It may be questionable as to why
pop icon Britney Spears has gained such popularity within contemporary culture.
As the role of women in American society continues to develop and change,
several conflicting role ideals have emerged for women to strive toward. We know
that cultural ideologies are represented in shorthand style through media
advertisements. O’Sullivan, Dutton and Rayner define ideology as “a set of
ideas which produces a partial and selective view of reality serves the
interests of those with power in society widely held ideas/beliefs which may
often be seen as ‘common sense,’ legitimizing or making widely acceptable
certain forms of social inequality” (72). In most cases, advertising is a
means to circulate and reinforce certain ideologies of mainstream culture.
Advertising also has a way of presenting cultural ideologies in a way that makes
them seem unquestionable, common sense. But what happens when different and even
conflicting ideologies are presented within the same commercial? How are women
to make sense of ideologies elucidated through media advertisements if
“ideal” roles are inconsistent with each other? And finally, why do figures
like Britney Spears become cultural icons?
In this analysis I seek to decode
some of Britney Spear’s appeal to different demographic groups of Americans by
comparing various roles she plays out to similar inconsistent roles played
simultaneously by a pop icon who established popularity before Britney Spears
came on the scene: Madonna. Like Madonna, Britney Spears presents several
“masks” or representations of cultural ideologies all at once, drawing upon
the desires and ideals of various demographic groups. I plan to argue that
before we buy into the admiration of such cultural demigoddesses, we must
examine what cultural ideologies we are choosing to reinforce by our attention
and support. I will explore cultural ideals through this case study, an
advertisement for Pepsi Spears appeared in, at the semiotic code levels of
technical, written and symbolic representations. Then, I will discuss deeper
meanings and conflicting roles being played out within the commercial as well as
social implications of these images.
The commercial begins with a
camera pan downward, and the scene is up-close. It appears to be night. The next
scene inside the warehouse is much lighter. A white, morning light streams in
the windows and from above. The warehouse scene has greater depth of field and a
lot of action. For both of these scenes, Britney Spears is the focal point of
the camera with dancers on both sides. The warehouse scene is shot either
straight on, or more frequently, from below looking up at the scene. The action
scenes in the warehouse are set off by still, up-close shots of Britney’s
face. The camera looks down on her as she gazes upward, and most of the time she
is in the left corner of the screen. Scenes with people watching the commercial
on television are interspersed between the shots of the warehouse and up-close
Britney.
The commercial begins in an old
looking Pepsi warehouse. It appears to be nighttime. The camera pans down to
reveal Britney Spears, her back to the camera, wearing a Pepsi jumpsuit that
someone who drives a Pepsi truck would wear. She spins around, and in an instant
she rips off the suit and flings her Pepsi hat off the frame. Inside the
warehouse, Britney dances with men wearing street clothes all around her. The
dancers right around her represent various races and cultures. The only women in
this scene besides Britney are wearing Pepsi jumpsuits, and one can only
distinguish the women in the scene during the one slow-motion warehouse scene in
the middle of the commercial (they dance on a platform with bars in front of it
behind everyone else). They all face the camera. Britney is wearing a low-cut,
form-fitting white top that also reveals her midriff, complemented by her red
suspenders and tight jeans. Her loose hair flies around her face and dance moves
may be seen as suggestive or to “show off” her body. In the up-close shots
of Britney, she looks up and smiles seductively into the camera.
The scenes where “normal
people” are watching the commercial almost always segregate men and women. The
restaurant scene includes all men, with the one younger looking diner cook
gazing up at Britney with his mouth open slightly. The bowling alley scene
includes all younger women, all wearing their bowling team attire, of a variety
of nationalities. The group
of Coca-Cola workers gathered around the television are all male. The rest home
scene is the only one where the commercial viewers are of both sexes, and even
then men and women are not interacting. There is one scene toward the end in the
warehouse where young men and women are dancing altogether, but they are
performing for the camera more than they are dancing with each other. The
ending scenes are again Britney dancing with all men, this time on a stage at
night, with the same neon Pepsi-Cola sign that appeared in the beginning of the
commercial.
Britney Spears: “My heart won’t skip a beat/ I never look before I leap/ Ride; just enjoy the ride; don’t need a reason why; everything’s all right/ Yes, you will buy (buh-buh-buh-buh-buy) the joy of Pepsi/ The world goes round and round, but some things never change/ Look, look and you will find/ its taste is on my mind/ and I won’t be denied/ and you will buy the joy of Pepsi”
Bob Dole:
“Easy, boy.”
In this advertisement, I would
point out two contradictory depictions of the feminine “ideal” represented
by Britney Spears that seems to say something about the way American culture
views the role of women in contemporary society. In order to explain what
conflicting feminine ideals Spears represents, and why she has gained such
popularity in America, we will examine another pop culture idol who has already
created a similar image for herself: Madonna. Criticism and analyses on Madonna
seem to uncover explanations and appeals below the surface of these television
commercials. Specifically, I will draw upon the ways icons such as Madonna have
been read to explain certain cultural viewpoints.
In the book The Madonna
Connection Cathy Schwichtenberg explicates, “Madonna can be read as a
barometer of culture that directs our attention to cultural shifts, struggles,
and changes (3).” Schwichtenberg argues that Madonna gained such popularity in
postmodern culture because of her role flexibility, her ability to portray
conflicting societal norms in a way that many demographic factions find
appealing. And the very nature of media allow for such contradictions to rest
easy within it by portraying everything happening within the commercial to
represent the utmost equilibrium when “the public” consumes the product of
focus (“everything’s all right/ and you will buy Pepsi-Cola). According to
O’Sullivan, Dutton and Rayner, “Media texts are always polysemic. An open
text may have different meanings depending on time, place, class, gender,
occupation, and experience of the reader” (33). Likewise, the Pepsi commercial
is a polysemic text that speaks to several different audiences at the same time.
Schwichtenberg comments that, from a media studies standpoint, “the most
interesting questions this analysis raises is how such a seemingly contradictory
set of readings can be understood in terms of the evolution of culture and the
position of the audience in it” (Schwichtenberg 31). I argue that the role
Britney Spears plays in this commercial represents a similar brand of ambiguous
identity that many people relate to and even idolize in Madonna. Two dimensions
of this role flexibility this analysis will flesh out include the feminine
models of strength and independence, as well as seduction and submission. Both
seem to play out in necessary contradiction due to a representative
contradiction and shift happening in American ideologies. Along with these
characterizations we will examine what specific demographic audiences are
intended to relate to the commercial.
At one end of the cultural
representation of women in a postmodern advertising environment, Britney Spears
portrays a seductive temptress who appeals to the demographic crowd of older,
white males. This image takes on the more traditional view of what women are
“supposed to be” within the framework of American culture. Women are
certainly making progress within the public sphere and establishing themselves
as more competent, independent individuals. But the ideal has not been abandoned
that women are also valued because they can be seen by males as seductive,
submissive, and innocent, objects for men to control.
The first quality under analysis
for the subservient womanly ideal portrayed in the advertisement is that of
innocence. As Jean Kilbourne asserts, “women are encouraged to remain little
girls ‘because innocence is sexier than you think.’” They are encouraged
“to be passive and dependent, never to mature…sexy and virginal” (Rothenberg
350). Within the Pepsi ad, Britney Spears portrays this image on several levels.
The most obvious is probably her young age, followed by her child-like,
“cutsey” singing voice. She is also wearing a white shirt, white symbolizing
some level of purity or goodness. One may also observe that certain camera
angles look down on her, communicating an unspoken subordination that one would
feel when looking down at a child.
The other image of subservience
Spears performs simultaneously is that of sexual submission, the woman who plays
to the desires of men. Madonna has also taken part in the portrayal of this
role; according to Kaplan, Madonna’s appeal lies in her ability to portray
three very different “masks” all at the same time. “There is the theory
that the Madonna image self-consciously uses the mask to reproduce patriarchal
modes and fantasies” (160). For example, she is seen in music videos seducing
men, crawling on the floor like a cat, and performing other sexually explicit
acts. While a television advertisement for Pepsi that would be seen as sexually
explicit would be much less socially acceptable than a music video, Spears plays
the role of the temptress more subtly to meet the demands of this side of the
conflicting feminine ideal. In a chapter of Pamela J. Creedon’s Women in
Mass Communication, she explains several methods of imagery used by the
advertising world to portray women as sexually submissive. The two main methods
I would identify Spears using in this ad include objectification and seduction.
Objectification refers to the
cropping or fragmentation of body parts, often decoded as demoralizing women to
be the sum of physical components men can lust after (229). Most scenes where
Spears is “objectified” come toward the end of the advertisement, where
short shots of just her face or her stomach are shown. The other method,
seduction, can be recognized when the woman’s role in the ad, and in the male
consumer’s life, is sexually suggestive. It seems that seductive messaging in
television commercials has become so common that it attracts lessening attention
and controversy. I would argue that this expectation allows Spears to play the
role at the same time as other roles with much less resistance and controversy.
The first scene depicts Spears ripping off her “Pepsi man” outfit in less
than one second to reveal her much skimpier underclothing. Dispersed throughout
the commercial are up-close camera shots of Britney casting seductive upward
glances at the camera. Who is the viewer in these upward shots? A closer
examination of people shown watching Britney on their televisions may give a
clue. There are a few scenes that depict viewers looking downward at their
televisions to watch Spears. All of these scenes contain older men.
Specifically, the Coca-Cola men gathered around their television, the men in the
nursing home who share an oxygen tube while gazing at the young star, and Bob
Dole at the end of the commercial with his dog all look downward at their
television sets. I might also add that Dole comments at the end of the
commercial, “easy, boy” to his dog, but it is arguable whether he is really
talking to his dog or the multitude of men lusting after the seductive Spears
from their televisions at home.
After decoding and classifying
these depictions of the deferential feminine ideal, the consumer must examine
what deeper implications advertisements like these have to the perceptions of
American consumers. According to Lazier and Gagnard Kendrick, “Portrayals of
women in advertising are not only demeaning, but they are also inaccurate. We do
not have a demography of demigoddesses. Women today are considerably more than
flawless decorative objects dependent on and defined by men” (Backlund 116).
Reiterating stereotypes such as these seem to reinforce the myth that women can
be expected to strive toward ideals of beauty, submission, innocence and
seduction.
It can also be argued that Britney
Spears also represents another feminine ideal for a different demographic
portion of American viewers: this is the model of feminine strength and
independence. We will again look to Madonna’s portrayal of this ideal to
explain the phenomenon. The pro-feminist ideal the singer/actress is said to
represent “offers a positive role model for young women in refusing the
passive patriarchal feminine, unmasking it, and replacing it with strong and
autonomous female images” (160). Madonna is most recognized for portraying
this type of image in her Truth or Dare album. Madonna and other strong
female personalities who find a spotlight within popular culture cater to the
crowd that supports the modern, feminist image that continues to be developing
as a norm in American culture. In this Pepsi commercial, Spears represents the
“strong female” on several levels. First, she enters the commercial in
men’s clothing, wearing a cap most typically worn by men, emphasizing
androgynous or even manly characteristics rather than anything that would be
seen as feminine. Furthermore, the first verse of the commercial broadcasts her
independence and willingness to take risks, traditionally considered strengths
of men, not women (“My heart won’t skip a beat/ I never look before I leap/
Ride; just enjoy the ride; don’t need a reason why; everything’s all
right”). As she enters the next scene, Spears performs similar dance moves as
the men all around her, signifying her competence to “keep up with” the men.
The audience this portrayal is evidently catering to in the commercial includes
young men and women. The young short-order cook neglects the fire in the
restaurant kitchen as he stands with mouth gaping open to look up at Spears on
the television. Likewise, the women in the bowling alley watch the commercial
attentively as one woman in the front imitates one of Spears’ dance moves.
These “observers” inserted within the commercial are looking up at
Spears, symbolically communicating their desire to “look up to” her as a
role model. Her beauty is another quality that is obviously an element of this
appeal; the cook looks at her as though she is some heavenly being to be
worshipped. The bowling alley women seem to want to imitate her, to observe and
learn from her. It can be noted that none of the women presently look anything
like Spears, no other female in the commercial even exhibits a slight
resemblance to her scantily-clad figure and flowing blonde hair. I would
rationalize that this is where young men and women are supposed to derive at
some subconscious level that drinking Pepsi can help them attain these ideals
that they lack at present. Hypothetically, it would allow the cook to find some
woman to fulfill his obvious longing for a woman like Britney Spears, and
likewise it would help those women in the bowling alley to become just such
women. The women at the hospital also look up at the star with the appearance of
marvelous wonder. Interestingly, almost every person in the commercial who looks
up at Britney is either a younger looking man or a woman.
The problem with this image of the ideal female by the answer the commercial gives as how a woman is to achieve the status of the “modern woman” Spears represents. Jean Kilbourne writes, “There have been some changes in the images of women. Indeed, a ‘new woman’ has emerged in commercials in recent years. She is generally presented as a superwoman…or as the liberated woman, who owes her independence and self-esteem to the products she uses. These new images do not represent any real progress but rather create a myth of progress, an illusion that reduces complex sociopolitical problems to mundane personal ones” (Rothenberg 350). Perhaps companies such as Pepsi are damaging to women’s progress in society by reducing the answers to achieving greater status, independence and self-esteem to consuming choice marketed products.
It can be concluded that all of
these cultural ideals are harmful to societal expectations about how to define
feminine roles in postmodern culture. In the words of Ivy and Backlund, these
conflicting role requirements only create mass confusion for both men and women
about feminine identity:
“People are confused by images in the media; at times,
this confusion has consequences for their relationships and communication. Many
men wonder if women want to be treated as equals and professionals, as
traditional helpmates and caregivers, or as sex kittens because the media
readily provide continuous, seemingly acceptable images of each” (117).
Like Madonna, Britney Spears presents several “masks” or representations of cultural ideologies all at once, drawing upon the desires and ideals of various demographic groups. Before we buy into the admiration of such cultural demigoddesses, we must examine what cultural ideologies we are choosing to reinforce by our attention and support.
Backlund, Phil and Diana K. Ivy. Exploring Genderspeak: Personal Effectiveness in Gender Communication. Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000.
Creedon, Pamela. Women in Mass Communication. Newberry Park: Sage Publications, 1993.
Dutton, Brian, Tim O’Sullivan and Philip Rayner. Studying the Media. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Schwichtenberg, Cathy. The Madonna Connection. Oxford: Westview Press, 1993.
Rothenberg, Paula S. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.