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Aggressive Marketing:
Interrogating the Use of Violence in Sport-Related Advertising
Steven J. Jackson
University of Otago
David L. Andrews
University of Maryland
Arguably, few of us would have predicted that marketing and selling sport shoes would become one of the most controversial human rights issues of our times. However, sport shoes now figure prominently within contemporary debates about the advent and attendant effects of global capitalism. Indeed, the politics of transnational production and consumption of sport commodities has resulted in an increasing number of both scholarly critiques and human rights campaigns (Ballinger & Olsson, 1997; Enloe, 1995; Jackson, 1998; Sage, 1999; Shaw, 1999). As a result, we are now in a situation in which global sport companies are engaging in increasingly aggressive marketing and public relations campaigns while a smaller, less powerful, group of critics attempts to challenge and expose the conflict, exploitation, and abuse that serves as the very basis of the success of these transnational corporations (TNCs).
Nike, for example, the worldās most successful sport shoe company, now ranks amongst the top 1, 000 corporations internationally with gross earnings of about $8.9 billion (www.nike.com, 2003). Employing high profile, international sporting celebrities along with innovative and often controversial advertising campaigns, Nike has developed what could almost be described as a cult following among its consumers and has become the standard by which all other corporate models are compared (Goldman & Papson, 1998). Yet, Nike has also been the subject of criticism on many fronts including, first and foremost, its unashamed and unapolegetic exploitation of developing nation labor in Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China (Brubaker, 1991; Enloe, 1995; Sage, 1999) ; the corruption and monopolization of youth and high school sport in America, and the use of advertising that reinforces sexist (Cole & Hribar, 1995) and racist (Cole, 1996; McKay, 1995) stereotypes. It is the advertising campaigns of Nike and several other sport companies that have been the subject of intense global scrutiny by scholars, policymakers, and others concerned with human rights. One of the most recent concerns about the nature of sport advertising focuses on the issue of violence (Jackson, 1998).
This chapter examines two increasingly interrelated realms of popular culture, namely sport and advertising, with a focus on the problem of violence which is, or is becoming, naturalized within both. The study of advertising in general is important because as Leiss, Kline, and Jhally (1990) note, āads are not only about selling, for they operate in a social context and have social effectsā (p. 387). Thus, we must try to sift out those aspects of advertising practice that have potentially negative social effects, including conflict and violence, and seek to address them as precisely as possible.
Here, we provide a preliminary analysis of the intersection of sport, media, advertising, and violence/aggression in order to explore the implications of a capitalist consumer culture that appropriates violence in order to sell commodities. Specifically, we do the following:
- Briefly describe the contemporary context of media violence and the significance of sport as a site of analysis.
- Discuss the social significance of advertising.
- Highlight the significance of the sport violenceāadvertising link.
- Provide examples of the different ways in which sport violence is used in advertisements.
- Illustrate how certain global sporting ads are being challenged and resisted within a specific local context.
- Conclude with a few questions that we hope will stimulate future research.
Throughout the analysis we attempt to examine the parallel rhetoric and discourses of violence/aggression within both sportsā and capitalismsā armatures of marketing and advertising.
CONTEXT OF VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA
Over the past 30 years, there has been increasing concern directed at the mediaās role in producing and representing violence (Barker & Petley, 2001;Carter & Weaver, 2003; Dyson, 2000; Hamilton, 1998). Judging by its near-global focus with respect to both popular deliberations and state policy debates, violence is arguably the media industryās primary public relations problem. Indeed, the international growth and formal organization of anti-media violence watchdogs could justifiably be called a social movement. Critics of media violence, citing predominantly behaviorist-centerd research that they have been fairly successful in lobbying into scientific proof in support of their agenda, charge that there are strong direct, or at least indirect, effects of televisual violence (Eron, 1993, 1995; Huesmann & Eron, 1986). The result, they argue, are declining morals, desensitized audiences, and ultimately escalating levels of conflict and violence in society.
For the most part, concerns about violence have been directed at the potential effects that the largely, but not exclusively, American-produced cartoons (e.g., Power Rangers), movies (e.g., Natural Born Killers, Pulp Fiction), dramas, and real life programs (e.g., Cops) have on audiences, especially children. Strikingly, few studies have directly focused on the potential impact that mediated sport violence has on audiences (Goldstein, 1983). This is surprising given the dramatic influence that sport has been suggested to have on the development of important cultural values. Moreover, the lack of research in the area of sport when compared to other forms of televisual violence appears conspicuous given that it is the degree of reality that appears to be a key feature of whether or not violence is likely to be modeled or copied (Young & Smith, 1989). Several factors that enhance the degree of reality with respect to reproducing aggression have been identified, including the novelty or uniqueness of the act, how realistically the act is presented, whether it appears justified, if the model is prestigious, whether or not the model is rewarded (or goes unpunished), whether observers perceive they will be rewarded for the same behavior, and when the physical and social environments portrayed are similar to those later encountered (Baron, 1977). Arguably, sport and its value system, along with the media-manufactured heroes who serve as its exemplars, embody many of these features. Thus, there may be a legitimate basis for concern given that in a relative sense, the pain and injury inflicted on victims of sports violence have tangible moral, legal, and physical consequences. Within the context of advertising, the symbolic representation of violence by athletes in TV commercials may be more powerful than other mediat...
