How body discourses inform a fashion brand’s advertising campaigns

Abstract

The goal of this research was to analyze body representations in advertising and the evolution of body discourses over time. There is a lot of existing literature on the topic, however, it has mainly focused on a limited number of factors, excluding some important ones, such as time. This research aimed to fill this gap by studying the evolution of both male and female body discourses over time in the context of the fashion industry, and it was led by the following research questions:

1. What kind of discourses inform body representations in advertisements between 1990-2019? 2. How does a fashion brand represent body in its advertising campaigns over time? 3. How has the conceptions of the body in advertisements changed over time?

This study was conducted using discourse theory, CDA to be more exact. Fashion field was used as a context due to its long-standing reputation in setting beauty ideals, and Calvin Klein was used as a case company. Data was collected online, and it consisted of altogether 73 campaigns between the 1990s and 2010s out of which one campaign per decade was analyzed more thoroughly. The analysis was conducted using CDA tools, mainly Fairclough’s three-dimensional model.

The findings support the current understanding that the relationship between bodies and advertising is strong. However, based on the analysis, the concept of body ideal is going through a redefinition, possibly resulting in a new dominant discourse. According to this research the body ideal is becoming more accepting and versatile, and the meaning of the body in advertising is getting less important. The results also emphasized the social nature of body ideals and how others’ opinions have supposedly a bigger effect on body image than a single physical feature of a body.

These results can be used to better understand how and why advertising does indeed affect body discourses and their evolution over time. Giving companies data to both understand the issues of trying to force their customers to fit into one body ideal as well as showing them how changing this approach could benefit both them and their customers and could result in a more accepting world and less body issues.