The style in Critical Visual Analysis refers to the combined features of the subject matter and the formal properties of the image. In 6.1.1 and 6.1.2 a discussion of some categories (including colour, size, intensity of the ads, the background and male figures) was presented. In addition to these, several other categories, such as product category advertised, physical position and character traits of mother figure, level of distance between mother and child; smile intensity, were applied to highlight the combination, style and meaning-making of the icon produced in advertising. The relevance and statistical overview of each category is described below.
Table 24 Product Categories Observed in Advertisements
162 The Table 24 above illustrates the product categories observed in each advertisement. In previous studies, this particular category was indicated the gender role portrayal through product or service advertisements (Belkaoui and Belkaoui, 1976; Baker, 2005). As such, males were involved in advertising products that required ‘high-involvement decision-making’ (such as purchase of a house, flat, cars, technology (TV), large equipment etc.); and females mostly portrayed in ‘low-involvement’ product advertisements (i.e. beauty products, homecare (washing, cleaning, food), medicine, baby products, clothing etc.), which triggers stereotypical positioning of male and female figures (Mosher, 1976;
Patterson, O'Malley and Story, 2009). The aim of this statistical overview is to detect the stereotypical classifications that are often linked to the gender roles in a society. This also combines the background properties of the advertisement that positions the mother figure in domestic or public spaces.
From the results (Table 24) it is evident that two categories including body care (36%) and medical products (26%) are dominant in Russian advertisements. The background of such advertisements represent domesticity and the home environment. The majority of the comparator sample advertisements (57%) were focused on baby equipment such as stroller and car seats, and the mother figure was portrayed in public space. Equally, in the Russian market mothers are often seen promoting food products (18%) in contrast to UK mums who are often seen promoting fashion clothing (13%) and body care (12%).
The physical position analysis (Table 25) helps to decode the dominance or submissiveness of the mother figure (stereotypes or sexualisation) and evaluate the character traits. According to Goffman’s (1979) classification, a higher physical position indicates superiority or dominance, while the lower physical positions are linked to submissiveness and sexual vulnerability.
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Table 25 Physical Position and Character Traits of Mother Figure
When linked to archetypal interpretation, the lower physical position is aligned with the Innocent or Divine archetype that is interpreted as an ‘inability to protect herself or others and having a fear of being a victim’; or the Princess (Damsel) archetype traits - beautiful but vulnerable - that moves towards the patriarchal ideologies of womanhood being weak, helpless and in need of protection by someone who holds more power and bodily strength (Bazikyan, 2013; Mezzatesta, 2013; Stover, 2013) (see Table 7, p. 93). Unlike the comparator advertisements, there is a small tendency to see Russian mothers in lower positions (sitting 32%, lying down 17%) and not involved in any activity (walking 2%), whereas English mothers had significantly higher indicators of having an active lifestyle (17%) (i.e.
jogging). Russian magazines also include female figures in submissive and sexualised positions (lying down 17%, on her knees 10%, bent forward 10%).
With regards to the physical traits, the category demonstrates a variety of categories that exist within the female personality. The combined features of the formal properties of the advertisements and descriptive traits of the figure portrayed design a corresponding image of an archetype based on the physical
164 traits observed. The relationship with the archetypal icons can be made through the correlation of archetypal descriptions described below. Athletic traits can be linked with the Warrior archetype, which corresponds physical strengths and ability to protect (Goodman, Duke and Sutherland, 2002). The Queen archetype that refers to the independent character traits (Salyer, 2012) and represents power and authority that can also be portrayed via the physical position of the figure in advertisements. On the other hand, the Queen archetype corresponds with a material abundance that is projected in style (according to critical visual analysis), such as joy in or possessions of food, clothing and home. The results (Table 25) indicate that mothers in Russian context are mostly portrayed as delicate and dependent (35% and 37%) with some small numbers moving towards independent traits (19%). The majority of English mothers were presented as delicate (41%) and independent figures (34%).
Table 26 Level of Distance Measured by Touch
Touch is one of the categories rendered from the coding frame that reflects on the level of the distance between the mother and the child. The archetypal deception can be interpreted through touch. For instance, The Mother Earth (Jungian Good Mother archetype) represents life, birth, warmth, nourishment and protection that can be portrayed through skin to skin or hand to hand touch. The more the level of distance is increased (such as touching other objects or touching self) the more
165 the representation moves towards the Terrible Mother archetype (Jung, 1919). As from the observations it is clear that there is a significant difference between the touch categories for Russian and UK magazine advertisements. Mothers in Russian magazines were mostly portrayed with skin to skin touch (50%) with the child or having hand to hand contact (28%), whereas in the comparator group of advertisements mothers were most likely to be touching other objects (31.34%) (i.e.
pushing a stroller, holding a toy or something else).
Table 27 Smile Intensity in the Advertisements
Smile is the category that reproduces the mental and physical state of the mother figure in the advertisements. The more expansive is the smile, the more it projects the happy and satisfied state of the figure (Döring and Pöschl, 2006). The summary above (Table 27) shows that in both cases mothers had expansive smiles (Russia 48%, UK 37%), however, in UK advertisements the second highest (24%) observed category was mothers with no smile. This can be linked to the other categories as well, where the intensity of smile could not be seen due to the direction of the face or the angle that the image was taken from.
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Table 28 Passive and Active Gaze of Mother and Child in the Advertisements
In previous studies the analysis of gaze direction suggests the femininity norms (Ratilainen, 2012), which can be expressed through the look and direction of the gaze. Most of the studies refer to stereotyping in advertisements and the sexualisation of the character through the gaze (Harper and Tiggemann, 2008;
Patterson and Elliott, 2002). This study looks at the gaze from a different perspective. The gaze direction (both mother and child) in this instance was looked at to bring more insights into mother-child unity.
This coding refers to the extent to which the mother figure and child are engaged with the camera. The passive gaze triggers a less artificial sense of mothering practice. The look of the mother when passive refers to the gaze being focused mainly on the child, as the centre of the universe for the mother (O'Donohoe, 2006).
Table 28 (above) illustrates the summary of findings of this category.
Like the previous category (smile intensity), the mother gaze reproduces the mental state of the main figure. Here the factor of passive and active gaze of mother and child is unpacked. The results indicate that the child figure was more actively (45%) engaged with the camera rather than the mother figure (26%). The centre of the mother’s attention remained the child (74%), with the mother’s
167 agency (as rendered by gaze) expressed only through the child (passive). This also suggests that mothers were not portrayed as the dominant agency in the advertisement and were usually passive.
This section presented a number of descriptive categorical analyses that were further gathered to both render the archetypal advertisements portrayed as well as to combine frequent features in order to design a prototype of the most typical archetypal image of the Russian mother (see Table 29). The next subsection looks at the last element of critical visual analysis.