Authors and Corporations: | |
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In: | Communication, Culture and Critique, 12, 2019, 1, p. 72-89 |
published: |
Oxford University Press (OUP)
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Media Type: | Article, E-Article |
Physical Description: | 72-89 |
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ISSN: |
1753-9129
1753-9137 |
DOI: | 10.1093/ccc/tcz002 |
published in: | Communication, Culture and Critique |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Collection: | Oxford University Press (OUP) (CrossRef) |
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In the digital age of branding when advertisements appeal to consumers’ belief systems, Procter & Gamble’s Tide uses ads that feature loving fathers doing the laundry. Building on masculinity studies and branding discourses, I explore representations of Tide’s dads as part of a wave of “dadvertising,” or advertising that uses fathers to represent ideal masculinity centered on involved parenting and emotional vulnerability. The advertisements in my case study show a spectrum of performance, from dads who justify their domestic labor with appeals to hegemonic masculinity to dads who seem at ease in historically feminized roles. All of these examples reveal dadvertising’s root in neoliberal gender politics and commodity activism, wherein evolving masculinities are personalized and commoditized into consumerist actions.</jats:p> |