1. Reframing the Discourse: Advertising Rhetoric Fails to Combat Islamophobia Eric Van Steenburg Doctoral Student University of North Texas Society for Marketing Advances Nov. 5, 2011

2. Agenda Background Framing Islam Terror Management Theory Methodology for Advertising Critique Analysis Recommendations Questions

3. Background Islamophobia Political rhetoric Addressing the issue CAIR Ad Campaign Research Question Research

4. “9/11 Happened to Us All” Firefighter

5. Framing Islam “Freedom came under attack” (Bush 2001) Good vs. Evil (Aslan 2009; Ivie 2007) Theological basis (Murphy 2003; Ivie 2007) “Axis of Evil” (Bush 2002) Negative Differences (McPhail 1991) Complicity (McPhail 1994, 2002) Media’s role (Aly & Green 2008; Love 2009; Merskin 2003; Pew Forum 2007; Rozell 2010; Vultee 2006, 2009)

6. Terror Management Theory Mortality or jeopardized safety leads to increase in negative evaluations of other (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon 1986) Threatens individual’s beliefs and values (Rosenblatt et al. 1989) Dehumanize the outgroup (Rosenblatt et al. 1989) Effects on Good vs. Evil worldview Discredit spokesperson Muslims inherently un-American and a threat

7. An ad’s meaning depends on a shared agreement in social communication where individual interpretation is governed by the social context of familiar patterns and themes combined with allusions to social and historical contexts. – Dr. Barbara Stern (1989)

8. Methodology Use of literary criticism (Stern 1989; Stern 1991; Stern & Gallagher 1990) Four-step methodology to critique (Stern 1989) : 1.Analytical accounting of the text 2.Analysis of the context through sociocultural and historical perspectives 3.Structural and semiotic analysis 4.Consideration of who the audience is and what the desired outcome is of the message originator

9. “9/11 Happened to Us All” Medical Responder

10. Analysis Social construct with shared global context Cultural ideology embedded in messages Situates in a communal cultural ideology Evokes established meaning Reinforce a cultural worldview

11. Analysis Narrative approach Opening establishes the framework Slowly provides contextual evidence Text completes the link Narrator as familiar “hero” narrative

12. Analysis Thoughts of our mortality, threats to our safety, or moments of fear can have the effect of entrenching our cultural worldviews (Rosenblatt et al. 1989). Significant relationship between mortality salience and reformation of individual established perspectives (Greenberg et al. 1986; Pyszczynski et al. 2010; Rosenblatt et al. 1989) Closely held beliefs about Islam and Muslims should surface

13. Analysis Symbolic codes of the ad (Stern 1989) Music – Depressing, serious, intended discomfort, anticipatory importance and/or impending doom Visual framing Waist view to a close-up Fade to black Fade in and out of text Close-up at announcement Identifier Intent – Tension, evoke emotional response

14. Analysis Purpose of using a narrator in an ad is to affect persuasion (Stern 1992) Audio and visual elements along with text place viewers into context and provides a framework for advertisement experience Depicts relationship between ad’s content, form, and values (Stern & Gallagher 1990). Content creates a meaning that conveys values not only by what the message is, but how it is communicated.

15. Conclusions Establishing faith of the narrator reminds viewer of dichotomous framework established in our culture Narrator becomes “other” and the cultural worldview of good vs. evil is confirmed The choice to identify the narrators as Muslim undermines the credibility of the characters, thus nullifying any effects of persuasion.

16. Recommendations Providing factual information to combat a cultural worldview also entrenches that worldview (Nyhan & Reifler 2010) Staking a contradictory position or affirming the opposite rarely works in correcting misperceptions. Makes subject resist changes to ideologies that existed prior to the correction (Nyhan & Reifler 2010) Can public opinion, when based on incorrect information, be corrected?

17. Recommendations Priming the event Unsettling conclusion Third-party narrative Islamic faith focus Condemn terrorism Women’s status American image

18. “We Have More in Common than We Think” Interfaith

19. Questions