.1.  Advertising: A Rhetorical Practice ............................................................................. 1 
1.2.  Advertising: An Ubiquitous Form of Public Discourse ................................................ 10 
1.2.1.  Advertising and Electronic Media ............................................................................ 10 
1.2.2.  Advertising and Public Space ................................................................................... 12 
1.2.3.  Advertising and Private Space .................................................................................. 14 
1.2.4.  Advertising and the Human Body as “ Media Space” .............................................. 15 
1.3.  Naturalized Assumptions of Advertising ...................................................................... 17 
1.3.1.  Advertising as Mental Landscape ............................................................................. 17 
1.3.2.  Anonymity of Advertising Creators.......................................................................... 20 
1.4.  Some Claims about Advertising ................................................................................... 23 
1.4.1.  Advertising as News and Education ......................................................................... 25 
1.4.2.  Advertising as Mirror ................................................................................................ 26 
1.4.3.  Advertising as Art and Entertainment ....................................................................... 27 
1.4.4  Advertising as Contemporary Folk/Fairy Tales ....................................................... 30 
1.4.5.  The Audience Exerts Power...................................................................................... 31 
1.5.  Advertising as Social Discourse ................................................................................... 33 
1.5.1.  Advertising as Community ....................................................................................... 33 
1.5.2.  Advertising Influences Self-concept ........................................................................ 35 
1.6.   Advertising as Transformation and Religious Discourse ............................................. 37 
1.7.   Advertising: From social cohesion to social transformation ........................................ 38 
1.8.   Conclusion: The Symbolic World and Advertising ...................................................... 39 
Rhetorical Incarnations: Using Rhetorical Theory to Reveal Advertising’s Social Order ........... 42 
2.1.   What is a Rhetorical Perspective? ................................................................................. 42 
2.1.1.  Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life .................................................... 46 
2.2.  Burke and Language ..................................................................................................... 48 
2.2.1.  Terministic Screens ................................................................................................... 48 
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2.2.2.  Burke and Symbolic Action ...................................................................................... 51 
2.2.3.  Language and Persuasion .......................................................................................... 52 
2.2.4.  Advertising as Narrative; Narrative as Ethical Discourse ........................................ 54 
2.3  Ethical Criticism ........................................................................................................... 54 
2.4.  Identification as Prime Motive ...................................................................................... 59 
2.4.1   Identification and the Enthymeme ............................................................................ 60 
2.4.1.a.  The Enthymeme and Popular Culture ............................................................... 62 
2.4.2.  Identification and Exigence ...................................................................................... 63 
2.4.3.  Identification and Narrative Devices ........................................................................ 64 
2.4.4.  From Identification to Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad .................................................. 65 
2.5.  Dramatism and the Historical Scene ............................................................................. 67 
2.6.  Burke: Language Enacts Social Order ......................................................................... 69 
2.7.  Sacralizing Consumer Identity ...................................................................................... 70 
2.8.  Fantasy Themes ............................................................................................................ 71 
2.9.  Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 72 
Redemption and Genesis: The Beginnings of Modern Advertising ............................................. 73 
3.1.  Introduction ................................................................................................................... 73 
3.2.  Scene/Act ...................................................................................................................... 81 
3.2.1.  The Rhetorical Scene: A Brief History of Patent Medicine Era ............................... 81 
3.2.2.  Scene as Rhetorical Exigence ................................................................................... 82 
3.2.3.  Symbolic Act: Redemption of Advertising............................................................... 84 
3.3.  Agent/Scene Ratio: Revising the Scene with New Terministic Screens ...................... 86 
3.3.1.  Copy Writers: Redefining Content ........................................................................... 86 
3.3.2.  George Rowell and the Professionalization of the Advertising Agency .................. 89 
3.3.2.a.  Transformation of Advertising Agencies .......................................................... 90 
3.3.2.b.  Neither News nor Education: Advertising as Puffery ....................................... 91 
3.3.2.c.  Rowell: First Steps to Advertising’s Redemption ............................................ 92 
3.3.3.  Earnest Elmo Calkins: Imagery Persuades and Advertising Transforms ................. 93 
3.3.3.a.  Calkins: Aesthetics and the Persuasiveness of Art ........................................... 94 
3.3.3.b.  Advertising as Agent of Transformation .......................................................... 95 
3.3.3.c.  Calkins as Aesthete ........................................................................................... 95 
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