Thesis advisor: Prasannan Parthasarathi / After Indian independence in 1947, longstanding regional movements centered on language pushed forward the demands for the reorganization of the British state structure along linguistic lines. One of the most vocal regional movements in the 1950s was the Samyukta Maharashtra, or United Maharashtra movement. This dissertation argues that the development of sound films, or talkies as they were popularly described, were critical for the creation of Marathi regional political movements. In 1932 the Prabhat Film Company released the first Marathi talkie, Ayodhyecha Raja. For the next three decades, with a lull during World War II, Marathi filmmakers released films that put forward a vision of the Marathi speakers as a people, connected to the land of Maharashtra. Films, by reaching the sizable illiterate population of the region, were a powerful political medium. This dissertation takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing upon the methodologies of history, anthropology, and film studies. Historians of twentieth century India have not used film extensively, yet it is a cultural medium that has important social and political ramifications. Given the lack of historical research carried out on films in South Asia, I use various methods to shed light on the formation of a Marathi regional consciousness. Between 1930 and 1960, Marathi regional consciousness shifted from an elite literary sphere to a popular sphere. A Marathi consciousness, which was once largely the terrain of the intellectual elite, became, through the medium of film, the possession of a broad Marathi public. This study uses popular culture to examine the region’s social and political history during one of the most politically tumultuous times of the twentieth century. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

This thesis considers women’s representation in television commercials in Australia and Bangladesh. It is an empirical study. A total of 780 advertisements were recorded from various television channels of Australia and Bangladesh. Among them 280 and 500 advertisements were taken from Bangladeshi and Australian television channels respectively. This thesis is about women’s representation in television commercials in Australia and Bangladesh. Bringing an interdisciplinary but empirical approach to a broad range of recently screened advertisements, the thesis examines how femininities are stereotypically represented in these two countries’ television commercials. The study suggests that women are produced and reproduced as sexual objects and/or objects to be looked at, and that representations of women’s bodies circulate around the binary of purity and pollution in heavily gendered and racialised ways. The interesting finding of this study is the extension of the ‘male-gaze’ concept where women come under the gaze from (hetero) sexual perspectives. The study suggests that images of femininity and racialisation are produced and reproduced. This constructs women’s secondary position and creates racial instability in societies.

This thesis examines the role of women depicted in advertisements and aims at evaluating to what degree the advertising industry adapts to the changes of women’s roles in society. The focus of the research lies on Germany. Advertisements of four German brands are analyzed and compared with the role of women in the German society in order to answer the question to what degree the German advertising industry does take into consideration the role of women in the German society. Nivea, Persil, Fa and Triumph are leading German brands, which target women and thus depict them in their ads or refer to them in the ads’ texts. Advertisements for the time period 1950s till 2000s are analyzed on the basis of content analysis. The long timeline permits to evidence the changes of the depiction of women over time.   The results of the content analysis which is quantitative in nature is undertaken to analyse the advertisements show that the depiction of the women in the ads depends on the decade and also differs from brand to brand, meaning that there is no linear development in the roles depiction of women in advertisements. This is especially visible when compared to previous researches presented in the theoretical chapter. Furthermore, previous researches show a linear development, women have typical roles in each decade and these roles change over the decades in a certain way: Women are mainly shown in “classical” roles in the decades ‘50s till ‘70s and in more varied roles since the ‘80s. The research at hand, however, shows that the ads from the 1950s to the 1970s show more diverse roles of women than the last three decades. Furthermore, only two of the four brands’ ads during the ‘50s to ‘70s depict women in classical roles and that not for all these three decades. Therefore, the results of this study are not in line with the ones found by past researches.   The results of the content analysis are qualitatively compared with the role played by women in the German society. From the comparison it becomes visible that the German advertising industry adapts to the role of women in the society but only to a certain extent. The analysis shows that the adaption of the brands’ advertisements differs from brand to brand and from decade to decade. In some decades the ads depict women as they are in society, others show a more “modern” image of the women and other decades’ ads show an antiquated image of women. In whole, no linear development of the adaption of the advertising industry to the role changes of women in society is visible. Overall, the results provide an understanding of how German women are portrayed in German advertisements over time and shed light on the adaption of the German advertising industry to role changes of women in the German society.

The main theme of the work is content analysis of advertisements in magazines for children and youth and the inclusion of this issue into a cross-cutting theme in Media Education (for 2nd grade of primary school), including applications in the teaching units. The characteristic of these journals is followed by an analysis of individual advertising messages, including their evaluation. The practical part is focused on the design of educational activities designed for use in lessons of civics and art education in the cross-cutting theme of Media Education. Teaching units are designed based on previous implementation and subsequent evaluation at a primary school in Lhenice during the academic year 2011/12.

Com o intuito de averiguar qual a influência da revista Seleções do Readers Digest no imaginário brasileiro da década de 50, sobretudo com relação às representações da mulher, selecionamos vinte anúncios de produtos de higiene pessoal e beleza como objetos de trabalho nesta Dissertação. Para executar esta análise, utilizamos como metodologia a Análise do Discurso (Escola Francesa) e percorremos 116 revistas com seus inúmeros anúncios, a fim de selecionar aqueles mais significativos dentro da categoria de higiene pessoal e beleza. Descobrimos que a publicidade em Seleções funcionava como um veículo de propagação e sustentação da propaganda ideológica do American Way of Life. É dentro desta lógica que a publicidade da revista vende um tipo-ideal de mulher: a rainha do lar. Apesar de aparentemente haver um avanço na representação feminina conforme o ano de divulgação do anúncio, é o tradicional modelo de mãe-esposa-dona-de-casa que prevalece. Uma mulher que aparece sempre feliz e satisfeita, mas que, de fato, acaba se revelando apenas como um objeto destinado ao consumo masculino / As object of this research we selected twenty personal hygiene and beauty advertisements of the magazine: Seleções do Readers Digest. The main purpose of the study is to learn about the influence of this communication vehicle in the Fifties Brazilian imaginary, especially upon womans representations in the mentioned decade. To develop this work we used the Discourse Analysis Methodology (French School) and we went over 116 magazines with their innumerable advertisements, in order to select the most significant ones from personal hygiene and beauty categories. We reached the conclusion that advertising in Seleções worked as a dissemination and maintenance vehicle for the ideological propaganda of the American Way of Life. Following this idea, the magazines publicity intend to sell a single type of an ideal woman: queen of the house. Considering the period of history we refer to, at first glance it seems that existed some progress at the womans image, but a more careful observation revealed that it had been the traditional model of wife-mother-housewife which remained. In other words, in the maganizes advertisements women always appeared happy and satisfied, although, in fact, they were designed just to be an object for male consumption

Com o intuito de averiguar qual a influência da revista Seleções do Readers Digest no imaginário brasileiro da década de 50, sobretudo com relação às representações da mulher, selecionamos vinte anúncios de produtos de higiene pessoal e beleza como objetos de trabalho nesta Dissertação. Para executar esta análise, utilizamos como metodologia a Análise do Discurso (Escola Francesa) e percorremos 116 revistas com seus inúmeros anúncios, a fim de selecionar aqueles mais significativos dentro da categoria de higiene pessoal e beleza. Descobrimos que a publicidade em Seleções funcionava como um veículo de propagação e sustentação da propaganda ideológica do American Way of Life. É dentro desta lógica que a publicidade da revista vende um tipo-ideal de mulher: a rainha do lar. Apesar de aparentemente haver um avanço na representação feminina conforme o ano de divulgação do anúncio, é o tradicional modelo de mãe-esposa-dona-de-casa que prevalece. Uma mulher que aparece sempre feliz e satisfeita, mas que, de fato, acaba se revelando apenas como um objeto destinado ao consumo masculino / As object of this research we selected twenty personal hygiene and beauty advertisements of the magazine: Seleções do Readers Digest. The main purpose of the study is to learn about the influence of this communication vehicle in the Fifties Brazilian imaginary, especially upon womans representations in the mentioned decade. To develop this work we used the Discourse Analysis Methodology (French School) and we went over 116 magazines with their innumerable advertisements, in order to select the most significant ones from personal hygiene and beauty categories. We reached the conclusion that advertising in Seleções worked as a dissemination and maintenance vehicle for the ideological propaganda of the American Way of Life. Following this idea, the magazines publicity intend to sell a single type of an ideal woman: queen of the house. Considering the period of history we refer to, at first glance it seems that existed some progress at the womans image, but a more careful observation revealed that it had been the traditional model of wife-mother-housewife which remained. In other words, in the maganizes advertisements women always appeared happy and satisfied, although, in fact, they were designed just to be an object for male consumption

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Menstruation is a quintessential phenomenon unique to females which prepares the body for reproductive functioning. Although this phenomenon is a natural biological process of development, social institutions such as science, socio-cultural factors, religion and the media impact young women’s perceptions of menstruation. Media, in particular advertising has been instrumental in conveying specific versions of reality that mirrors Western capitalist and patriarchal ideologies of women and their bodily processes. Media representations of menstruation portrays it as a ‘hygiene crisis’, rational and in need of symptomatic treatment. Media portrayal of women’s bodies highlights the importance of identifying ways in which advertising contributes to young women’s perceptions of menstruation. The aims of this study are twofold; firstly this study aims to understand how young women’s perceptions of menstruation are constructed. Secondly, this study also aims to explore young women’s perceptions of menstrual product advertising in print media. Literature shows that the media often portrays menstruation as a ‘hygiene crisis’ instead of a maturation process. Improved hygiene seems to be the rationale and modern answer of ‘treating’ symptoms. Literature also identifies advertising as a pervasive form of media, which is often unconsciously acknowledged, and it is thought to convey specific versions of reality in order to mirror Western capitalist and patriarchal ideology. Taking these factors into consideration shows the importance of identifying ways in which advertising contributes to young women’s perceptions of menstruation. Positioned within a social constructionist framework, specifically on macro social constructionism the emphasis is on unpacking power relations and how this exercises social control over women. The use of social constructionism strengthens the study with focusing on the importance of how perceptions are constructed through interactions with our environments. This study utilized a qualitative approach using focus groups as the data collection method. The sample comprised of 16 participants recruited from the female population aged 18-23 years from a University in the Western Cape. Foucauldian discourse analysis was employed to analyse the data collected. All ethical requirements as stipulated by the University were strictly adhered to. This study will therefore contribute to the dearth of literature in the South African context as literature in this area is very limited and inaccessible. This study in particular contributes to the South African body of knowledge by furthering the understanding of how societal messaging influences and perpetuates power relations and the social control of women.

The diploma thesis deals with semiotics, its derivative analysis and it is focusing on analysis of selected commercial spots of Apple Inc. In first place it defines semiotic, semiotic analysis and concepts contained in it. Next step is about analysis commercial spots in the depth from several points of view based on the theoretical foundation.

abstract: Do response advertisements influence individuals’ evaluations of political candidates and vote preferences? This dissertation explores the impact of response advertisements on citizens’ expressed vote preferences and favorability towards political candidates. This project utilized an original focus group to determine citizens feelings regarding American political campaigns more generally and attitudes towards negative campaigning more specifically, including how candidates should respond when attacked. Additionally, an experiment was conducted to determine which type of response advertisements influences citizen attitudes most. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2020

This thesis study takes a mixed methods and black feminist approach to find out how black women are represented within the beauty advertisements of women's fashion magazines.