Female identities in TV toiletries ads: A pragmatic and multimodal analysis of implied meanings

Abstract

The main thrust of this paper is to unveil the female identities embodied in a corpus of TV toiletries ads through a pragmatic and multimodal description of the most recurrent thematic cores touched upon in the ads. These thematic cores have been arrived at through an analysis of the implied meanings conveyed about women and the product/brand advertised, together with their classification into topical emerging categories. In order to test the validity of such topical themes, a group of 8 female informants expressed their level of agreement (5-point Likert scale) with a list of implied meanings for each of the ads analysed. Findings reveal that the TV ads construct female identities around two main recurrent thematic cores: (i) women's sexual and beauty empowerment and (ii) women's ability to overcome inner emotional struggles about ageing or confidence loss. Both thematic cores tap into stereotypical views that urge women to be and stay beautiful through the consumption of the products. Female participants are also reminded of their self-worth as women and urged to redefine beauty standards as ways of empowering them to feel good about their looks and of regaining self-esteem. Although verbal stimuli are key for the recovery of implied assumptions, visual and, to a lesser extent, auditory stimuli have been found to reinforce what is verbally implied and to aid in the transmission of weak implicatures about the female participants depicted in the ads under analysis in this piece of research.