Ideology, Hegemony and Cheerleading
Steven O'Toole
At first glance this advertisement (December 2003, Seventeen) may seem empowering, reassuring, offensive, misguided
or humorous. All these reactions stem from the intelligibility of the ad's
message; the missing drug user prevents the completion of a human pyramid.
As part of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (NYADMC) that attempts
to, "educate and enable America's youth to reject illegal drugs" (Campaign
Publications, see works cited) the ad does have an agenda regarding what sort
of choices teenage girls should make. The ad's creators, I argue, expect that
a fair portion of readers will readily dismiss or ridicule the ad's message.
The success of this statement in shaping behavior relies on an ideological
resonance with readers who are unsure about or vehemently against drug use.
The ad attempts to shape behavior by connecting abstinence from drug use to
an ideological notion of how teenage girls should successfully navigate their
high school experience. In this article I first discuss the relationship between
ideology, hegemony and advertising and second focus on how the National Youth
Anti-Drug Media Campaign taps into and attempts to shape a hegemonic ideology
as expressed in Seventeen in
their anti-drug message.
I follow Stuart Hall (1981) in defining ideologies as the frames within which
one "makes sense" of social interaction. They operate as a sort of social
consciousness apparent when one says for instance, "boys will be boys". Instead
of recognizing gender as a historically and culturally constructed element
of one's identity gender is used in this example to explain behavior as "naturally"
gendered. Ideologies then, "construct for their subjects (individual and collective)
positions of identification and knowledge which allow them to â?~utter' ideological
truths." (Hall 1981: 90) Ideologies provide a context in which common sense
notions of social interaction are meaningful. It is important to emphasize
here that ideas about social interaction and the ideologies that inform them
are not static. Amongst the myriad sub-groups in American society femininity
for example, is conceptualized and acted on in different ways. Advertising
campaign such as the NYADMC then, only find ideological resonance with those
readers who already see a connection between the behaviors the campaign encourages
and the ideological beliefs to which they subscribe.
Although ideologies are not static or uniformly adhered to, it is important
to recognize that certain ideological beliefs are more dominant than others.
James Lull articulates what he calls "mass-mediated ideologies" explaining
how they are the basis of cultural hegemony,
Corroborated and strengthened by an interlocking system
of efficacious information-distributing agencies and taken-for-granted social
practices that permeate every aspect (of) sic social and cultural reality.
Messages supportive of the status quo emanating from schools, businesses,
political organizations, trade unions, religious groups, the military, and
the mass media all dovetail together ideologically. This inter-articulating,
mutually reinforcing process of ideological influence is the essence of hegemony.
(Lull 1995: 61)
Ideologies have no specific source but rather are created at various levels
of social interaction including school, work, friendship groups and family.
(Lull, 63) Hegemonic ideologies gain influence because of their omnipresence.
The result is that in phrases such as "boys will be boys" the speaker simultaneously
refers to a character on a television show, an article in a magazine, statements
by their pastor, mother etc. More accurately the speaker references none of
these; ideologies are in essence, "self-evident cultural assumptions" or "common-sense"
(Lull, 63) maintained in large part by major-media sources. Advertising relies
on presenting messages in an ideological language that resonates with the
largest audience possible.
Seventeen has become a locus of hegemonic
ideology by presenting an adolescent femininity at once informed by celebrities,
advertisers and the experiences of readers themselves. Informal photos capturing
celebrities in public are praised and berated in blurbs such as, "Shows way
too much" or "There's something about daring." (December 2003, 35) What is
being emphasized here is that everyone is subject to snap fashion judgment
at all times. Sections on how to affordably attain the level of fashion and
cosmetic mastery achieved by celebrities are invariably part of Seventeen's
content. The result is that readers are
encouraged to hold themselves to the same standard of judgment as the featured
celebrities. Social settings, especially school, become much like the celebrities'
red carpet. In this ideological understanding of adolescent femininity school
becomes the place in which proper appropriation of femininity can be confirmed
or denied by one's peers. Is she being "daring" enough with her fashion without
"showing to much?" Advertisements blend innocuously into the magazines content
offering the means of presenting a socially accepted femininity.
The anti-drug cheerleading ad plays on the fear of improperly presenting one's
femininity by connecting drug use with exclusion from high school social life.
The scoreboard in the background informs us that the home team has just achieved
a narrow victory. The bright lights emphasize the visibility of such an event
and a large audience is implied. The caption situated where the missing cheerleader
should be makes it clear that drug users are not H-E-R-E, parsed in a way
that captures the emphasis put on every letter in a cheer. Not only is the
drug user failing to occupy her position amongst the cheer squad, she is in
some indefinable and dark area outside the reaches of the cheerleaders voices
and the lights of the football field. At the very least she is failing to,
"live for Friday nights" and occupy a space in which she can, "meet new people
all the time," (Seventeen, 70, these
quotes appear on the page preceding the advertisement) at most she is risking
alienation from both the cheer squad and her school at large. The ads success
depends on the reader connecting drug use to an unsocial lifestyle that Seventeen
makes clear can only be salvaged by, "joining
a club to break out of a social rut." (70)
The ideology subscribed to by Seventeen's readers,
advertisers and editors emphasizes the importance of gaining approval from
one's peers in social settings. The NYADMC has a vested interest in maintaining
this ideology in the same way
that any advertiser does. By placing an ad in Seventeen advertisers attempt to portray their product as a necessity
for properly displaying femininity. Seventeen readers however, do not embody a uniform ideology. For
some the ad will reaffirm or support the belief that drug use cripples one's
social life; others will readily dismiss the ad, not because they feel approval
from one's peers is unimportant but because their own experiences give them
a different ideological understanding of drug use. In essence the ad attempts
to solidify readers' pre-existing anti-drug sentiments. The unfortunate result
of such a project is that, while battling the dangers of addiction it reinforces
the damaging effects this ideological conception of femininity has on the
mental and physical health of adolescent girls. A wide range of complications
ranging from low self-esteem to eating disorders and even suicide may result
from subscription to such and ideology. (Kilbourne 1999: 258)
I hope this article gives readers a sense of how ideologies are understood
and utilized by advertisers. The NYADMC "Campaign Publications" readily acknowledge
that occasional drug use is prevalent among adolescents and that even among
non-users there is a danger that drug-use is perceived as the norm. (See works
cited) Instead of funding more informed treatment programs or examining the
benefits of drug use the Office of National Drug Control Policy chose to institute
the NYADMC. With a list of corporate sponsors a mile long and the aid of many
professional advertising firms the Office of National Drug Control Policy
entered an ideological battle in the name of protecting the hegemony of anti-drug
sentiments. The causalities of this battle are of course the readers of Seventeen
Magazine.
Works Cited
Hall, Stuart. "The Whites of Their Eyes." Silver Linings: Some Strategies
for the Eighties. G. Bridges and R. Brunt. London: Lawrence and Wishart
Ltd. 1981. Rpt. in Gender, Race, and Class in Media. 2nd Ed. Gail Dines
and Jean M. Humez. London: Sage Publications, 2003. 89-93.
Kilbourne, Jean. "The More You Subtract, the More You Add." Can't Buy
My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. A Touchstone
Book published by Simon and Schuster. 1999. Rpt. in Gender, Race, and Class
in Media. 2nd Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. London: Sage Publications,
2003. 258-267.
Lull, James. "Hegemony" Media, Communications, Culture: A Global Approach.
New
York and Chichester, UK; Columbia University Press, 1995. Rpt. in Gender,
Race, and Class in Media. 2nd Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. London:
Sage Publications, 2003. 61-66.
NYADMC Campaign Publications. Available at www.mediacampaign.org/