Abstract
This chapter investigates comic-strip advertising to discover how the advertiser constructs intended persuasive meanings within the characteristic format of word-and-picture sequential panels. While comic-strip advertisements mimic comic-strip stylistics, consideration of the comic strip in its functional role as a device to achieve marketplace goals exposes an undertow of social indexicals that formulate what it means to be man or woman. This raises the puzzle of a cartooning phenomenon that embeds formative messages of gender and sexuality for a consumerist readership. The analytical perspective of this study draws on Pascal Lefevre’s framework of mise en scène and framing to explore the communicative technique of panel-by-panel cartoon advertisements. The outcome of this research is two-fold: it adds to scholarship that defines narrative storytelling as a powerful form of communication, and it supports claims of advertising as instrumental in perpetuating the social myth of a male-female behavioural dichotomy.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Routledge Companion to Gender and Sexuality in Comic Book Studies |
Editors | Frederick Luis Aldama |
Place of Publication | Abingdon Oxon UK |
Publisher | Routledge |
Chapter | 4 |
Pages | 54-65 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Edition | 1st |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9780429264276 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780367209414 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |