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Abstract

Advertising in Singapore contests certain notions that prevail in much of the current advertising theory - notions of the advertisement as `commodity sign', removed from the real particularities of social contexts, in order to interpellate consumer readers into a uniform set of `symbolic exchange values'. The influence of Marxist thought in such theory is clear. However, this method of analysis is not remunerative in the Singapore context, chiefly because of its small size, highly multiracial and multicultural society and strong degree of governance. These are manifested in a number of ways: indirectly, for example, in the creation of so-called `Asian values' which are meant to resist `western influence'; and directly in the form of media and advertising regulations and government advertising campaigns that create signs quite different from the commodity signs touted by neo-Marxist theory. In addition, racial and cultural sensitivities are registered in textual dialogics which interrogate both this theory as well as the constructed identities (whether commodified or governanced) in advertising texts.

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Textual Spaces,Social Identities and Race in Singapore Advertising

Abstract

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