Dionysian and Apollonian in Advertising The Representations of Pleasure and Discipline in Finnish Television Advertisements

Harri Sarpavaara

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.3.2.11

Authors

Harri Sarpavaara University of Tampere, Finland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.3.2.11

Keywords:

Apollonian, Dionysian, Embodiment, Gender, Representation, Television advertising, Semiotics, Content analysis

Abstract

The recent accounts of our era usually argue that pleasure, sensuality, and sexuality play essential roles in media and consumer culture. Advertising especially is regarded as a place where rational argument is displaced by pleasure and sex. However, it is hard to find systematic empirical analysis to verify these claims. In this article, I examine the pervasiveness of the ideal of pleasure empirically in television advertising by analysing 167 Finnish advertisements. The findings suggest that the prevailing discourse about hedonistic culture and especially the hedonistic advertising culture captures something essential, but that this discourse does not tell the whole story because it does not notice the flipside, the ideal of the ascetically-oriented body that appears as frequently as the hedonistic ideal.

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Author Biography

Harri Sarpavaara, University of Tampere, Finland

Harri Sarpavaara (PhD) is a postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Tampere, Finland. His PhD thesis looked at the representations of embodiment in television advertisements. He has published a number of articles concerning the representations of body and gender, stereotypes, and humor in e-mail jokes and advertising. Sarpavaara is currently investigating substance use and addictions in prison context.

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