Gender Metaphors in Iranian TV Advertising: A Critical View

Raziye Aghaie, M. A.

Raziye.aghaei@yahoo.com

Payam Noor University of Bandar-E- Imam

Abstract

Metaphors are persuasive devices that are not arbitrary or

neutral but ideologically loaded (Velasco- Sacrista´n, 2003). An

example of ideologically loaded metaphor is the ‘‘advertising

gender metaphor’’ which can be defined as metaphors in which the

conceptual mapping(s) that is (are) projected from the source to

the target domain may create and/or reflect some kind of

discrimination against men or women (Velasco- Sacrista´n, 2003).

This study drawing upon the Velasco-Sacristán and Fuertes-

Olivera’s (2006) critical cognitive- pragmatic approach and

Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) metaphor theory has investigated the

different categories of gender metaphor in Iranian Persian TV

advertisements. By analyzing a corpus of 50 TV advertisements, it

has been found that the image-schema metaphor enjoys the most

frequency and the orientational metaphor has not occurred at all.

Between these two ends of frequency continuum, structural and

ontological metaphors have enjoyed almost the same frequency.1

Also, in terms of a critical view, the ideology that justified

this special kind of metaphor usage is based on a stereotypical

assumption on women: ‘‘they are usually cooks, related to

domestic settings/ kitchens’’.

1. Introduction

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade

an audience to purchase or take some action upon products or

services. Using rhetorical figures such as pun, metonymy, rhyme,

repetition, rhetorical question, and metaphor as a persuasive

strategy in advertising discourse has been studied by many

researchers (Stern 1989; Scott, 1994; Mcquarrie & Mick, 1996;

Philips, 1997; Tom & Eves, 1999; Tom, 1999; McGuire, 2000; Toncar

& Munch, 2001; Mothersbaugh, Huhmann, & Franke, 2002; Mulken,

2003; Jalilifar, 2010, etc.).

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Among different rhetorical figures, metaphor has drawn an

especial attention in advertising discourse due to its effective

use. This effectiveness which leads to the persuasion of

addressers is created by some characteristics of metaphors.

Eliciting more cognitive elaboration than literal messages

(Toncar and Munch, 2001), injecting novelty which increases

motivation to read and process the advertisement (Goodstein,

1993) and their centrality to the process of imagination (Oliver,

Robertson, and Mitchell, 1993) are some of the referred

characteristics.

Metaphors are persuasive devices that are not arbitrary or

neutral but ideologically loaded (Velasco Sacrista´n, 2003, cited

in Velasco-Sacristán & Fuertes-Olivera, 2006). An example of

ideologically loaded metaphor is the ‘‘advertising gender

metaphor’’ which can be defined as metaphors in which the

conceptual mapping(s) that is (are) projected from the source to

the target domain may create and/or reflect some kind of

discrimination against men or women Velasco Sacrista´n,2003,

cited in Velasco-Sacristán & Fuertes-Olivera, 2006).

3

The present study intends to identify advertising gender

metaphors in Iranian Persian TV advertisements and to critically

study them to make transparent any possible discrimination

against men or women.

2.2. Review of Literature

The study of metaphors in advertising discourse has been

done by several researchers (e.g., Anderson, 1998; Lundmark,

2005; Zhi- Fang, 2007; Pop & Mures, 2008; Yu, 2009). For example,

Anderson (1998) has investigated the use of metaphor in on-line

advertising and Lundmark (2005) has discussed metaphor and

creativity in British magazine advertising.

Like the study of gender metaphors which is a custom in

Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) studies (Nelson, 1992; Sawer,

1996; Falkenhausen, 1997; Gruber, 1997; Charteris- Black, 2009;

Koller, 2009, among others), the study of gender metaphors in

advertising has been the subject of several studies (Riska &

Hӓgglund, 1991; Elliot et al, 1995; Lӧvdahl & Riska, 2000; etc.).

Some researchers (for example, Thornborrow, 1998; Rojas-

Sosa, 2009) have applied a critical view of gender metaphors in

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their studies to examine interpersonal relations between

discourse participants within this particular context. Unlike the

other studies, Velasco-Sacristán and Fuertes-Olivera (2006)

have introduced and utilized a new approach to analyze gender

metaphors in advertising discourse called Critical Cognitive-

Pragmatic approach. Also, they have presented a description of

advertising gender metaphors, subtypes (cases of metaphorical

gender, universal gender metaphors and cultural gender metaphors)

and cross-categorization in a case study of 1142 advertisements

published in British Cosmopolitan.

In continuing previous research, Velasco-Sacristán (2010)

argued that ideological metaphors can be special cases of

conceptual interaction between metaphor and metonymy, along with

synecdoche. He has focused on a specific type of ideological

metaphor, advertising gender metaphors. Within a cognitive

semantic–pragmatic framework he has described and analyzed the

strategies and complex conceptual metaphoric–metonymic/

synecdochic patterns in a case study of 292 advertising gender

metaphors taken from a corpus of 1610 advertising metaphors

present in 1142 commercial ads published in British Cosmopolitan.

5

Then, Velasco-Sacristán (2010) has demonstrated that weak

communication (overt and covert) can have an important influence

on the choice, specification, and interpretation of ideological

metaphors in advertising. He has focused on the advertising

gender metaphors and has examined the discrimination against men

and women.

In Persian, Amouzadeh and Tavangar (2004) have focused

primarily on pictorial metaphors used by advertising firms in

pre- and post-revolutionary Iran using a semiotic approach as a

dominant perspective. By comparing the two sets of data, they

have found that one of the main functions of pictorial metaphor

in the post-revolutionary period is to reconcile two types of

competing and conflicting ideologies: one based on advertising

and the other inspired by Islamic values.

However, to the researcher’s best of knowledge, no one has

investigated advertising gender metaphors in Persian with a

critical view to find any possible discrimination against men and

women which is a gap in the field. This study intends to bridge

the gap by investigating gender metaphors in Persian TV

advertisements.

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2.1. Theoretical frameworks

Two frameworks which has been applied in this study: one for

finding and interpreting metaphors and the other for classifying

metaphors. The first one is related to finding and interpreting

metaphors. Velasco-Sacristán and Fuertes-Olivera (2006) have

applied Critical Cognitive- Pragmatic approach to analyze gender

metaphors in English Advertising. In so doing, they have utilized

Forceville’s (1996) cognitive–pragmatic approach to pictorial

metaphors in advertising enriched with a critical account. In the

present study the same approach has been applied to analyze the

advertising gender metaphors in Persian in order to make the

results comparable. A summary of their approach is provided

here.

The first dimension in their model is the cognitive account

of metaphor. It means that anything purporting to be a metaphor

should have some characteristics:

- The two terms (source domain and target domain) of

metaphor should be clear.

- Differentiating between the two terms of metaphor should

be possible.

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- The common features of two domains should be

identifiable.

The second dimension in their model which is based on

relevance theory is the pragmatic account of metaphor. It means

that in interpretation of metaphors the role of context should be

considered in two ways: first, the issue of the identities of

the communicator/addressee(s) in an advertising message and

second, the distinction between strongly and weakly communicated

aspects of metaphor.

The third dimension of a critical cognitive–pragmatic

approach to advertising gender metaphors concerns the social

effects of gender metaphors in advertising. Critical dimension of

the metaphor analysis has to do with metaphor as a sociocultural

practice that organizes interpersonal relations between discourse

participants within particular contexts. They often have an

underlying system of evaluation that intends to influence

opinions, thus creating the ideological justification for some

social practice (i.e., discrimination, power abuse, etc.).

The second framework has to do with classifying metaphors.

Different categories of metaphor which include: structural,

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orientationnal, ontological, and image- schema metaphors have

been identified by Lakoff & Johnson (1980). They defined these

kinds of metaphors as follow. A structural metaphor is one that

structures one concept in terms of another more clearly

delineated concept. The second types of metaphor include

orientationnal metaphors, which are grounded in our physical and

cultural experience of spatial relations. There are also

ontological metaphors, which involve the understanding of our

experiences of unbounded events. In addition, there are also

image-schema metaphors, which map limited skeletal information

from the source onto the target.

2.2. Statement of the problem

Metaphors are the mappings of the abstract world into the

concrete world through the choice of source domains which are

based on the human senses or experiences. Considering the fact

that the choice of source domain to attribute some

characteristics to the target domain may vary according to some

variables such as language and culture (Charteris- Black &

Musolff, 2003; Boers & Demecheleer, 1998, among others), it seems

9

that the study of metaphor in each language and in different

discourses has some theoretical and practical implications.

In addition, conceptual metaphors in general and gender

metaphors in particular have been partially neglected in Persian

advertisement discourse. Therefore, this study aims at

researching gender metaphors in TV advertisements as one aspect

of Persian advertising discourse.

2.3. Research questions

In order to completely spell out the purpose of the study, the

following research questions has been formulated:

1. What kinds and what frequency of gender metaphors appear in

advertising discourse of Persian TV channels?

2. Does the gender orientation which affects the use of some

conceptual metaphors can be ideologically interpreted?

3. Methodology

3. 1. Corpus

The corpus of this study is both the texts and pictures of

TV advertisements broad casted in three popular Persian channels

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during the last two months of the year: channel 1, 2, and 3. 50

advertisements were selected from the referred TV advertisements.

The rational for selecting this corpus is the popularity of these

channels due to broadcasting different series, news, and sport

games. Then, the corpus was analyzed according the following

procedure.

3.2. Data collection and data analysis

Both data collection and data analysis of this study was

exactly according to the theoretical framework. First, the

cognitive dimension of Critical Cognitive- Pragmatic approach

which binds the researcher to only find metaphors that meet all

the three conditions of metaphors, referred in theoretical

framework, was taken into consideration to collect data.

Then, to answer the first research question, the found

metaphors were classified according to Lakoff and Johnson’s

framework. Then, the frequency of each category was found and

using chi- square formula the significance of any possible

difference in frequencies was checked.

Finally, to answer the second question, the metaphors were

analyzed to check any possible gender orientation. To this end,

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the researcher using the second and third dimension of approach,

i. e. pragmatic and critical dimension, and considering the role

of context and sociocultural practice made an attempt to

interpret and analyze the collected data. In so doing, the

pictures that help transparency of the mapping and/or gender

orientation have been presented as well.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. The kinds and frequency of gender metaphor

Table 1. The frequency of different kinds of gender metaphor in TVadvertisements

As the

table suggests, the frequency of different categories of gender

metaphors vary to a great extent. More than half of exploited

metaphors are image- schema metaphors. Nowadays, there have

been changes in the level of content (i.e., more men in

kitchens or holding babies, more women in business suits)

while image schemas have remained largely unchanged.

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structural ontological

orientationnal

Image-schema

5 8 - 15

For example compare the following plates (A&B):

A. the changed level of content

B. the unchanged image schema

Table 2. chi- square statistics

Ontological

Chi-Square 6.250a

df 2

Asymp. Sig. .044

*p<0.05

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As it can be seen in the above table, there is a significant

difference between the frequencies of different categories of

gender metaphor.

4.2. Ideological justification of gender metaphor

Gender metaphors used in advertising are cognitive–pragmatic

devices that utilize the audience’s search for cognitive

efficiency; often giving rise to covertly communicated

sexist interpretations.

Plate1. Good to know you.

The gender metaphor in this example (plate1) is not

sexist in itself (advertisements of lemon juice normally

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exhibit pictures of men or women); rather, it becomes sexist

at a pragmatic level due, in this case, to the weak

implicatures addressees can infer from the slogan ‘‘good to

know you’’. This metaphor acquires then a kind of social

meaning, based on a stereotypical assumption on women:

‘‘they are usually cooks, related to domestic settings/

kitchens’’.

Advertisers extend the metaphorical gender to develop

the theory of ‘‘the metaphorical personification of the

commodity’’ by means of which the nonhuman entity of a

commodity is understood in terms of a person (consumer) and

the different human features, motivations and activities

related to this person. This is indeed a typical example of

the ontological metaphor ITEMS TO SELL ARE PEOPLE

(Ko¨vecses, 2002, p., 59) that evokes in the reader the same

attitudes and feelings that they have in connection with a

person, the consumer. Usually, the verbal pronouns and/or

the context provide us with sufficient clues to decide which

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construal is appropriate. In the following advertisement for

‘‘Kenwood Steam Cleaner ’’ (Plate 2) we can see the metaphor

THE ADVERTISED STEAM CLEANER (COMMODITY) IS A WOMAN

(CONSUMER).

Plate2. She cleans magically.

In the above example, all the characteristics of a

house keeper woman (consumer) are attributed to a steam

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cleaner: she cleans the floor, the windows, the oven, and

the sofa.

In the same way, this metaphor acquires a kind of

social meaning, based on a stereotypical assumption on

women: ‘‘they are usually cooks, related to domestic

settings/ kitchens’’. So, advertising gender metaphors

become sexist when they help to maintain non gender-neutral,

sexually based assumptions about men or women, thereby

showing the importance of advertising recipients’

interpretation.

5. Conclusion

This study drawing upon the Velasco-Sacristán and Fuertes-

Olivera’s (2006) critical cognitive- pragmatic approach and

Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) metaphor theory has investigated the

different categories of gender metaphor in Persian TV

advertisements. According to the results, the image- schema

metaphor enjoys the most frequency and the orientationnal

metaphor has not occurred at all. Between these two ends of

frequency continuum, structural and ontological metaphors have

17

enjoyed almost the same frequency. Also, in terms of a critical

view, the ideology that justified the special kind of metaphor

usage is based on a stereotypical assumption on women:

‘‘they are usually cooks, related to domestic settings/

kitchens’’.

The present study has two main implications. First, the

findings of present study paves the way for those who are

interested in understanding the persuasion effect of different

categories of gender metaphors used in advertisements. Second,

its results have implications for those who are interested in

doing comparative research to find, for example, similarities and

differences between Persian and English advertising’s application

of gender metaphors.

Although the results of the present study are worthwhile in

many respects, it should be noted that the corpus was limited to

TV advertisements. Other corpora such as magazine, newspaper,

etc. can provide useful information about the application of

gender metaphors in advertising discourse. Also, the other

frameworks and methods which may result in different or even

contradict results can be used for this area of research.18

Furthermore, the study of gender metaphor can also be carried out

from a comparative perspective between two or more languages.

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