Article Sidebar

Submitted
January 30, 2019
Published
January 28, 2019
Download
PDF
Statistic
Read Counter : 656 Download : 893

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Main Article Content

Abstract

Purpose of the study: This study attempt to analyze the frame of online advertisements from Watsons and Guardian. Both companies utilized a similar storyline in advertising its products during the Hari Raya period, however, an advertisement from Watsons had given rise to controversy and the racial issue has been raised.


Methodology: This study employed quantitative content analysis and qualitative textual analysis to ensure a more reliable finding in research.


Main Findings: The finding reveals that advertisement from Watsons often framed women in a negative light by 1) Defining beauty as being fair-skinned, 2) Interpreting women’s quality of relationship correlates with the fairness of their skin, 3) Framing and judging dark-skinned women as negative and unable to pursue their dream love life, and 4) providing skin whitening remedies to solve their problems. This contrasts with Guardian’s advertisement which was framed more neutral.


Applications of this study: This study stressed the significance of business ethics and corporate responsibility. It is not uncommon when an advertiser exaggerates some characteristics of the advertisements in order to attract people’s attention. However, exaggerated advertisements might contain some misleading information that may influence the credibility and truthfulness of the then and future advertisements and hence could further affect the company negatively as consumers had lost confidence in the company.


Novelty/Originality of this study: Most framing studies focused on types of frames, information/news sources, and slants of the frame, this study provides an in-depth analysis of the four framing functions suggested by Entman, which is less explored in the field. 

Keywords

online advertisement dark complexion Watsons and Guardian ethnicity

Article Details

License

Authors retain the copyright without restrictions for their published content in this journal. IJMIER is SHERPA ROMEO Journal. 

Publishing License

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of  Creative Commons License

How to Cite
Shiang, L. S., Puspanathan, C. A., Balwant Singh, N. S., & Subramaniam, C. R. (2019). DOES DARK COMPLEXION MATTER? A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED ONLINE ADVERTISEMENTS FROM WATSONS AND GUARDIAN IN 2017. International Journal of Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurial Research, 5(1), 01–09. https://doi.org/10.18510/ijmier.2019.511
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
BibTeX
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

References

  1. Allen, R. L. (2001). The globalization of white supremacy: Toward a critical discourse on the racialization of the world. Educational Theory, 51, 467–485.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2001.00467.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2001.00467.x
  2. Behal, V.; Sania, S. (2014). Guerila Marketing: A low cost marketing strategy. International Journal of Management and Business Strategy, 3(1).
  3. Bhattacharya, S. (2012). The desire for whiteness: Can law and economics explain it? Columbia Journal of Race & Law, 2, 117–147. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1743267
  4. Charles, C. A. D. (2011). Skin bleaching and the prestige complexion of sexual attraction. Sexuality & Culture, 15, 375–390.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-011-9107-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-011-9107-0
  5. Chyi, H. I., and McCombs, M. E. (2004). Media salience and the process of framing: Coverage of the Columbine school shootings. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 81(1), 22–35.
  6. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900408100103 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900408100103
  7. Clark K, Clark M. (1947). "Racial identification and preference in Negro children", in Maccoby, E. E.; Newcomb, T. M. and Hartley, E. L. (Eds), Readings in Social Psychology, New York: Holt.
  8. Dixion A. R. and Telles, E. E. (2017). Skin Color and Colorism: Global research, concepts, and measurement. Annual Review of Sociology, 43, 405- 424.https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053315 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053315
  9. Dorman, J. S. (2011). Skin bleach and civilization: The racial formation of blackness in 1920s Harlem. Journal of Pan African Studies, 4, 47–80.
  10. Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x
  11. Entman R. M. (2010). Media Framing biases and political power: Explaining slant in news of Campaign 2008. Journalism, 11(4), 389-408.https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884910367587 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884910367587
  12. Fatma, S. (2016). Changing Face of Women in Indian Advertising. Presented at 2nd International Conference on Latest Innovations in Science, Engineering and management, Goa (2016) India.
  13. Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., and Ferrell, L. (2011) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (8 thedition).USA: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
  14. Fox, R. C. 1996. "Bisexuality in perspective: A review of theory and research", in Firestein, B. A., Bisexuality: The psychology and politics of an invisible minority, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  15. Gitlin, T. (1980). The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  16. Glenn, E. N. (2008). Yearning for lightness: Transnational circuits in the marketing and consumption of skin lighteners. Gender & Society, 22, 281–302.https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243208316089 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243208316089
  17. Hamed, S. H., Tayyem, R., Nimer, N., &Alkhatib, H. S. (2010). Skin lightening practice among women living in Jordan: Prevalence, determinants, and user's awareness. International Journal of Dermatology, 49, 414–420.
  18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-4632.2010.04463.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-4632.2010.04463.x
  19. Hall, R. E. (2006). The bleaching syndrome among people of color: Implications of skin color for human behavior in the social environment. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 13, 19–31.
  20. https://doi.org/10.1300/J137v13n03_02 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1300/J137v13n03_02
  21. Hill Collins, P. (1991). Black Feminist thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Power of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.
  22. Hope, D. P. (2011). From Browning to cake soap: Popular debates on skin bleaching in the Jamaican dancehall. Journal of Pan African Studies, 4, 165–194.
  23. Hout, T. V., and Macgilchrist, F. (2012). Framing the News: An Ethnographic View of Business News Writting. Text & Talk, 30(2), 169-191.https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2010.009 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2010.009
  24. Hunter, M. L. (2011). Buying racial capital: Skin-bleaching and cosmetic surgery in a globalized world. Journal of Pan African Studies, 4, 142–164.
  25. Jones, G. (2011). Globalization and beauty: A historical and firm perspective. Euramerica, 41, 885–916.
  26. Kotler, P. K. (2016). Marketing Management. England: Pearson Education Limited.
  27. Leonardo, Z. (2004). The color of supremacy: Beyond the discourse of "white privilege." Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36, 137–152.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2004.00057.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2004.00057.x
  28. Lewis, K. M., Robkin, N., Gaska, K., &Njoki, L. C. (2011). Investigating motivations for women's skin bleaching in Tanzania. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35, 29–37.https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684310392356 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684310392356
  29. Lindsey, T. B. (2011). Black no more: Skin bleaching and the emergence of new Negro womanhood beauty culture. Journal of Pan African Studies, 4, 97–112.
  30. Maitland, C. F. and Bauer, J. M. (2001), ''National level culture and global diffusion: the case of the internet,'' in Ess, C. (Ed.), Culture, Technology, Communication: Towards an Intercultural Global Village. SUNY Press, New York.
  31. Mahajan, V. and Muller, E. (1994). Innovation diffusion in a borderless global market: will the 1992 unification of the European community accelerate diffusion of new ideas, products and technologies? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 45, 221-35.https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-1625(94)90047-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-1625(94)90047-7
  32. Mishra, N. (2011). Power to Define: Framing of Naxalites in the Indian Media. GMJ: Mediterranean Edition, 6(2), 23-35.
  33. Murray, D., & Price, B. (2011). The globalization of beauty: Aspiration or threat? A comparison of the effect of western beauty types on Asian and western females attitudes and purchase intentions. International Journal of Business Research, 11, 146–155.
  34. Ogilvie, M., & Ryan, M. M., (2011). Lipstick: More than a Fashion Trend. Research Journal of Social Science and Management, 1, 117–128.
  35. Parekh, R. (2012). "Not the 'Big Four' Holding Firms in Adland Anymore – Now It's the Big Five | Agency News – Advertising Age". Adage.com.
  36. Saraswati, L. A. (2010). Cosmopolitan whiteness: The effects and affects of skin-whitening advertisements in a transnational women's magazine in Indonesia. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 10, 15–41.
  37. https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.2010.10.2.15 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.2010.10.2.15
  38. Semetko, H.A. and Valkenburg P.M. (2000). Framing European Politics: A Content Analysis of Press and Television News. Journal of Communication, Spring, 50(2), 93-109.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02843.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02843.x
  39. Sultana, A. M. (2012). "A study on stress and work-family conflict among married women in their families," Advances in Natural and Applied Sciences, 6(8), 1319-1324.
  40. Takada, H. and Jain, D. (1991). Cross-national analysis of diffusion of consumer durable goods in Pacific Rim countries. Journal of Marketing, 55, 48-54.https://doi.org/10.2307/1252237,https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299105500206 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299105500206
  41. Van Everdingen, Y. M. and Waarts, E. (2003). The effect of national culture on the adoption of innovations. Marketing Letters, 2-30.
  42. Wilson, N. (2008). "Market evolution of topical anti-aging treatments", in Nava Dayan (Eds.), Skin aging handbook: An integrated approach to biochemistry and product development. New York: William Andrew Inc. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-8155-1584-5.50006-5
  43. Wozniak, A. (2011). The missing subject found in the subject who does the thinking: Kierkegaard, the ethical and the subjectivity of the critical theorists. Business Ethics: A European Review, 20(3).
  44. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2011.01630.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2011.01630.x
  45. Yin, J. and Miike, Y. (2008). A Textual Analysis of Fortune Cookie Sayings: How Chinese Are They? The Howard Journal of Communication, 19, 18-43.https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170701801987 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170701801987