Stories of Community: The First Ten Years of Nike Women's Advertising

This semiotic analysis of early Nike women's advertising explores the evolution of the women's brand from its launch in 1990 through 2000, and includes twenty-seven print campaigns. The semiotic analysis is enhanced by in-depth interviews of the creative team. The study is framed by a single research question. What symbolically ties these ten years of advertising into a cohesive whole and how? Ultimately, three distinct mediated communities emerge. The story behind these communities, expressed semiotically and orally, suggests that the power of this advertising lies in its mediated construction of community life. The resonance of these ads is rooted in the creatives' ability to construct signifiers that reflect the cultural and social experiences of women, with storytelling as the single most binding force across this tenyear period. They asked us to build a community of strong and healthy women. Josie (pseudonym) Art Director, May 2000 1. Nike as Community If there is one area that exemplifies the gender-bound experience of community, it is sports. It is the gender-bound experience of sports that frames early Nike women's advertising in the first decade. Today, females' participation in sports is greater than ever before (Women's NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page. American Journal of Semiotics, Vol. 22, No. 1-4 (2006): pg. 165-194. DOI. This article is © Philosophy Documentation Center and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette. Philosophy Documentation Center does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Philosophy Documentation Center. 2 Sports Foundation). One of the crucial factors increasing female participation in sports was the passage of Title IX in 1976. Title IX created opportunities in the sports arena previously unavailable to women. Females' participation in sports grew slowly in the years immediately following its passage. However during the 1990s females participation in sports began to steadily climb (Women's Sports Foundation). This is also the same period during which Nike women's advertising debated. Unfortunately, many scholars misunderstand the genesis of Nike women's advertising (Cole and Hribar 1996; Goldman and Papson 1998; Helstein 2003; Lafrance 1998; Lucus 2000) and thus make erroneous assumptions sometimes incorrectly dating or naming ads and/or campaigns. Other times erroneous assumptions are made about how and why the ads are produced, without any apparent discussion with the individuals who produced the ads. Clearly, during the 1990s Nike engaged in questionable labor practices and saw their corporate image tarnished (Anderson 1995; Korzeniewicz 1994; Stabile 2000). Nonetheless, there is value in semiotically analyzing this body of advertising, without the undue influence of Nike's labor practices. With this caveat in mind, I suggest that the advertising produced, for the women's brand, during the 1990s played a significant role in shifting the way females were represented in mediated images in theUnited States. While Nike's evolution is an intensely layered story, "a complicated network of economic, cultural and psychic relations" (Cole and Hribar 1995: 349), the lack of discussion that incorporates the voices of those individuals who actually produced the advertising is troubling. Juxtaposing their voices against other critical methods has rich possibilities for bringing forth a deeper understanding of advertising texts and their semiotic function. While the focus of my research is semiotic, I hope to illuminate the depth and breadth of signification through the modest inclusion of the voices of the people who created the ads. For as McFall suggests, "little can be surmised . . . without regard to the circumstance in which they (advertisements) were produced" (2004: 5). 1.1 Mediated Communities Living in community is essential to the human experience (Anderson 1997; Glenn and Keith 2002; Theodori 2001)."People are NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page. American Journal of Semiotics, Vol. 22, No. 1-4 (2006): pg. 165-194. DOI. This article is © Philosophy Documentation Center and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette. Philosophy Documentation Center does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Philosophy Documentation Center. 3 by nature social beings with a drive to belong; as such they seek so become a part of the social whole" (Glenn and Keith 2002:13). Being socially whole is based upon community experiences that are shaped by many variables, with gender being a highly significant variable (Anderson 1997; Glenn and Keith 2002). It is imperative to understand that community entails a historical analysis. How we make sense of females' cultural and social experiences and attitudes about fitness and sports today are distinctly different from how these issues were understood nearly fifteen years ago (Roberts 1998). The overarching question that frames my analysis is simply this: What ties the first ten years of advertising into such a powerfully cohesive body of signification? The answer is that early Nike women's advertising, which debuted in 1990, systematically constructed women's athletic experiences within a series of mediated communities. These communities evolved through the use of images and words iconic, symbolic and indexical signs that definitively shaped the concept of women in community, framed within fitness and sports, yet not to the exclusion of other gender based experiences. While these communities were constructed around fitness and sports, it is the integration of signs emerging from the everyday lives of women that gives these campaigns their resonance and impact. In a sense, for these campaigns, sports and fitness are secondary to the creation of a mediated feminine community the communal bond that brought many women together, tied as one by the Nike swoosh. The creation of these communities is predicated on the use of iconic, symbolic and indexical signs to construct an identity that previously had not existed in the female experience of community that is, females finding a mediated communal reality in fitness and sports. Conversely, constructing an athletically bound community of females is necessarily predicated on symbolically rooting that community in female experiences. The single iconic sign that binds these two oppositional experiences together is the emblematic swoosh. In that sense, Nike becomes the mediator of these gender-bound communities. This advertising weaves together known everyday life experiences of females and spins them into new, previously little known, experiences in the athletic arena. NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page. American Journal of Semiotics, Vol. 22, No. 1-4 (2006): pg. 165-194. DOI. This article is © Philosophy Documentation Center and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette. Philosophy Documentation Center does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Philosophy Documentation Center. 4 2. Semiotic Criticism Matters McFall suggests there lies a paradox in semiotics, "while the theory understands meanings reside within the structural relations persisting across a system of representations, on the whole the method tracks meaning within individual texts" (2004: 23). Further some scholars (Leiss, Kline, andjhally 1986; McFall 2004; Moeran 1996; Nava, Blake, MacRury, and Richards 1997; Soar 2000) suggest that critiques using semiotics are often hampered by too much focus on meaning and not enough focus on practices or production. Nonetheless, most scholars contend that semiotics has a place in advertising criticism because of its unique ability to expose how social systems are influenced and/or reproduced (Barthes 1972; Culler 1981; Dyer 1982; Goldman 1992; Leymore 1975; Williamson 1978). In fact, it is often argued that social realties are "corrupted" by advertising because of its inherent and historical development within a "capitalist political economy" (Goldman 1992). In this sense advertising is inherently hegemonic. Thus, it is advertising's systemic embedding within the political economy that makes semiotic analysis such a rich resource. Some suggest that a semiotic approach to advertising research is inherently structural (deSaussure 1959; Leymore 1975). Others suggest it is more fluid or post-structural (Dyer 1982; Goldman 1992; Williamson 1975). Interestingly Barthes' (1972) work moves seamlessly between structuralism and post-structuralism. He suggests the social critique is necessarily rooted in semiotics. As a method, semiotics operates within social and cultural referent systems. The content of texts should be studied independently, yet should be analyzed within a universal context."The more a system is specially denned in its forms, the more amenable it is to historical criticism" (Barthes 1972:120). At its core, semiotics offers us a rich critical methodological resource. While advertising emerges from a hegemonic system, it has a range of intertextual meanings that are often negotiated across time, place, and experiences (Goldman 1992). McFaIl (2004) argues that historical meanings can sustain myth. Barthes (1972) suggests that myths are translated into history and then become naturalized. Thus, the idea of myths as represented in advertising texts and "discovered" through semiotics is compelling. Semiotics invokes "a more universal NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page. American Journal of Semiotics, Vol. 22, No. 1-4 (2006): pg. 165-194. DOI. This article is © Philosophy Documentation Center and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette. Philosophy Documentation Center does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Philosophy Documentation Center. 5 explanation of social order through reference to the ideological nature of meaning-making" (McFaIl 2004: 17). Barthes (1972) suggests that this the merging of semiotics and ideology, while Goldman (1992) suggests a systemic hegemonic structure to advertising. Leymore's (1975) conception of advertising is that it shares "myths" with the more universal social world in which it resides is clearly influenced by Barthes (1972). What these scholars all have in common is the belief that products have little social meaning without advertising. Branding, applied through advertising and marketing, is a means of defining products. Advertising is the structural tool that builds brands and symbolically defines products as associated with those brands. In this way, the actual products recede into the background as the brands become enmeshed with the cultural and social referents embedded within the ads. The more embedded the cultural and social referents the more significance is attached to their meaning. "Advertising is thus a necessary companion to the evolving needs of capitalist societies" (McFaIl 2004: 22). Needless to say, advertising is intimately intertwined with consumption. At the same time, consumption evolves to become the symbolic exchange of signs signs rooted in cultural branding. In this process, advertising takes cultural and social experiences and uses them to create referents, spinning signs into brands. These brands subsequently take on a greater degree of significance than the actual material products themselves. Advertising creates a structure of meaning that allows for consumption of brands as part of our social relationships (Domzal and Kernan 1993; Dyer 1982; Elliot and Wattanasuwan 1998)."Contemporary consumption is all about the desire for difference and the expression of identity through the display of sign values" (McFaIl 2004:4). Thus, the significance of the brand outweighs the significance of the material product itself (Domzal and Kernan 1993; Elliot and Wattanasuwan 1998; McFall 2004). It is the act of identifying with brands in which consumers often find a sense of personal and communal identity (Baudrillard 1989a; Barthes 1977; Dyer 1982; Goldman 1992; McFall 2004). Methodologically, the central concern of semiotics is to investigate how signs are selected and organized to lead individuals to read a limited range of meanings into the text, thus creating signification. De NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page. American Journal of Semiotics, Vol. 22, No. 1-4 (2006): pg. 165-194. DOI. This article is © Philosophy Documentation Center and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette. Philosophy Documentation Center does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Philosophy Documentation Center. 6 Saussures (1959) suggests that signs are selected and organized into bundles. This process begins with the creation of chains that bind together signs and form paradigmatic chains. Central to the evolution of paradigmatic chains are cultural and/or social experiences from which the signs emerge. Thus, even the simplest sign has a meaning relevant only to those with knowledge of the social and cultural context in which it emerges. In that sense we can see that advertising is not solely a process of manipulation. Rather, it is a value laden participatory process (Domzal and Kernan 1993; Dyer 1982; Elliot and Wattanasuwan 1998) rooted in the economic, political and social, constructs of our world. Manning's (1987) work, inspired by Peirce, suggests there are three types of signs: iconic (illustrative forms that are associated with particular objects), indexical (logical, systemic signs whose connections are based on shared understandings) and symbolic (signs that emerge out of cultural and social practices). At a basic level, it is the iconic, indexical and symbolic signs that form the foundation for my analysis. However, signification emerges only out of an understanding of the much more complex and universal structure in which advertising functions (Barthes 1977; Baudrillard 1989b; Dyer 1982; McCracken 1993; McFaIl 2004). Further, Barthes suggests that,"In advertising the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional; the signified of the advertising message is formed a priori by certain attributes of the product and the signified has to be transmitted as clearly as possible" (1977:33). Cultural understandings are, without a doubt, imperative to semiotic analysis. 2.1 Weaving Images and Words into Communities Weaving the words and images into a cohesive series of signs that becomes a culturally resonant ad is crucial to the success of any advertising campaign. However, in terms of research, it is also crucial to weave together the words of those who create the ads with an analysis of the advertising text. Semiotic deconstruction of the ads allows scholars to "shakes the sign" (Barthes 1972: 167). This type of critical deconstruction brings to life a much more complex semiotic "discourse" (Helstein 2003; Laclau and Mouffe 1987) that is predicated upon a systemic set of relations. Advertising discourse inherently forms "closed circuits" (McFall 2004). Within these closed circuits NOT THE PUBLISHED VERSION; this is the author’s final, peer-reviewed manuscript. The published version may be accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page. American Journal of Semiotics, Vol. 22, No. 1-4 (2006): pg. 165-194. DOI. This article is © Philosophy Documentation Center and permission has been granted for this version to appear in e-Publications@Marquette. Philosophy Documentation Center does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Philosophy Documentation Center. 7 "advertisers steer meanings but cannot guarantee interpretations" (McFall 2004:25). As such, there is an inherent weakness in semiotic analysis alone. Semiotic analysis may be insightful because it exposes the manipulation of the relations between what might be called meaning and reality. Yet, all too often there is a preoccupation with text that disregards "the context in which material practices were conducted" (McFall 2004: 5). Further McFall suggests, "little can be surmised... without regard to the circumstance in which they (ads) were produced" (2004: 5). It is the interweaving of a semiotic analysis of the text with the words of those who produced the ads that creates the most value. Additionally, it is the clearest way to expose the evolution of community within this extensive body of early Nike women's advertising. As advertising can be a system of "closed circuits" (McFaIl 2004), it lends itself perfectly to the creation of mediated communities, communities that emanate from within the social, political, and economic systems that are universal. While some advertising may form a closed system, the referents emerge from universal systems, or broader cultural communities. It is the individual experiences within that universe, which form self-schematas and emerge as indexical and iconic signs, that bring resonance to these shared mediate messages. "Self-relevant information thus copied'onto self-schematas is known to be more meaningful and memorable to people. So, when advertising seems to be addressed to'us,' we are more likely to attend, perceive and process it deeply" (Domzal and Kernan 1993: 4). Thus, mediated community can be born. In the end, semiotic analysis supported by the voices of those who create the ads clarifies and accentuates meanings found within the texts. Semiotics is the ideal way to explore the signifiers, which create the three mediated communities that ultimately came to symbolize the Nike