Animal in advertising: A tool to expand propaganda

     From the article written by Amato, it shows "how the exhibition of a white elephant, owned by Phineas Taylor Barnum, the American showman and trickster, became a forum to discuss nineteenth-century theories of race"(Amato 31)." The takeaway from these article is how one white elephant is exploit and its influence in advertising and the culture of nineteenth century. Although Toung Taloung, the white elephant is long forgotten, "white elephants became enduring symbols of excess in the English language. The expression is frequently used in the twenty-first century, and the connotations of racism and white supremacy, so evident during Barnum’s exhibition of the elephant and the circulation of the Pears’ advertisements, still linger"           (Amato 58-59). This source can be used as an evidence onto how human stereotype such as racism can be embedded into an animal and become cultural representative of the time.

      The article written by Lang is an analysis of animal depiction in Australian Advertising  as a tool to promote manliness. Lang demonstrate how Australian culture can be studied through advertising alone. He demonstrated his expertise in analysing ads by explaining in details. I am very attracted to how he explain portrayal of animals in advertising such as Rhino and polar bears.

     "Masculinity" is valued through the various forms of power men can unthinkingly take for granted: the power to exert control over women, over other men, over their own bodies, over machines and  
technology.(qtd in Lang)

The article suggest to add control over animals in the quotation above. The example from this source will be evidence of my research paper on animal used in advertising because of their characteristics. Wild animals are often used in ads to portray manliness.

Works Cited

Amato, Sarah. "The White Elephant in London: An Episode of Trickery, Racism and Advertising." Journal of Social History 43.1 (2009): 31-66. Project MUSE. Web. 29 Jun. 2014.

Lang, Anouk. "Troping the Masculine: Australian Animals, the Nation, and the Popular Imagination." Antipodes 24.1 (2010): 5+. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 June 2014.