Journal of Advertising

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I Can't Believe It's Not Bakhtin!: Literary Theory,

Postmodern Advertising, and the Gender Agenda

Stephen Brown , Lorna Stevens & Pauline Maclaran

To cite this article: Stephen Brown , Lorna Stevens & Pauline Maclaran (1999) I Can't Believe
It's Not Bakhtin!: Literary Theory, Postmodern Advertising, and the Gender Agenda, Journal of
Advertising, 28:1, 11-24, DOI: 10.1080/00913367.1999.10673573

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I Can't Believe It's Not Bakhtin!: Literary Theory,
Postmodern Advertising, and the Gender Agenda
Stephen Brown, Lorna Stevens, and Pauline Maclaran

Taking the literary theories ofMikhail Bakhtin as a starting point, the authors offer three gendered readings
of a postmodern advertisement for Moo't & Chandan champagne. They commence with a discussion ofthe
influence ofgender on textual interpretation; continue with an outline ofBakhtin's key concepts, with particu-
lar reference to gender; present three contrasting readings ofMoiit's postmodern advertisement; and conclude
with a discussion of their interpretations together with some reflexive reflections on the gender agenda.
Though not claiming to offer a comprehensive introduction to Bakhtin, they do try to exemplify, in a quasi-
carnivalesque modeofexposition, something ofthe character ofthat supremely gifted thinker and to demon-
strate the insights his concepts provide in relation to gendered readings ofadvertising texts.

Stephen Brown is Prcfessor of
Retailing, University of Ulster,
Northern Ireland.
Lorna SteveDB is a Lecturer in
Marketing, Univeraity of Ulster,
Northern Ireland.
Pauline Maclaran is a Reader in
Marketing, De Montfort University,
Leicester, UK.
The authors would like to thank
Profeseor Barbara B. Stern and three
anonymous referees for their helpful
commenta on earlier drafte of this
paper.
Journal ofAdvertising,
Volume XXVIll, Number 1
Spring 1999
It is no exaggeration to state that our ideas on gender are a consequence of
complex interactions that are culturally and historically situated (Costa
1994). As a result, the identification of contrasts between men and women is
based on socially constructed notions of masculinity and femininity. Femi-
nist theorists, such as Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva,
have demonstrated, through the deconstruction of language, philosophy,
psychoanalysis, and social practices, that Western thought has been based
on a systematic repression of the feminine (Jones 1993; Whitford 1991).
Literary theory, likewise, has moved toward a recognition of the importance
of context and, indeed, the multiplicity of contexts (Suleiman 1980). Much of
this research, drawing particularly on reader-response criticism (Suleiman
and Crosman 1980), deconstruction (Derrida 1978), and subjectivist criti-
cism (Bleich 1988), contends that readers' responses to texts are influenced,
at least in part, by the gender of the reader (Flynn 1986; Mills 1994; Pearce
1997). Research on how men and women read, for instance, indicates that
men read in a cognitive way toward an informational goal whereas women
read in an affective way towards an experiential goal (Rosenblatt 1983) and
that men may be more judgmental whereas women may be more empathetic
(Bleich 1988; Flynn 1986).
A growing body of "postmodern" marketing and consumer research, draw-
ing on the above-mentioned schools of literary theory, starts from the premise
that advertising text is not "stable" and open to one and only one interpreta-
tion (Cook 1992; McQuarrie and Mick 1992; Myers 1994; Scott 1990; Stern
1990). Instead, it is argued that text is unstable and readings of text are
multiple, depending on the interpreters of that text. The interpreters' per-
sonal, cultural, and gendered baggage is the context from which they make
meaning, and hence men and women may respond differently to the same
textual stimuli. Of particular interest to our discussion are the ways in
which gender may influence consumers' experience, perception, and inter-
pretation of advertisements and the extent to which individual readings of
advertisements may manifest the dichotomy of gender (Stern 1993). Several
studies have examined gendered readings of advertisements, most notably
those of Barbara Stern, who has published insightful analyses of, among
others, a Prell shampoo ad from 1950 (1991), the Marlboro Man and Dakota
Woman (1993), and an advertisement for Paco Rabanne Pour Homme eau
12
de cologne (Stern and Holbrook 1994). The studies
have drawn on a number of literary techniques such as
new hermeneutics, genre criticism, reader-response
theory, and postmodern feminist literary criticism.
One literary source overlooked by marketing and
consumer researchers, at least in terms of gender, is
the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. The so-called "Bakhtin
Circle" was founded in the early 1920s as an offshoot of
and reaction to the Russian Formalists. It flourished in
the period of intellectual ferment that followed the Oc-
tober Revolution and fell victim to the Stalinist purges
of the 1930s (Dentith 1995; Emerson 1997; Holquist
1990; Morris 1994). However, the work of its leading
light, Mikhail Bakhtin, has become something of a con-
temporary scholarly cult-partly because of his pre-
sentiment of postmodernism and partly because of the
proselytizing endeavors of Julia Kristeva-though it
has yet to make a major impact on marketing (but see
Belk 1994; Scott 1992, 1993; Stern 1998).
The purpose of our article is to outline some key
Bakhtinian constructs and demonstrate their useful-
ness in gender research by means of three alternative
readings of a postmodern advertisement. We begin
with an outline of the principal Bakhtinian concepts
considered relevant to gender; continue with three
gendered readings of a postmodern ad for Moet &
Chandon champagne; and conclude with a theoreti-
cally informed discussion of these interpretations, com-
bined with some reflexive reflections. We do not claim
to offer a comprehensive introduction to Bakhtin, but
we seek to exemplify, through a quasi-carnivalesque
mode of exposition, something of the character of that
supremely gifted thinker, and thereby demonstrate
the utility of his concepts with regard to gender and
gendered readings of advertising texts.
Mikhail Bakbtin (1895-1975)
Bakhtin is a marvelously fecund, if occasionally
inaccessible, literary theorist, and aspects of his cor-
pus have been claimed by commentators hailing from
all points of the critical compass--formalists, struc-
turalists, Marxists, semiologists, discourse theorists,
and many more (Dentith 1995; Docker 1994;
Hirschkop 1989; Holquist 1990; Lodge 1990; Morris
1994). Although his writings were wide and varied,
ranging from the psychology of perception to aspects
of medieval folk culture (Gardiner 1992a), Bakhtin is
perhaps best known for three key concepts:
chronotope, eamioalesque, and heteroglossia.
Chronotope (literally ''time-space'') simply refers to
the way in which temporal and spatial relationships
are expressed in works ofliterature. As in Einsteinian
The Journal ofAdvertising
astrophysics, time and space may be bent, broken, or
distorted within the imagined world of the novelist,
whose characters may experience time and space in
an idiosyncratic, unusual, or "unreal" manner
(Bakhtin 1981a). For Bakhtin, moreover, the ways in
which time and space are represented vary from lit-
erary genre to genre and have changed significantly
through time. Chronotope, then; is "a unit for study-
ing texts according to the nature of the temporal and
spatial categories represented" (Clark and Holquist
1984, p. 278). When transposed to the context of gen-
der, the concept implies that sexual identity is not
immutable but is, rather, an artifact of extant tempo-
ral and spatial circumstances. In other words, our
ideas on gender are "culturally specific and historically
bound" (Thomson 1991), a view very much in keeping
with contemporary feminist thought (Costa 1994).
Most fully articulated in his book on Rabelais,
carniualesque refers to the inversions, transpositions,
and temporary reversals that typified medieval fairs
and marketplaces (Bakhtin 1984). Such places are
not only sites of buying, selling, and commercial in-
teraction but also liminal locales where fools become
wise, kings turn into commoners, the sacred is pro-
faned, authority is subverted, rogues run wild, and
unmentionable bodily functions are frequently and
freely mentioned. They represent, in short, a tangible
manifestation of the ironic, irreverent, indecorous
outlook that finds literary expression in the works of
a long line of satiric, parodic, and erotic novelists
such as Cervantes, Swift, Sterne, de Sade, Dickens,
Wilde, Joyce and, of late, the postmodernists. The
camivalesque has attracted feminist theorists because
it provides a conceptual space where marginalized
voices can theorize about the possibilities of resis-
tance and, consequently, where established assump-
tions about gender-the androcentric legacy of West-
ern thought-may be renounced, rescinded, and re-
versed, albeit temporarily (Bauer 1993).
The anti-authoritarianism of the carnival is equally
integral to heteroglossia, Bakhtin's notion that lan-
guage is not an abstract, unified, and stable system,
as traditional Saussurean linguistics suggests, but a
system in constant, unremitting flux. Here, linguistic
meanings are never singular or uncontested but plu-
ral, debatable, contradictory, open to multiple inter-
pretations, sites of perpetual struggle, and prone to
periodic revolts against stultifying orthodoxy, stan-
dardization, convention, and false unity. Language is
a place where a multiplicity of voices obtain at any
one time (Bakhtin 1981a). In the strategies of discur-
sive struggle such as those employed by feminist theo-
rists to deconstruct gender, heteroglossia enables a
Spring 1999
critique of the power plays in patriarchal language.
For some feminists, furthermore, the concept has
emancipatory potential, inasmuch as it draws atten-
tion to the hitherto occluded voices of the peripheral,
excluded, repressed (pollock 1991).
Though Bakhtin cannot be described as a feminist
literary critic, aspects of his corpus have been adopted
and adapted by feminist scholars. Indeed, perhaps
the most important thing to appreciate about con-
temporary literary studies in general, and feminist
literary theory in particular, is that the so-called
"schools of thought" outlined in introductory texts
and readers are not as clear cut as the anthologies
suggest. They are disparate, fragmented, idiosyncratic,
prone to internal schism, and characterized by all man-
ner of meldings, mutations, alliances, and creolizations.
As Rivkin and Ryan (1998, p. 529) observe, ''Feminist
criticism's self-transformations over the past several
decades, as it engages with both critiques from within
and encounters from without-encounters with psy-
choanalysis, Marxism, Post-structuralisms, ethnic stud-
ies, post-colonial theory, and lesbian and gay studies-
have produced a complex proliferation of work not eas-
ily subsumed to a single description."
Perhaps the only generalization that can be made
about latter-day literary theory, apart from an
overarehingcommitment to emancipation, praxis, and
the voices of the hitherto marginalized, is that all
readings comprise situated critical positions. Liter-
ary critics do not speak with a single voice; single
voices speak literary criticism. Hence, our interpreta-
tions of the postmodern advertisement for Moot &
Chandon are highly personal, albeit informed by
Bakhtin. Clearly, such single-voicedness is likely to
be somewhat unsettling for mainstream marketing
and consumer researchers, because it privileges the
interpretation of an individual critic (producer/aca-
demic) over those of the readership (consumers/tar-
get market), and carries connotations of the contro-
versial "subjective personal introspection" technique
(Holbrook 1995; Wallendorf and Brucks 1993). How-
ever, it is very much in keeping with literary tradi-
tion, which has long favored the informed critic (the
rise of reader-response theory notwithstanding) and
continues to do so in the shape of autobiographical or
confessional criticism (see Brown 1998). More to the
point perhaps, it has ample precedents in
''postmodern'' approaches to advertising research,
many of which comprise in-depth, theoretically-in-
formed readings of advertising exemplars by indi-
vidual scholars (Goldman and Papson 1994; Power
and Stem 1998; Scott 1994; Stem 1996a).
13
Moet, Mucha, and Mikhail Bakhtin
The interpretive worth of Bakhtin's principal con-
cepts is perhaps best demonstrated by means of a
practical example. Although there are numerous defi-
nitions of postmodernism, and copious inconsistent
inventories of its purportedly distinguishing features,
many commentators would accept Figure 1 as a fine
example of postmodern marketing communication.
This ad for Moot & Chandon champagne, which ran
in several British glossy magazines in the mid-1990s,
exhibits many stylistic hallmarks commonly associ-
ated with postmodernism (Brown 1995, 1997): de-
differentiation (the erosion or blurring of established
hierarchies), intertextuality (allusive relationships
between texts), chronology (a retrospective orienta-
tion), and hyperreality (an inability to distinguish
between the "real" and representations of the real).
In terms of de-differentiation, for example, the ad
melds high art and low, insofar as it is a clear homage
to the work of Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), a cel-
ebrated late nineteenth- century artist renowned for
his Art Nouveau studies ofbeautiful bejeweled women
with swirling pre-Raphaelite tresses (Duncan 1994;
Ellridge 1992; Ulmer 1994). To some extent, indeed,
Mucha was a de-differentiator avant La lettre, as a con-
siderable proportion of his prodigious and much-imi-
tated output was commissioned by business corpora-
tions such as breweries, cigarette manufacturers, soap-
makers, and entertainment venues, leading a recent
commentator to wonder whether Mucha would have
"made it" on Madison Avenue (Rennert 1998).
This allusive intertextuality is equally evident in
the advertising copy, which refers, on the surface at
least, to the technical process of producing cham-
pagne by carefully controlled pressure on the grapes
in traditional wooden presses. However, the copy is
also an allusion to the manifold sex scandals that
occurred at around about the time of Moot's advertis-
ing campaign. Since these involved members of the
British royal family (Duchess of York), government
ministers (David Mellor), and diverse pillars of the
establishment (army generals, senior civil servants,
ete.), they prompted numerous outraged calls to control
the power of the press-particularly tabloid newspa-
pers-the sorts of unsavory organs that pry into and
publicize the untoward activities of the great and good.
Sexual impropriety, of course, was also a promi-
nent feature ofthe last fin de sieele, as Foucault (1979),
Showalter (1991,1993), Schorske (1980), and Eagleton
(1995) have shown. Hence, the Moot & Chandon ad is
profoundly-in fact multiply-hronological insofar as
14
Flgur.1
Moet • Chandon Advertisement In the Style of Alphonse Mucha
it is nostalgic not simply for the decadence, deviance,
and sexual anarchy of Mucha's fin de siecle, nor in-
deed for the 250-year history of the company and its
tried and trusted methods of production. It is no less
nostalgic for the fin de siecle's nostalgia for the tempt-
resses ofpre-elassiealtime&---Cleopatra, Helenof Troy,
Jezebel, Judith, Nefertiti, and, above all, Salom~
<Dowling 1986; Gilbert 1996; Hughes-Hallett 1990;
Sehweik 1987; Showalter 1991).
Hence, it thus seems reasonable to conclude that
this recent advertisement for an historic product,
which comprises a painting of a mythical seductress
who inspired numerous works of art at the tum ofthe
present century and who continues to appear in mov-
ies, plays, novels, television programs and, not least,
cultural commentary (Hughes-Hallet 1990; Paglia
1992),is irredeemably, unalterably, and unashamedly
hyperreal. So much so that we are inclined to doubt
the "real" existence ofMonsieur Philippe Saunier, his
great wooden presses, and the venerable production
processes lovingly described in the advertising copy.
Be that as it may, ifpostmodemism is characterized
by de-difTerentiation, intertextuality, chronology,and
hyperreality, Figure 1 is an exemplary example of
postmodem advertising, ripe for a gender (de)based
Bakhtinian interrogation.
8B's Interpretation
For me, the Moet & Chandon ad really comes to life
when it is subject to the Bakhtin treatment. Consider
how the advertisement's postmodem oscillation be-
tween past and present, real and fake, and myth and
reality is compatible with Bakhtin's concept of the
chronotope, If we ask ourselves about the ad's posi-
tion or setting in time and space, the answer is far
from clear. It is a contemporary advertisement that
refers back, stylistically at least, to the dog-days of
Spring 1999
the late nineteenth century, an era that many main-
tain has much in common with our decadent
postmodem times (see Ledger and McCracken 1995;
Mestrovic 1991; Pykett 1996). In terms of content, we
are catapulted back some 250 years to the establish-
ment of the company and, more to the point, to the
indeterminate, archaic, pre-historical past of the an-
cient world, or, rather, to the ancient world as we imag-
ine it to have been thanks to centuries of artistic and
media representations. Our spatial co-ordinates are
equally imprecise, as the advertisement is for a manufac-
turer of French champagne, which appeared in British
magazines, employing the techniques of a Czech artist,
who is regarded as the acme of the Art Nouveau move-
ment that swept throughout the whole ofWestern society,
depicting the (placeless) boudoir of an archetypal femme
fatale of Middle Eastern extract, and, as Meet's byline
boasts, carries a brand name that is world renowned.
The time-space uncertainty is reinforced by the (out-
side) possibility that the advertisement might not be
contemporary or, alternatively, might be sourced from
another locale in the illimitable brandscape. Because
the company has been in existence for hundreds of
years, the ad could well be an old fin de siecle treat-
ment updated for the 1990s (cf. M. Saunier's shirt
and tie), or one that was first produced sometime
between the late nineteenth-century and the present
(note the 1970s-style hair of the workers). The un-
opened bottle, after all, seems ever-so-slightly out.of
place; the half-full glass has that not-quite-right look
of being inserted into the drawing (if the bottle is
unopened, where did her champagne come from?);
and the female figure is leaning forward in an un-
natural position (what are her arms resting on?-not
the seat, clearly). Is this an old ad? A new ad? A new
old ad? An old new ad? Or something from somewhere
else entirely? We could ask, admittedly, but we cannot
tell. Do we really want to be told? Would the company
tell us the truth? Would we believe them if they did?
Just as Bakhtin's chronotope swirls in and around
this particular champagne advertisement, so does his
concept of carnivalesque. The most obvious
instantiation is the product itself, which is and long
has been associated with celebration, revelry, special
occasions, emotion, euphoria, laughter, tears, trans-
gression, Bacchanalian excess, and letting our hair
down as a prelude to the pleasures of the lower body.
That voluptuous aura of exotic, champagne-fueled
aphrodisiacal abandon is also embodied in the cen-
tral figure with her heavy-lidded, half-closed,
amatorial eyes, sideways glance, sensual mouth, and
seductive posture (draped over a chair, leaning to-
16
ward us), and the libidinal symbolism of glass, jew-
elry, crumpled bedclothes, serpent-headed armrest,
and an unopened, doubtless ready to burst, bottle of
champagne. In fact, we are so captivated that we al-
most fail to notice the complete absence of an ice bucket,
cease to care about the prospect of quaffing warm bub-
bly, wrapped in the uxorious folds of the material, and
only vaguely register the company's puritanical desire
to limit the power of the press of our flesh.
The Bakhtinian carnival may be characterized by
eroticism and titillation, by ribaldry and irreverence,
by subversion, inversion, diversion, and perversion,
but the possibility always remains that these rever-
sals, overturnings, and profanities are permitted or
licensed, rather than spontaneous outpourings of
emotion. In time-honored ''bread and circuses" fash-
ion, they represent ordered disorder, regulated de-
regulation, organized chaos, authorized anti-
authoritarianism, controlled decontrol of the emotions,
and ultimately reinforcement rather than subversion
of the status quo (Brandist 1996; Stallybrass and
White 1986). After our temporary transgression, or-
der will be restored; the rule of law will once again
obtain; the establishment will continue as before. A
price, in short, will have to be paid for our misde-
meanors with Ms. Meet & Chandon. Like Herod (meta-
phorically) and John the Baptist (literally), we may
lose our heads and ultimately our souls if we choose
to partake of her forbidden fruit. We hover between
resistance and temptation, attraction and repulsion,
control and abandon, advance and retreat, compo-
sure and carnality, aestheticism and asceticism. Mer-
cifully, the company promises to preserve us from this
Madonna/Medusa through the protection of its great
wooden prophylactics; no color from the diseased grape
skins will find its way into our juices; M. Saunier, our
personal white-eoated physician, may look disapprov-
ingly upon our licentious behavior but he will not let us
down like the manufacturers of rival brands or inform
the tabloid press of our human, all-too-human frailties.
We can confide in him. Our secrets are his. He is there
to take care of us, to serve our best interests.
Alongside and interpenetrating the orgiastic cel-
ebrations of the carnivalesque in Moet's ostensibly
monoglossian Muchaesque advertisement are inter-
rupting heteroglossian murmurings. An apparently
stylish and subtle serenade from the world's leading
champagne producer is counterpointed by a far from
harmonious chorus of other voices. We can detect, for
example, the voice of the past, of the decadence of La
Belle Epoch, of the corrupt and dissipated society
that eventually was called to account in the trenches
16
of the First World War. We can hear the voice of the
target market, the upper or, as the affected lift of
Salom~'s little finger indicates, the aspirant upper
classes, those who wish (or wish to wish) to have their
peccadilloes hidden from the prying eyes of the gutter
press. We can discern the voices of the company's com-
petitors, those unscrupulous organizations that adul-
terate champagne by failing to adhere to the time-
honored methods of wooden presses and carefully con-
trolled pressure. Can we also pick up a sotto voce des-
cant from viticultural publications, or the ubiquitous
taste-testers in glossy magazines, who may have been
critical of the color/flavor/production of the Meet prod-
uct and who require vigorous rebuttal (and the powerof
whose damaging presses should be severely limited)?
If, to switch to a more appropriate metaphor, it is
possible to taste several distinct flavors in our mouth-
ful of Meet & Chandon, perhaps the greatest gusta-
tory impact emanates from vintages cultivated on
those heavily tilled, some would say exhausted, slopes
of colonialism, capitalism, and gender. With its evo-
cation of Salome, Jezebel, and similar concupiscent
sirens, the advertisement is implicated in the
Orientalism that Said (1978) rails against, the illu-
sory world of man-eating maidens, magic carpets,
and exotic eroticism-in short, the Other-that exer-
cised imperial imaginations at the fin de siecle and
continues to do so. The colonialism of the late twenti-
eth-century, however, is a commercial colonialism, a
coca-eolonization, an empire of the brand. Thus, by
dint of a hint of British Airway's advertising byline
(''the world's favorite airline"), the world's most fa-
mous champagne extends its entente cordiale to the
United Kingdom and beyond. It does so, what is more,
not only by exploiting the faceless, nameless, and
bowed-but-not-beaten workers who labor on Meet's
great wooden presses, but also by valorizing the gen-
der agenda, by expropriating the archetype of wan-
ton womanhood that feminist theorists have tradi-
tionally condemned. At the same time, and in keep-
ing with contemporary feminist thought, which fore-
grounds and refuses to apologize for female sexuality
(Estes 1993; Pearce and Stacey 1995; Vice 1995), the
ad exploits the exploiters, to some extent, insofar as it
employs the archetype of the mesmeric vamp to strip
away the latter-day veneer of equal opportunities.
Patriarchy's post-Adamite susceptibility to the pri-
mal, procreative urge serves to reveal the hypocrisy-
the macho-masculinist masquerade-that inheres in
stated male support for female emancipation, egali-
tarianism, and sexual equality. Phallocentrism thus
exposes itself for all to see.
The Journal ofAdvertising
LS's Interpretation
My interpretation starts from Bakhtin's notion of
the carnival as a site of anarchy, chaos, and libera-
tion, where real life is suspended and anything and
everything is possible. Here, woman is colossal, man
is miniscule; woman is empowered and her hitherto
silenced voice is heard above the pontifications of
patriarchy. The figure of the woman dominates the
advertisement, with the main text leading the con-
sumer to her face without us even stopping to read
the copy. It is the face of a darkly beautiful woman
looking at the spectator with languid, disdainful eyes.
Her expression is remote, even contemptuous, her
lips closed but with slightly upturned corners-c-al-
most a sneer. Her pose is relaxed, her hands clasped
in front of her, her legs concealed beneath the folds of
a sumptuous gown. Her body is completely covered in
the luxurious garment from her neck to her wrists to
her feet. She is a study in self-containment, complete
in herself, sealed ofT from the spectator, her glass of
champagne a barrier to any advances from the fool-
hardy. This dark goddess is everything that Marilyn
Monroe, the archetypal blond bombshell-sparkling
blue eyes; parted, smiling, voluptuous mouth; fleshly
provocation-is not. In short, she is not available. She
does not conceal her beauty-she cannot; the beauty of
her face and the curves of her waist and hips just are,
and are for her alone; she [woman] "does not have to
become but only to be" (Paglia 1992, p. 9). She is dark-
ness and oblivion, a symbol ofwomanhood beyond time
and space, and as such defies chronotopic classifica-
tion; she transcends those boundaries.
If one turns to the details surrounding the woman
one is particularly struck by the ornate chair, with its
upturned twin serpent heads, on which she is en-
throned. Her hands are placed over one of the ser-
pents, its twin facing out of the edge of the picture,
under her arm. The twin serpents on the opposite
side of the chair are equally suppressed by the woman,
in this case by their remoteness from her. One may
observe other, less overt phallic symbols too-the un-
opened bottle of Moet & Chandon to the left of the
picture, the glass of champagne that she is poised to
consume-a pleasure that she will enjoy whenever
she can escape the spectator's intrusive gaze, one
suspects, and can indulge herself without interrup-
tion. This dark and timeless goddess is an archetypal
symbol of all that men fear in woman-a woman who
disconcerts by her very being, a woman rebuked by
men from time immemorial because of their attrac-
tion to her, a woman supposedly created for them
Spring 1999
who has power over them and who will misuse that
power, a woman in whom men will lose themselves;
she is the stuff of men's nightmares. She is no come-
hither woman, but a woman they can never control or
possess, a woman who will consume and destroy them,
unless they can master her. For the male spectator,
then, she must be framed in time and space, the
"dark lady" of film noir, captured on the silver screen,
whose power is dangerous and who must be sup-
pressed (Place 1980).
But are there not other voices to be heard also? Ah
yes, I almost overlooked Monsieur Philippe Saunier
and his men in their little sealed tomb (or womb?-
but more of that shortly) at the bottom of the adver-
tisement. After all, Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia
recognizes many competing, conflicting voices clam-
oring for attention. Let us hear what Monsieur Saunier
and company have to say. He stands to attention in
his starched white coat, clinically precise, with his
clipboard, his glasses, his self-importance, his smile
for the spectator, supervising his men in their grubby,
sweat-stained overalls and vests as they poke and
prod the mountain of dark, almost coal-like grapes in
the large wooden vat with their various viticultural
implements. What are we to make of the grape-filled
vats? Do they perhaps represent the womb - ''woman's
basic metaphor" (Paglia 1992, p. 23), ''Bakhtin's Ur-
chronotope" (Ginsburg 1991, p. 169)? Significantly,
this vat, this womb, is open, displaying its contents->
no mystery here, no fear! For Bakhtin the womb
cannot be conceived of as within and hidden. In the
camivalesque it is always on display and part of the
grotesque body, the gaping jaws of mother earth
(Ginsburg 1991). How appropriate, then, that the
grape-filled vat is open, its secrets revealed-or so
Monsieur Saunier and his men imagine. They take
control of the grapes and presume to understand the
champagne that results; they appropriate an image
of desirable womanhood and presume to understand
her mysteries and thereby master her, but the essen-
tial nature of both will always evade them. The woman
is Moet & Chandon-exquisite, exclusive, and elu-
sive. Their efforts to control her are futile; they are
dwarfed by the goddess above them.
Ifwe tum to the wording, both at the top left of the
picture ("Should the power of the press be limited?
Moet & Chandon think so") and at the bottom right of
the advertisement, we become aware of Moet &
Chandon as a company of men (brothers? wolves?),
who by means of sweat, toil, and careful control of
the pressure of their great wooden presses ensure
that madame can enjoy her champagne, pure and
uncontaminated by the blood red skins of the grapes.
17
Those men in their bubble, that microcosm of factory
activity, of workers at work, are of significance only
insofar as they achieve the perfection, the transcen-
dence above them. Who is in control? Decidedly not
Monsieur Saunier, though no doubt he thinks he i&-
poor man! No, Madame Meet is in control, with her
condescending, aristocratic air, in marked contrast to
the grubbiness of the toilers below, and she defies
anyone to dare to pry into her secrets. She is above
them and us, looking down, literally, through heavy-
lidded, superior, veiled eyes. She engages with us,
meeting our gaze, supremely indifferent, challenging
and defying all who presume to know her. She com-
pels and attracts us; she is a pleasure to behold for
women as much as for men; but unlike men, women
do not want to possess her (Budge 1988).
PM's Interpretation
Help! I'm drowning in a sea of testosterone. This
advertisement is designed to appeal to man at his
most Neanderthal, albeit the upper-crust species. Yes,
that hairy, horny, Hooray-Henry is, in Bakhtinian
terms, the "superaddressee" of this communication;
the personality type whom the authors (in this case
the creative team) envisage as the ideal recipient of
their utterances (Joki 1993). In marketing-speak I
am, of course, referring to the target audience and
the message is targeting the "rugger-buggers," the
let's-have-a-joIly-good-ride-on-a-lusty-filly brigade.
Such a finely honed advertising message appears to
allow no room for heteroglossian elements. Mascu-
line fantasies, well documented by feminist writers
(e.g., Flax 1990; Itzin 1995; Stanley and Wise 1993),
of power, domination, control, and-of course--un-
adulterated, unbridled "lust," jump off the page at
you. To put it bluntly, and, believe me, I am going to
put it very bluntly in a minute, Moot & Chandon is
being positioned as what you guys call "a leg opener."
Yes, the advertisement is saying: "With Moet &
Chandon she'll be sexy, sensual and, most importantly,
suppliant. She'll be all yours for the taking. So come
on (ifyou'll pardon the pun) all you small men, disad-
vantaged in the you-know-what-department. Forget
your fears of not making it (or her for that matter).
You will never have to feel awkward, awe-struck, or
awfully, awfully inadequate ever again. At Moet &
Chandon we've been taming these Cleopatra types for
decades, centuries even. So you can rely on us to know
what we're doing-look at our culture and tradition.
Moet & Chandon is coming to your rescue, guys-
Moet & Chandon-the tool that can be bought for the
woman you thought wouldn't."
18
In terms of Bakhtin's concept of chronotope, time
and space seem compacted; centuries of womanhood
are compressed into one small, controllable, and well-
framed space. The inference is, of course, that with
Meet & Chandon time stands still, and victory will be
yours as the ice-maiden melts into submission. Now,
before going off to the Advertising Standards Author-
ity,let us examine the text and pictures that convey
this lewd message. Take, for example, the main cap-
tion, an intriguing little word play to appeal to all
those thinking men out there. But what do the words
''power of the press" actually suggest? For me they
conveycoldness, with connotations of iron, steel, metal,
man the producer, captains of industry, man in charge.
But why is the power being limited? Well of course all
that raping and pillaging, that domination thing, is
such an effort for your average Joe, particularly if he
is up against a strong woman This monoglossian
caption actually means, "You won't need to press your-
self on her after you've given her Moet & Chandon-
she'll be all yours."
Now the picture. What a smoldering look and all
because the lady loves Meet & Chandon and, in turn,
YOU--even though you may be an inadequate little
bastard. Here, in true carnivalesque style, normal
life is about to be suspended (Gardiner 1992b) to-
gether with the promise of alternative possibilities,
which Bakhtin sees as the essential function of carni-
val (Bristol 1989).Topsy-turveydom rules, okay? Small
is big and the unobtainable about to be obtained. Yes,
Meet & Chandon will help you find that hero inside
yourself. Just look at her hands, rendered powerless
by the long stem of the glass-what else could render
her powerless in a minute, eh? She couldn't struggle
much in that long dress either. But, of course, she
won't need to when those bubbles get to her. This
advertisement is the ad world's answer to Boxing
Helena (check it out). A little extreme maybe? After
all, isn't she already yours for the taking? Just look at
the branding on her wrists/cuffs. Is it total coinci-
dence that Meet's logo reads DV (Deus Vincit) in re-
verse-I mean, could God actually be on your side?
Well, he's male too, isn't he? So with the help of God
and Meet, how can you fail to overcome this sultry,
stereotypically mysterious beauty, this embodiment
of all male fantasies of "woman''? Look, the keys to
her heart, room, or even chastity belt are hanging
there for the taking.
And what about the secondary support for all this,
the picture and caption at the bottom right of the ad?
Here we have Monsieur Philippe. Yes, I'm afraid it is
that old chestnut -the white-coated male-that sym-
bol for scientific rationalism, that reasoning power
The .Journal ofAdvertising
which, as Gatens (1991) has aptly demonstrated, we
females are well known to lack (why does he remind
me of my gynecologist?) Wow! Just think, guys, this
role model is showing how, ''by carefully controlling
your pressure," you can take control of your woman
just as Monsieur Philippe controls the grape. Now,
we girls (Gross 1994; Harding 1994) can spot this one
a mile off-yes it is the male domination of nature
(the grape) and, naturally, of us in turn. This
monoglossian advertisement privileges only the male
voice; its inherent patriarchal power plays are obvi-
ous. We are silenced and objectified, marginalized in
the realm of physicality and nature. Notice that only
the female worker has her sleeves rolled up and is
mushing around in those grapes. Her male colleague
is, of course, using an implement. Symbolic or what?
So would I buy Meet & Chandon after reading this
ad? What do you think? I think the next guy who offers
me Meet (and they're lining up) is going to hear what a
sad, sick individual he is. And for my next glass of
champagne-well, I think I'll have Dam Perignon in-
stead. Dom is a man who doesn't have to prove him-
self-a man at one with (his) nature-a man who will
load the dishwasher and iron his own shirts-a man
who will make love all night if we feel like it.
Discussion
Several important points arise from these admit-
tedly flamboyant interpretations. For the purposes of
discussion, they can be divided into three broad cat-
egories: reflexive reflections, the dichotomy ofgender,
and theoretical implications.
Reflexive Reflections
It almost goes without saying that our three
Bakhtinian interpretations of the Moet & Chandon
advertisement are very different, particularly in rela-
tion to how we perceive the central female figure and
the male figure (Monsieur Saunier). Stephen sees the
woman as a temptress offering "forbidden fruit," a
Killer Queen who keeps Meet & Chandon in her pretty
cabinet. Fortunately Monsieur Saunier, Stephen's
protector, comes to the rescue to save him from a fate
worse than death; namely, being consumed by a Ma-
donna/Medusa giantess, not to say nibbled by the
vagina dentate of native American legend (see Paglia
1992). In this interpretation the advertisement targets
men, the woman is objectified, and ultimately men and
the "status quo" triumph. However, in fairness to
Stephen, his reading is partly redeemed by the fact
that he is conscious, all too conscious, of valorizing a
Spring 1999
male monoglossian perspective, and, hence, he recog-
nizes the need to make space for heteroglossian ele-
ments within his communications chronotope.
Lorna sees the ad as portraying a dominant woman
in control of herself, her situation, and the men who
labor on her behalf. She empowers the woman and
transforms her from sexual object to sexual subject,
and in so doing she demonstrates, in Bakhtinian
terms, that women need not be silent bearers ofmean-
ing but can be the makers of meaning (see Bauer
1993). She challenges the (arguably) dominant male
narrative by interjecting a female voice and thereby
engages in what Bauer describes as "dialogic polem-
ics." In other words, she privileges the female voice
over the male gaze.
Pauline's reading demonstrates that women can
respond quite differently to the same advertisement.
Like Stephen, she sees the ad as privileging the male
and argues that it is a crude, testosterone-steeped,
carnivalesque attempt to convince aging male
inadequates that their "pulling power" remains un-
dimmed. For her, the ad insinuates that, no matter
how unattractive such men really are, Ms. Moet and
her kind unfailingly come with the bubbly, in a man-
ner of speaking. She, like Stephen, interprets the
woman in the picture as objectified by the male gaze
and responds accordingly to condemn that gaze by
means of ridicule and humor. The differing female
perspectives appropriately illustrate the diversity of
women's experience in relation to carnival, where
women may find themselves "marginalized as a part
of the backcloth rather than in the performance of the
foreground" (Miller 1990). There is, to be sure, a di-
lemma concerning women's participation in bawdy
and irreverent pursuits, so often consisting ofjibes at
the female form-namely, whether they indulge in or
distance themselves from such activities. In relation
to the carnivalesque, then, Lorna declines to partici-
pate in the action implicit in the male gaze, whereas
Pauline joins in, with the accompanying risk that her
humor will be, in part anyway, reliant on her own
self-degradation or deemed indicative of immorality
and looseness (Ginsberg 1991). However, her reading
exemplifies the "feminist carnival mode" (see Pollock
1991), which attempts to locate and deflate the signs
and symbols of patriarchy, and succeeds in introduc-
ing heteroglossian elements into an apparently
monoglossian advertising text.
Dichotomy of Gender
The problem with interpreting interpretations-
narcissism notwithstanding-is that the process is
19
potentially a never-ending one in which it is all too
easy to wallow in a mise en obyme of meta-textual
commentary. Less self-indulgent and more meaning-
ful perhaps is the fact that our three readings also
raise a number of issues, summarized by Stem (1993),
related to gender and the reading of text. One of them
is that men and women may have different reference
systems and that feminist readings may rebel and set
up an alternative reference system (as in Lorna's
reading) or may challenge a male reference system
from within (as in Pauline's interpretation). The three
readings also demonstrate, to some extent, the sub-
jectivist hypothesis that male readers are prone to
informationallintellectualljudgmentallcognitive ap-
proaches, whereas females are more inclined to expe-
rientiallaffective/emotionallparticipatory interpreta-
tions (Bleich 1988; Flynn 1986; Rosenblatt 1983).
Stephen's reading, for example, is essentially a theo-
retical one. In contrast, both Lorna and Pauline are
much more involved and characterized by a "hands-
on," or indeed a "hands-off" approach! These readings
also indicate that the source or author of the message
is interpreted differently, depending on gendered per-
spectives, and that what interpreters infer about a
text influences the meanings taken from it. Research
indicates that women are more likely to make infer-
ences and more ready to fill in gaps than men and
that they more readily empathize and identify with
the text (Stem 1993). Williamson (1978), likewise,
observes that advertising speaks in a language we
can never identify and that we are compelled to fill
the "gap" with our own interpretations; we become
"creators of meaning." The meaning Lorna takes
from this "gap" is based on empathy and identifica-
tion with the central female figure. In contrast, both
Stephen and Pauline, despite their gender difference,
see the woman as a means to an end, and for them it
is the narrative unfolding before their eyes that is of
primary interest.
We certainly do not intend to oversimplify the issue
of gender or dichotomize responses. Apart from the
obvious charge of essentialism and the unfounded
inference that interpretations are somehow gender-
bound in perpetuity (the fact that Stephen's reading
is "masculinist" on this occasion---comparatively
speaking-does not mean that his readings of other
texts are equally complicit), it would be excessive,
though not indefensible, to draw any such conclu-
sions from a sample of three. Instead, the purpose of
our exercise is to demonstrate the many and varied
ways in which advertisements can be read and the
role of gender in influencing masculine and feminine
interpretations of advertising texts. Clearly, the fore-
20
going interpretations are indicative neither of the
views of readers in general nor those of the target
market in particular. Like most postmodern analyses
ofmarketing communications-even those predicated
on reader-response theory-they represent the idio-
syncratic views of the individuals concerned. As
Featherstone (1991, p. 5) rightly observes, "while
learned references to the characteristic experiences
of postmodernity are important, we ... should not rely
on the readings of intellectuals." At a bare minimum,
nevertheless, such interpretations are useful for ex-
ploratory purposes (Mick and Politi 1989; Stem and
Holbrook 1994) and they are very much in keeping
with literary tradition, which has long privileged the
voice of the critic or the informed reader (Brown 1998;
Hirschman 1998). They are also compatible with the
"confessional" or "autobiographical" approach that is
currently undergoing rapid growth in feminist liter-
ary circles and the humanities generally (Ashley,
Gilmore, and Peters 1994; Eagleton 1996; Mills and
Pearce 1996; Simpson 1995; Warhol and HerndI1997).
Theoretical Implications
Beyond the issues of interpreting interpretations
and the dichotomy of gender, our attempted engage-
ment with Moot's postmodern advertisement raises
several intriguing, if seemingly irresolvable, theoreti-
cal concerns. One pertains to the relationship be-
tween postmodern advertising and postmodern ad-
vertising discourse. Though our interpretations of the
Moet & Chandon ad are written in a quasi-
carnivalesque manner, designed to capture something
of the spirit of Bakhtinian thought, a committed
postmodernist might contend that our readings are
ultimately and irredeemably modernist, insofar as
they remain detached and adopt a privileged, omni-
scient spectatorial perspective (though we would dis-
agree). Mainstream advertising researchers, on the
other hand, may well be appalled by our rambunctious,
not to say libidinous, treatment of the treatment. How-
ever, as every reading is a misreading according to
leading literary theorist Harold Bloom (1975), and ev-
ery interpretation a misinterpretation according to E.D.
Hirsch (1976), such differences of interpretive opinion
are, if not immaterial, certainly uncontrollable.
Much more significant is the closely related ques-
tion of whether analyses of the postmodern should
themselves be postmodern. In other words, should we
strive to be researchers of postmodern advertising,
using established tools, techniques, and modes of dis-
course (the appropriateness of which remains moot),
or postmodern advertising researchers, who research
The Journal ofAdverliBillll
and write in a "postmodern" manner? That dilemma
has confounded other disciplines (Denzin 1997;
Featherstone 1991) and is impossible to resolve, not
least because it involves the politics of poetics - the
peer review process, generic conventions, tenure track-
ing, generational effects, and that ultimate impon-
derable, how much is too much? It also necessitates a
working definition of the postmodern, something
postmodernists seem loath to provide. For some,
"postmodern" is an umbrella term, sheltering a
plethora of theoretical positions (Hirschman and
Holbrook 1992; Sherry 1991); others treat it much
more narrowly (Brown 1995; Mick 1997). However,
without consensus on what it is, we have no way of
knowing whether purportedly "postmodern" research
is in fact postmodern (though certain postmodernists
would not necessarily consider that a problem).
A rather less intractable but equally important is-
sue is the extent of Bakhtin's contribution, or poten-
tial contribution, to advertising thought. Clearly, our
article adds to a growing stream of research that
seeks to apply the tools and techniques of literary
criticism to advertising artifacts (e.g., Cook 1992;
Goddard 1998; Myers 1994; Scott 1990; Stem 1989a).
Bakhtinian thought thus complements studies predi-
cated on reader-response theory, structuralist theory,
post-structuralist theory, psychoanalytical theory,
archetypal theory, and the modalities of the new crit-
ics, to name but the most prominent (Scott 1992,
1994; Stem 1989b, 1995, 1996a). More specifically,
Bakhtin's three key concepts appear to have consid-
erable academic applicability. Heteroglossia is com-
patible with researchers' increasing awareness of the
multiplicity of divergent meanings ascribed to adver-
tising texts by both male and female consumers and
the cultural-cum-historical embeddedness of such in-
terpretations (Stem 1993). Chronotope focuses atten-
tion on advertising's representation oftime and space
-the extent to which the laws of physics are broken,
bent, or reconfigured in the "imagined worlds" of
advertising-and how it has changed through time
(Goldman and Papson 1996). It is also pertinent to
the problematic of advertising (and cultural) arche-
types, the ostensible ability of"the good mother," "the
questing hero," ''the femme fatale," and so on to tran-
scend space and time (Paglia 1992; Randazzo 1993;
Stem 1995). The carnivalesque, however, has per-
haps the greatest potential of all, insofar as it com-
prises an irreverent, subversive, ultimately
emancipatory imperative. Certainly, the concept of
carnival has had considerable impact on gender stud-
ies and, though few would deny that much advertis-
ing (and advertising discourse) is devoted to the un-
Spring 1999
adorned, straightforward communication of a mes-
sage, advertising has always had a carnivalesque side
-parody, irony, scatology, etc. -a side that has been
somewhat neglected by advertising theorists (see
Lears 1994; Stem 1990, 199Gb). It is no accident that
Bakhtin's camivalesque is associated with milieus ofcom-
mercial exchange-in short, the marketpltu:e----and, as
marketingacademicians, we are well placed to pursue this
conceptual opportunity, be it in terms of subject matter
(carnivalesque advertising), or modes of exposition
(camivalesque scholarship), or indeed both (our article).
Carnival can be and often is condemned as mere
froth, mildly diverting, an irrelevance at best and at
worst a sop to the malodorous masses (Turner 1974).
Conversely, it can be considered a means of control
through decontrol, a moment of authorized madness,
which sustains rather than subverts the existing or-
der (the "allow'd fool" of Twelfth Night). For Bakhtin,
however, carnival is not just an amusing sideshow,
designed to reinforce the rules by breaking them, but
a fundamental correlate of the human condition, a
means of societal and intellectual transformation, a
propensity that helps break up discursive and episte-
mological formations, thereby creating conditions con-
ducive to the possibility of change. The real power of
the carnivalesque, therefore, resides in its ability to
suspend the present, to intimate that alternative ar-
rangements (be they social, political, cultural, schol-
arly, or whatever) are attainable and, not least, to
expose false consciousness and extant ideological con-
figurations. ''Ideology,'' admittedly, is one of those
words that means all things to all people-it ranges
from a term of abuse to a class-based system of ideas
(see Eagleton 1991, 1994; Gardiner 1992a; Williams
1985)-but the original definition, posited by Marx
and Engels in The German Ideology, referred to an
inverted, topsy-turvey interpretation of reality. Thus,
by turning the upside-down upside-down, as it were,
carnival reveals the falsity of false consciousness, the
ideological character of ideology and, more specifi-
cally, the continuing centrality of androcentrism
within contemporary marketing communications
(Stevens, Brown, and Maclaran 1998; Stem 1993). If,
indeed, advertising is the most powerful and perva-
sive form of ideology in late twentieth-century soci-
ety, as Elliott and Ritson (1997) suggest, Bakhtinian-
based perspectives may possess considerable politi-
cal, pedagogic, and anti-patriarchal utility. They, along
with Derridean deconstruction, Foucauldian geneal-
ogy, neo-Nietzschean skepticism, and analogous
postmodern procedures, help expose iniquitous ideo-
logical positions embedded in ostensibly "innocent"
advertising artifacts.
21
Conclusion
In recent years, the study of marketing communi-
cations has been invigorated by the advent of what
Sherry (1991, p. 548) describes as "postmodern alter-
natives." A host of innovative research approaches
from the liberal arts end of the academic spectrum
have been brought to bear on marketing communica-
tions in general and advertising and promotion in
particular. Of all the emergent postmodern perspec-
tives, literary theory is proving to be perhaps the
most popular and possibly the most productive. We
have sought to contribute to this growing corpus of
advertising scholarship by drawing attention to the
work of an incomparably gifted literary theorist,
Mikhail Bakhtin, with the aim of throwing some new
light on gender issues in relation to postmodern mar-
keting communications. Contrary to the conventional
wisdom, which continues to be reproduced uncritically
in introductory textbooks, it is clear that advertising
texts are not "stable," that individuals may respond
very differently to the same advertising stimuli, and
that male and female consumers make meaning out
of their particular personal, social, cultural, and
gendered circumstances.
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