1978 NYU Doctoral Dissertation - Robert K. Blechman

© Copyright 1978 Robert K. Blechman

SPONSORING COMMITTEE:

PROFESSOR CHRISTINE L. NYSTROM,

PROFESSOR ROBERT S. BEPLIN, AND

PROFESSOR JAMES P. CARSE

MYTH AS ADVERTISING:

AN ANALYSIS OF PRIME TIME

AMERICAN TELEVISION ADVERTISING

USING A STRUCTURAL METHODOLOGY BASED

ON

THE THEORIES OF CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS

ROBERT K. BLECHMAN

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF

PHILOSOPHY IN THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION,

HEALTH, NURSING, AND ARTS PROFESSIONS OF

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

1978

© 1978 Robert K. Blechman 2

Contents

CHAPTER. I: INTRODUCTION 3

Rationale for the Study 3

The Problem of Television Advertisements 4

Structural Analysis and the Sample of Television Ads 9

Delimitations 9

Definitions 10

CHAPTER II: RELATED LITERATURE 12

Approaches to the Study of Myth 12

Myth and Modern Culture 24

CHAPTER III: MAGIC, MYTH AND METHODOLOGY 31

Magic as a "Science of the Concrete" 31

The Dialectics of Myth 39

The Constituent Units of Myth 53

CHAPTER IV: THE STRUCTURE OF TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS 60

Television Advertising as Myth 60

Exceptions to the Pattern 115

CHAPTER V - CONCLUSION: MYTH AS ADVERTISING 118

An Underlying Contradiction in Television Advertising 118

The Characteristics of the Structure of Advertising 123

Suggestions for Further Research 125

SELECTED BILIOGRAPHY 128


CHAPTER. I: INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether the techniques and

approaches of structural anthropology are applicable to the analysis of aspects of

American mass culture. In particular, a sample of television advertisements is treated

as if the advertisements are analogous to the mythic narratives of native cultures that

have been gathered by various anthropologists. Using a methodology based on the

theories and analyses of the French structural anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, the

television advertisements are broken down into their structural components and the

resulting structural configurations are compared to those identified in myths. A

similarity of underlying structures enables the investigator to apply generalizations

that have been formulated about the thought processes and cultural assumptions of

primitive groups to the understanding of modern American society. The ultimate goal

of this study is to enable an investigator to use the underlying structure of an aspect

of a culture as an indicator of the impact on society of the particular medium used to

transmit that information.

Rationale for the Study

The questions that are addressed in this section are 1) Why study television

advertisements?, and 2) Why use the structural analytic method of Claude Lévi-

Strauss in order to analyze television advertisements? The answers to these questions

help to justify the unusual approach used in this investigation for the study of a cultural

phenomenon.


The Problem of Television Advertisements

According to the Television Bureau of Advertising, the average American

household now watches more than six hours of television a day.1 During the evening

hours of eight to eleven, "prime time," there are an average of six minutes of

advertising per hour. Assuming that all hours of prime time television are viewed in

a given week, a viewer would see over two hours of advertising. If all forms of

advertising are considered, most Americans are exposed to tens of thousands of

commercial messages every year. What sort of impact do all these messages have on

an individual? Groups such as Action for Children's Television see the problem of

advertising in terms of the truthfulness of the information provided to the consumer,

and the degree of cynicism false advertising can arouse in children. However, the aim

of this study is not the relative degree of truth contained in advertising, but rather the

more subtle values and attitudes conveyed by the manner in which advertising

portrays people and products. It is in this sense that this study analyzes advertising as

if it were a body of mythology and then attempts to determine the function of myth

when it takes the form of advertising.

It has long been assumed that the artistic product of a culture constitutes a source

of data for analysis and explanation of that culture's rules and mores. Northrop Frye

has suggested that within all literature can be found certain universal patterns, such as

the "guest myth," which determine the content and form of a novel or short story. Frye

states that

Total literary history gives us a glimpse of the possibility of seeing literature as

1 Cited in "TV Basics 20," a pamphlet distributed by the Television Bureau of Advertising, New York, New

York.


a complication of a relatively restricted and simple group of formulas that can

be studied in primitive culture. We next realize that the relation of later

literature to these primitive formulas is by no means purely one of complication,

as we find the primitive formulas reappearing in the greatest classics in fact

there seems to be a general tendency on the part of great classics to revert to

them.2

Critics of film, such as Andre Bazin, and of television, such as Raphael Patai, have

searched for similar patterns in the mass media. They have recognized that there are

certain basic ways of organizing symbols that make the action or motivations of a

character within a certain work seem "right." Noting the existence of underlying

structures in the media, George Gerbner has stated that XXX

Whatever exists in the symbolic world is there because someone put it there. The

reason may be deliberate and planned, or circumstantial such as an "unrelated"

marketing or programming decision, or a vague feeling that it will "improve the

story." Having been put there, things not only "stand for" other things as all

symbols do, but also do something in their symbolic context. The introduction

(or elimination) of a character, a scene, an event, has functional consequences.

It chances other things in the story. It makes the whole work "work" differently.

Dynamic symbol systems are not "maps" of some other "real" territory. They

are our mythology, our organs of social meaning.3

Claude Lévi-Strauss has stated that, even in what may be considered the most

primitive society, it is possible to discover a systematic approach to the elements of

daily life.

2 Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: University Press, 1957), p. 1E-17. 3 George Gerbner, "Teacher Image in Mass Culture: Symbolic Function of the 'Hidden Curriculum,'" in

Media and Symbols, ed. David F. Olson (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1974), Pp. 473-474.


Consequently, then, even the simplest techniques of any primitive society have

hidden in them the character of a system, analyzable in terms of a more general

system. The manner in which some elements of this system have been retained

and others excluded permits us to conceive of the local system as a totality of

significant choices, compatible or incompatible with other choices, which each

society, or each period within its development, has been led to make.4

The problem lies in determining the meaning of symbols within a given genre of

cultural "literature," and how they relate to each other throughout that particular genre.

In discussing the problems facing the interpreter of a symbol, Ernst Kris discusses the

standards which must he brought to the interpretation. The three criteria which Kris

discusses are standards of correspondence, intent, and coherence. The standard of

correspondence allows a scholar to criticize aspects of a work of literature which

makes use of mythic parallels based on his knowledge of the myths used. The standard

of intent requires that the scholar be familiar with the historic milieu of the author in

question. Kris states that

Here knowledge about the artist--whether directly in the form of biographical

material or indirectly in terms of his society--serves as a test of the adequacy of

interpretation.5

And finally, the standard of coherence enables the scholar to test his interpretation

by determining whether the part of a work analyzed clarifies the meaning of the entire

work. These standards are necessary, Kris notes, because of the possibility that an

individual may bring his own biases to the study.

4 'Claude Levi-Strauss, The Scope of Anthropology, translated by Sherry Ortner Paul and Robert A. Paul

(London: Jonathan Cape, 1967), p. 19. 5 Ernst Kris, Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art, (New York: International Universities Press, 1952; reprint

ed., New York: Schoken Books, 1964), pp. 260-261.


One reason for their importance is the variation from person to person in the

interpretation of the poem-..A more fundamental difficulty which requires

consideration of standards is the possibility of projection, of reading into the

poem meanings not present to others.6

Since myths and fairy tales are collective stories, in that many individuals over

many years helped to shape them, scholars have looked to such sources to provide

data on which to base generally valid interpretations of the meanings of symbols and

their relations both within a particular culture, and some would argue, across cultures.

For instance, Marie Louise Von Franz finds fairy tales useful in her psychoanalytic

work just because of their collective nature. She states that

Fairy tales are very generally human in their structure. In each type [of tale]

they play a great role because you can study the most basic structures of

behavior; but for me there is another practical reason: by the study of fairy tales

and mythological motifs you come to recognize what is individual and what is

not and to see possible solutions.7

Because myths and fairy tales are the products of whole cultures, not individuals,

they can be used as a reference source for an interpretation of symbols that is not

biased by individual idiosyncrasies. An investigator can then compare the uses of

symbols and their correspondences to similar symbols that are present in other art

forms.

Though this approach has proven useful in analyzing a wide range of cultural

phenomena, one significant area has largely been ignored: American television

advertising. A great deal of attention has been drawn to the pervasiveness of

6 lbid, p. 260. 7 Marie Louise Von Franz, Shadow and Evil in Fairytales (Zurich: Spring Publications, 1974), p. 13.


advertising in our culture, but little has been done to analyze advertisements in terms

of universal, collective patterns of meanings. Marshall McLuhan has stated the

necessity of such a study:

Advertising as information has long been supposed to be primarily for the

purpose of moving products. It has not been sufficiently noticed that advertising

is itself an information commodity far greater than anything it advertises. That

is why it is no longer possible to classify it as a mere means of selling goods and

services. Long ago, audience studies revealed that people who "heed" the ads

are mostly those who already own the product in question. In a word,

advertising provides the corporate meaning for the experience of the private

owner. That is to say, ads can be studied as complex social events and as

"meanings" minus the experience of the commodities in question.8

One problem that occurs in any attempt to analyze advertisements as a genre of

cultural "literature" is that they seem to be unconnected, ephemeral, unsystematic and

illogical. Because of this, those critical approaches that help to explicate literature or

film seem unproductive when brought to the study of advertising. This may be

because, like myths, advertisements present complexities of narrative structure, use

of symbol and metaphor, and continuity that confound approaches suitable to more

continuous and consistent types of literature. This study focuses solely on television

advertising for two main reasons. First, unlike ads in magazines or on the radio,

television advertisements are more likely to be created for the population as a whole,

rather than for a particular demographic group. Second, television ads present, in most

cases, at least a minimal narrative structure. It seems to this investigator that

advertising in magazines and on the radio provides much less of this sort of material.

8 Marshall McLuhan, Culture is Our Business (New York: Ballantine Books, 1970), p. 2.


The technique of structural analysis developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss provides the

means to surmount these difficulties, and a comparison of the patterns of advertising

with those of mythology might help to illuminate the meaning and impact of television

advertising on American culture.

Structural Analysis and the Sample of Television Ads

In the course of developing a solution to the central problem of this study, several

subordinate problems had to be addressed. The first was how to adapt the structural

analytic methodology of Claude Lévi-Strauss to the material presented by television

advertisements. An explanation of structural analysis and its application to advertising

is the central concern of Chapter 3 of this analysis. The second problem was to then

apply this methodology to a sample of television advertisements, and a third problem

was then to determine whether this analysis reveals an underlying mythological

structure in the use of symbols and the portrayal of relationships in the sample. The

solution to these problems, and a general description of the characteristics of

American television advertising as related to those patterns identified will be found in

Chapter 4 and the conclusion of this study.

Delimitations

1. This study examines only prime time American television advertising that has

been videotaped from one of the New York affiliates of the three major networks,

WCBS-Channel 2, WNBC-Channel 4, and WABC-Channel 7.

2. Public service announcements have been excluded from the sample. And

because messages promoting television programs and movies usually contain as their

content parts of those programs and movies, these types of announcements are also

excluded from the sample.


3. The advertisements themselves were used as the data without regard to

marketing strategies, market shares, or other forces affecting the particular placement

and frequency of the messages.

4. The success or failure of the advertisement in terms of its effect on the viewers'

buying habits was not considered.

Definitions

Symbols

Suzanne Langer has defined symbols as "...vehicles for the conception of

objects...it is the conceptions, not the things that symbols directly 'mean'."9 For the

purposes of this study, the word "symbol" was used only in reference to those words

and images which can be shown to refer to ideas and associations beyond the

immediate "vehicle." Thus the word "cat" or the image of a cat was taken to refer to

other meanings in the total context of the individual advertisement. Conventional

symbols such as letters (which refer only to particular sounds) or numerals (which

refer only to particular amounts) were excluded from this particular definition.

Mythology

For the purposes of this study, mythology was defined as one of the systems which

a culture develops in order to organize its set of symbols into meaningful patterns. A

detailed explanation of the structuralist approach to the definition of mythology is

included in Chapter 3.

Underlying Structure

9 Suzanne Langer, Philosophy in a New Key (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957), p. 60-61.


The set of rules, which though not readily apparent, govern the disposition of any

set of symbols within a mythologic system.

Portrayal of Relationships

The positive or negative value given to a person or a thing when compared to

another person or thing. For example, in advertising, the value given to a child when

compared to an adult, or a woman when compared to a man, or someone who uses a

product when compared to someone who doesn't. If such valuations appear

conventional and consistent, then the mere presence of a child with an adult, for

example, in a given advertisement might be given a standard meaning.

Prime Time Television Advertising

Any commercial message which appears on one of the New York affiliates of the

three major networks between the hours of eight to eleven P.M. on weekdays.


CHAPTER II: RELATED LITERATURE

In reviewing the works related to the general concerns of this present study the

chief difficulty lies not in finding sources, but rather in determining which among the

many to include in a brief chanter, and which to leave out. Therefore, the list of books

about mythology that is considered here should been taken as only an indication of

the broad outlines of the field and not as an exhaustive exegesis.

Within these confines, the literature has been divided into three general categories.

The first includes the works by Lévi-Strauss concerning structural anthropology. The

concepts that are dealt with in these works will be the subject of Chapter 3. The second

category includes works that present non-structural approaches to the relationship of

myth to culture. The description of the scholarship covered by works in this general

area will start with the theories of F. Max Muller, who contributed to the study of

myth in the mid nineteenth century, and then will proceed on through the approaches

to myth developed in the early Part of this century up until the °resent day. The third

category will include works that have applied mythic analysis to the study of

literature, theater, film, television and other cultural phenomena. The purpose of this

last section is to show how different approaches to the understanding of mythology

have been applied to the arts in order to discover underlying similarities in all types

of artistic creations, both ancient and modern, high and low. This will set the context

for Chapter 4 where advertising will be submitted to a similar type of analysis.

Approaches to the Study of Myth

Since the nineteenth century, attitudes toward the proper way to analyze

mythology have undergone a change. Many scholars of the nineteenth century saw all

myths as the way primitive man explained natural phenomena. For example, one of


the key spokesmen for this "Naturalist" school, F. Max Muller, thought of mythology

as merely an "infantine disease" 10 that occurs in the early stages of language

development of all peoples. This condition where "language forgets herself"11 begins

with the nature-based origin or interpretation of a word or expression and then

transforms it into a tale or even an entire mythic system. It was typical of the approach

of Muller that he discover the origin of a myth in some universal natural phenomenon.

Primitive man, when experiencing a sunrise or a thundershower, could only describe

these events in a language that confuses physical events with anthropomorphic

motivations.

The idea of a young hero, whether he is called Ealdr, or Sigurd, or Sifrit, or

Achilles, or Meleager, or Kephalos, dying in the fulness of youth, a story so

frequently told, localised., and individualised, was first suggested by the Sun,

dying in all his youthful vigour either at the end of a day, conquered by the

powers of darkness, or at the end of the sunny season, stung by the thorn of

winter.12

Passed from generation to generation, an original confusion of event and

motivation was developed into a series of tales concerning the exploits of the hero

who personified the event.

Muller's theories formed the basis of one of several etiological approaches to the

interpretation of myth. Other scholars argued that myths were based on the moon, the

weather, the stars, and the planets. All of these schools of mythic interpretation were

based on the belief that there was a single source of inspiration for all the world's

10 F. Max Muller, Chins From a German Workshop, Vol. 2, Essays on Mythology, Traditions and Customs

(London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1880), p. 165. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid, p. 110.


systems of mythology, and that all one had to do was discover that source in order to

decipher all myths. This search for the source of myth confined itself mainly to a

search through the roots of language, looking for those original words which signified

the sun, and could then be transformed into solar myths.

Another, similar approach rested on the notion that it wasn't the language, but

rather the entire cognitive abilities of primitive people that were different and less

subtle than those found in civilized people. A leading proponent of this viewpoint was

E.B. Tylor:

To the human intellect in its early childlike state may be assigned the origin and

first development of myths....Thus, when in surveying the quaint fancies and wild

legends of the lower tribes, we find mythology of the world in its most distinct

and most rudimentary form, and we may here again claim the savage as a

representative of the childhood of the human race…Savage mythology may be

taken as a basis, and then the myths of more civilized races may be displayed as

compositions sprung from like origin, though more advanced in art.13

Tylor assumed that all of mankind passes through mythogenic stages of lesser or

greater subtlety, but that modern man has passed beyond the primitive need for myth.

Because this attitude toward primitive peoples is still a popular one, and because it

forms the basis for many of the schools of myth interpretation that will be reviewed

shortly, it is important to discuss it in greater depth.

Most evaluations of the cultural and intellectual level of native cultures of the pre-

twentieth century rested on a comparison of material goods, and on a

misunderstanding or rejection of the religious and intellectual achievements of the

13 .B. Tylor, Primitive Culture (first edition, 1873; New York: Brentano’s, 1924), p. 284.


group in question. However, the idea that primitive man is significantly different from

civilized man has been called into question by several scholars from diverse

disciplines. Claude Lévi-Strauss has questioned the belief that “primitive” people are

inferior to civilized people.

A primitive people is not a backward or retarded people; indeed it may possess,

in one realm or another, a genius for invention or action that leaves the

achievements of civilized peoples far behind.14

The genius of many native people lies not in their ability to produce material

goods, but rather in their systems of social organization and control. Unfortunately,

the early explorers and missionaries who came into contact with native tribes were

not prepared to appreciate their subtle systems of kinship or other organizing

principles. By the time qualified field workers could arrive, the tribe may have been

decimated by warfare and disease, so only a fraction of the former system remained.15

Like Lévi-Strauss, many scholars have argued that myth-making activities are not

confined solely to primitive peoples, but characterize all cultures, primitive and

modern. The modern forms of myth will be considered in the next section of this

chapter.

Although many scholars have attempted to expand the limited definition of what

constituted primitive mentality, the attitude of the nineteenth century toward native

peoples and their cultures persists. Succeeding schools of thought may have refuted

Muller's assertion that the sun was the basis of most myths, or that language in a

diseased form was the cause, but they continued to choose their symbols arbitrarily,

14 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, translated by Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest

Schoepf (New York: Basic Books, 1963), P. 102. 15 For a detailed discussion of this matter see Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, translated by John and

Doreen Weightman (New York: Atheneum, 1975), Chapter 1.


without reference to the context of the mythic system in question. Ernst Cassirer noted

that one example of this carry-over is to be found in the psychoanalytic approach to

mythic interpretation.

Like most of (the Naturalists] Freud was convinced that the surest, nay the only

way to understand the meaning of myth was to describe and list and to order

and classify its objects. Yet even supposing we knew and understood all the

things that myth is speaking about--would it help us very much to understand

the language of myth? Like poetry and art, myth is a 'symbolic form,' and it is a

common characteristic of all symbolic forms teat they are applicable to any

object whatsoever.16

Sigmund Freud, who is generally credited with the founding of the psychoanalytic

approach, saw similarities in the thought processes of primitives and those of

neurotics, as well as in the imagery of myths and dreams.

...this symbolism is not Peculiar to dreams, but is characteristic of unconscious

ideation, in particular among the people, and it is to be found in folklore, and

in Popular myth, legends, linguistic idioms, proverbial wisdom and current

jokes, to a more complete extent than in dreams.'17

Freud sought the meaning of myths through an analysis of the symbols in isolation

from their context. Because similar images appeared in both dreams and in myths,

Freud assumed that they could be given the same meaning, and this led him to equate

neurosis with the primitive mentality.

It is in obsessional neurosis that the survival of the omnipotence of thoughts is

most clearly visible and that the consequences of this primitive mode of thinking

16 Ernst Cassirer, The Myth of the State (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1955), P. 41. 17 Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, German edition, 1900; (New York: Avon, 1965), p. 386


come closest to consciousness.18

According to the psychoanalytic tradition, the neurotic individual's problem has

been caused by an inability to transcend a certain stage of emotional development.

Based on this analysis, Freud assumed that primitive man represents an inferior,

childlike stage of development as well. Freud further equated the totemic beliefs of

native populations with the obsessional behavior of neurotics.

The most obvious and striking point of agreement between the obsessional

prohibitions of neurotics and taboos is that these prohibitions are equally ,

lacking in motive and equally puzzling in their origin.19

The problem with equating the behavior of neurotics with that of primitive people

is that it denies important differences in the motives and functional capabilities of the

two groups. The neurotic is unable to function normally in his society. The native's

behavior, however, is the norm. To say that natives are merely neurotic allows one to

treat their cultural institutions as abnormalities rather than common products of all

human thought. Finally, there is no way to be sure that the meaning given to a symbol

is correct for both groups. The symbol that a Freudian interpreter might see as

obviously sexual would be given an entirely different meaning by a Naturalist, such

as Muller, and each could amass evidence from mythology to support his hypothesis.

C.G. Jung, founder of the approach known as Analytical Psychology, also

believed that the symbols of myth were the abstract correlative of something

"concrete" in the human mind. Jung tried to avoid the tautological problems presented

by Freud by proposing that a symbol could have several valid associations, but that

its real significance was to be found in what it said about the structure of the

18 ____________, Totem and Taboo, German edition, 1913; (New York: W.W. Norton, 1950), p. 86. 19 Ibid, p. 26


unconscious.

If, then, we proceed in accordance with the above principle [of interpreting a

symbol], there is no longer any question whether a myth refers to the sun or the

moon, the father or the mother, sexuality or fire or water; all it does is to

circumscribe and give an approximate description of an unconscious core of

meaning.20

This "core of meaning" is made up of primordial images which Jung called

"archetypes."

If we wanted to explain the fairytale personalistically, the attempt would

founder on the fact that archetypes are not whimsical inventions but

autonomous elements of the unconscious psyche which were there before any

invention was thought of. They represent the unalterable structure of a psychic

world whose "reality" is attested by the determining effects it has upon the

conscious mind.21

Because Jung accepted the belief that the primitive mind is less developed than

the modern mind, he asserted that the archetypal content of the unconscious forces

itself out into the native's awareness in the form of myth.

The primitive mentality does not invent myths, it experiences them. Myths are

original revelations of the preconscious psyche, involuntary statements about

unconscious psychic happenings, and anything but allegories of physical

processes.22

This view of the Analytical Psychologists, that myths reveal internal rather than

20 C.G. Juna and C. Kerenyi, Essays on a Science of Mythology. (Princeton: Princeton University Press,

1949; reprint ed., Princeton: Bollingen, 1969), P. 75. 21 C.G. Jung, Four Archetypes: Mother/Rebirth/Sririt/ Trickster. (Princeton: Bollinaen, 1970), p. 128 22 C.G. Juna and C. Kerenyi, Essays, p 73.


external processes of human experience has been adopted by historians of religion

such as Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade in their collection and comparison of

myths from all over the world. Eliade suggests that since myths are revelations of

internal processes, they act as guides for social customs.

...the foremost function of myth is to reveal the exemplary models for all human

rites and all significant human activities--diet or marriage, work or education,

art or wisdom.23

In a similar vein, Campbell lists four functions that are performed by a culture's

mythologic system.

The first function of a mythology is to reconcile waking consciousness to the

mysterium tremendum et fascinans of this universe as it is: the second being to

render an interpretive total image of the same, as known to contemporary

consciousness...A third function...is the enforcement of a moral order: the

shaping of the individual to the requirements of his geographically and

historically conditioned social group.24

The fourth and most vital, most critical function of-a mythology...is to foster the

centering and unfolding of the individual in integrity, in accord with d) himself

(the microcosm), c) his culture (the mesocosm), b) the universe (the

macrocosm), and a) that awesome ultimate mystery which is both beyond and

with himself and all things.25

The Analytical Psychology view of the functions of mythology completes a full

23 Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality (New York: Harper & Row, 1963; reprint ed., Harper Torchbooks,

1968), p. 8. 24 Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God Vol. 4, Creative Mythology (New York: Viking, 1970), pp. 475.

(The reverse order of the lettering is Campbell's.) 25 Ibid, p. 6.


circle. According to these sources, myth originate from within the unconscious mind.

As a product of the unconscious, myths and the symbols they contain are in tune with

the needs of the human psyche, and therefore they become models for behavior that

ultimately lead to the centering and unfolding of the individual, while at the same time

creating a moral order to which the individual is obliged to conform. Again, it is

difficult to judge exactly what the key symbolic elements in this cycle really are. The

interpretation of any myth would depend on the meanings given to the symbols within

the framework of the particular interpretative system that is applied by the scholar.

The weakness of this approach lies, finally, in its attempt to isolate the symbols of a

myth from the total context of the mythic system of a culture, "discover" their

meanings separately, and then insert them back into the system.

At the beginning of this century, when Sir James Frazer began work on The

Golden Bough, he intended only to address one question: What was the meaning of

the ritualized murder of the Priest of Nemi? Frazer collected and compared thousands

of myths, and it is clear that his view of myth was similar to Tylor's. Myth, according

to Frazer, is a representation of the world as seen through the eyes of primitive man.

The natural progression of belief begins, in the earliest cultures, with magic, proceeds

on to a religious attitude, and finally, in an enlightened society, comes to rest on

science as the means of achieving practical goals. Frazer stated that

Here at last, after groping about in the dark for countless ages, man has hit

upon a clue to the labyrinth, a golden key that opens many locks in the treasury

of nature. It is probably not too much to say that the hope of progress—moral

and intellectual as well as material--in the future is bound up with the fortunes

of science, and that every obstacle placed in the way of scientific discovery is a


wrong to humanity.26

In addition to the idea that myth originates in a magic stage of development, Frazer

believed that there was a profound and necessary connection between myth and ritual.

Whatever may be thought of an historical kernel underlying a mythical husk in

the legend of Balder, the details of the story suggest that it belongs to that class

of myths which have been dramatized in ritual, or, to put it otherwise, which

have been performed -as magical ceremonies for the sake of producing those

natural effects which they describe in figurative language. A myth is never so

graphic and Precise in its details as when it is, so to speak, the book of words

which are spoken and acted by the performers of the sacred rite.27

This idea of the interconnection of myth and ritual was clarified by Jane Ellen

Harrison, who saw ritual as the predecessor of myth. Myth was created merely to

explain already existing practices of social or economic importance. Primitive people

created certain rituals to insure the abundance of their staple crop or to brim, about a

successful hunt. Out of these essentially magical exercises, a body of myth was

created in order to justify the particular ritual. Harrison stated that

We are face to face with the fact, startling enough, that...religious figures arise,

not from any "religious instinct," not from any innate tendency to Prayer and

praise, but straight out of a social custom.28

Myth was seen as a product of ritual and a direct function of the essentially magical

preoccupations of primitive people.

Taking a slightly different perspective, Bronislaw Malinowski saw myth as

26 James George Frazer, The Golden Bough (New York: Macmillan, 1922; reprint ed., Macmillan

Paperbacks, 1963), p. 825. 27 Ibid, p. 705. 28 Jane Ellen Harrison, Themis. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1927), p. 28.


Performing certain necessary functions within a culture that were not necessarily

dependent on ritual.

The knowledge of the mythological past supplies man with the incentive, as well

as with the justification, for ritual and moral action; it furnishes him with a body

of indications and directions for the correct performance of the sacred acts.29

Malinowski saw myth, not just as the verbal expression of physical actions, but

also as a sort of body of cultural law in and of itself.

Myth fulfills in primitive culture an indispensable function: it expresses,

enhances, and codifies belief; it safeguards and enforces morality; it vouches

for the efficiency of ritual and contains practical rules for the guidance of man.

Myth is thus a vital ingredient of human civilization; it is not an idle tale, but a

hard-worked active force; it is not an intellectual explanation or an artistic

imagery, but a pragmatic charter of primitive faith and moral wisdom.30

The trouble with the approaches of these two schools, the Ritualist and the

Functionalist, is that their explanations do not account for many types of myths. There

are many myths which seem to have no ritual precedent, or at least, there is no way of

knowing whether there was any. One of the things that has bothered scholars for

centuries is the violence and immorality of certain Greek myths. Certainly the

promiscuous behavior of Zeus was not meant as a model of morality. Other myth

cycles, such as that of Oedipus or Heracles seem to have no ritualistic parallels. And

in Sumeria, the Gilgamesh epic also lacks reference to a social origin. These and other

exceptions indicate that the Ritualist and Functionalist approaches can account for

only certain types of myths.

29 Bronislaw Malinowski, Sex, Culture and Myth. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962) p. 305. 30 ___________________, Myth in Primitive Psychology. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1926). p. 633.


The approach of Ernst Cassirer to the study of myth is an attempt, not to interpret

any given myth, but rather to develop a general philosophy of man's mythmaking

tendencies. Cassirer saw symbol-making as a primary human process, and language

as man's primary social system. However, he takes exception to Muller's notion that

myth arises from a disease of language. Both myth and language originate from the

same source, the need to make symbols; however, 'here language is the expression of

thought, myth is the expression of emotion in symbolic form. Rather than attempting

an interpretation of the particular symbols in a myth, Cassirer suggested that we look

at how symbols are used in myths, to what purpose they are directed. He believed that

the purpose of myth is to free the human mind from "passive captivity in sensory

impression and Ito create] a world of its own in accordance with a spiritual

principle."31 The expression of emotions in symbolic form gives man the opportunity

to manipulate his emotions by manipulating those symbols.

Myth cannot be described as bare emotion because it is the expression of

emotion. The expression of a feeling is not the feeling - itself-- it is emotion

turned into an image.32

In response to the schools of interpretation which started with the premise that

native peoples operated with an inferior, "pre-logical" state of mind, Cassirer notes

that there is no evidence of a language which is "pre-logical," and thus no reason to

believe that myths are pre-logical as well.

What holds for "primitive" languages holds also for primitive thought. Its

31 Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Vol. 2, Mythical Thought (New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1955), p. 14. 32 ____________, The Myth of the State. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1946; Doubleday, 1955), p.

52.


structure may seem to us to be strange and paradoxical; but it never lacks a

definite logical structure. Even the uncivilized man cannot live in the world

without a constant effort to understand that world. And for the purpose he has

to develop and to use some general forms or categories of thought.33

Much of the philosophy of mythology developed by Cassirer was adapted by

Claude Lévi-Strauss in his own interpretation of myth. Chapter 3 will present a

detailed explanation of Lévi-Strauss's approach to myth, as well as his views

concerning primitive magic, totemism and the capabilities of the so-called primitive

mind.

Myth and Modern Culture

Much literary and artistic creation prior to the nineteenth century reflected the

conscious attempt by the artist to develop a contemporary correlative of a mythic tale.

Then, according to Northrop Frye, the Romantic poet of the nineteenth century sought

to create not just literature, but also a complete life style based on mythic parallels.

In this age the thematic poet becomes what the fictional hero was in the age of

romance, an extraordinary person who lives in a higher and more imaginative

order of experience than that of nature... The encyclopaedic tendency of this

period is toward the construction of mythological epics in which the myths

represent psychological or subjective states of mind.34

Along with this tendency of artists to use myth in their work there has developed

in this century a general critical viewpoint which applies the insights of the various

schools of myth interpretation to the analysis of contemporary works of art and

33 Ibid, p. 15. 34 Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 59-60.


literature. The usual approach has been to draw correlations between known myths

and themes in modern works.35 Sometimes the particular interpretation of myth will

determine the manner in which the work of literature is analyzed, as in Maud Bodkin’s

Archetypal Patterns in Poetry, where Jungian insight is brought to the study of tragic

poetry.

The concept of racial experience enters the present essay in two ways: (1) all

those systems of tendencies which appear to be inherited in the constitution of

mind and brain may be said to be due to racial experience in the mast. It is not

necessary for our purposes to determine exactly the method of this 'biological

inheritance' from our ancestors. Of more importance for our purpose is the

question concerning (2) the racial experience which we may 'enjoy' in

responding to that 'social inheritance' of meanings stored in language which

also comes to us from our ancestors, and wakens into activity the potentialities

of our inherited nature .36

Included in this general category of studies which compare literature to myth are

such works as Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, 37 Francis

Fergusson's The Idea of the Theater,38 Marshall Fishwick's The Hero, American

Style, 39 Thomas E. Porter's Myth and Modern American Drama, 40 and Wayne

Shumaker's Literature and the Irrational.41 All approaches of this type subscribe to

the general conclusion that the analysis of modern culture benefits by the inclusion of

35 For example, the poetry of T.S. Eliot and the prose of James Joyce require of the scholar a thorough

knowledge of the particular myth recreated in the work. 36 Maud Bodkin, Archetypal Patterns in Poetry. (London: Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 24-25. 37 Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972). 38 Francis Fergusson, The Idea of the Theater. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949). 39 Marshall Fishwick, The Hero, American Style (New York: David McKay, 1969). 40 Thomas E. Porter, Myth and Modern American Drama (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1969). 41 Wayne Shumaker, Literature and the Irrational. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1960).


mythical parallels.

A little knowledge of anthropology--better still, a great deal--has broad

educative value because it opens the eyes to previously undreamed-of human

possibilities. It shows us that our own institutions and patterns of behavior are

not, as we had thought, exclusively valid, uniquely right; in consequence, we

become able to understand much more sympathetically the widely varying

cultural backgrounds of the world's great literature, hence the literature itself.42

Recently, scholars have also brought this approach to the study of the products of

mass culture. In Mythologies43 Roland Barthes explores the mythic themes in such

diverse phenomena as films about ancient Rome, French soap powders and

margarine. An unpublished dissertation by Charles Turner offers an interpretation of

the television series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" according to Jungian

archetypes.44 And Raphael Patai, in Myth and Modern Man, discusses the similarities

between mythical heroes and television heroes:

In ancient time he was known as Gilgamesh, or Samson, or Theseus or

Heracles; today he goes under a much larger variety of names and guises such

as Marshal Dillon, Captain Kirk (of the Starship Enterprise), Perry Mason,

Chief Ironside, Doctor Kildare, Agent Erskine (of the FBI), and so on.45

Some scholars have even begun to identify modern advertising as a potent source

of contemporary myth. Edmund Carpenter, for example, has noted the similarity

between the ritual chanting of primitive societies, and aspects of modern advertising;

42 Ibid, p. 249. 43 Roland Barthes, Mythologies (New York: Hill and Wang, 1972). 44 Charles Turner, "Primordial Format: Archetypal Symbols of the Unconscious in a Science Fiction

Television Series" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1973). 45 Raphael Patai, Myth and. Modern Man (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972), p. 209.


Preliterate art is not unlike modern advertising, much of which is sung & (sic)

all of which is highly repetitious. Advertising isn't designed to train perception

& awareness, but rather to insist that consumers merge with images &

products.46

Typical of the approach to advertising is that of Tom E. Sullenberger who has

compared the Green Giant, the Keebler Elf and the Ajax White Knight to similar

figures in folklore:

While such folk creations as Jolly Green Giant and cookie-baking elves are

obviously drawn from the realm of fantasy, there exists in our encounters with

them a curious aura of credibility that allows us to accept their presence without

consciously questioning the implausibility of the incidents they depict. Possibly

our desire to accept such improbable events or, to drag in the old literary

expression, our propensity to "exercise the willing suspension of disbelief"

results at least partially from our - remarkable ability to adapt to the constantly

changing i4ioms of whatever media we are currently exposed to.47

The proliferation of fantasy characters in advertising has been interpreted as

evidence that the population at large is still interested and affected by the use of such

devices, While Sullenberger uses the term "fakelure" for Madison Avenue's misuse

of images such as that of the Pontiac Firebird, the Plymouth Fury and the AMC

Gremlin, he does assume that the similarity in imagery between advertising and

folklore makes it possible to criticize the distortion of an image. If the Jolly Green

Giant is a fertility symbol, then its use in the commercial is subject to analysis on that

basis. The problem with this approach is that the mere appearance of an image doesn't

46 Edmund Carpenter, Oh, What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me! (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,

19737 Bantam, 1974) p. 56. 47 Tom E. Sullenberger, "Ajax Meets the Jolly Green Giant: Some Observations on the Use of Folklore and

Myth in American Mass Marketing," Journal of American Folklore 87 (January- March, 1974): 56.


mean that it necessarily will perform the same function in advertising as in folklore,

or that it should. The appearance of such figures in literature, as well as in the mass

media can only be interpreted as indicating a willingness on the part of the public to

attend to fantasy imagery.

Without touching upon the question of the quality of these commercials, whether

as commercials or as attempts at mythmaking, their very presence and

persistence, the profusion of the repetitions of themes and the proliferation of

new variants can be interpreted as being indication of at least a readiness in

wide circles of the American people to go along with, and be influenced by this

type of mythological fabrication.48

To assume that because the Keebler advertisers use a figure called an elf, that it is

an elf, would be to ignore the fact that the two similar images appear in completely

different contexts. This leads to a discussion of the use of structural analysis in

literature.

The principles of structural analysis are being used to analyze an ever increasing

range of cultural phenomena. Several of the earlier works, such as Roland Barthes'

S/Z 49 and Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roman Jakobson's ''Les Chats' de Charles

Baudelaire"50 have already become classics. These two works, which it has been

suggested belong to what might be called the "lemon-squeezer school of literary

criticism"51 are analyses which represent the French technique of explication du texte.

Structural analysis has been put to a different use by Eugene A. Hammel in "The Myth

48 Raphael Patai, Myth and Modern Man, P. 211 49 Roland Barthes, S/Z (New York: Hill and Wang, 1974). 50 Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roman Jakobson, "'Les Chats' de Charles Baudelaire," L'Homme 2 (January,

1962): 5-21. 51 Mary Douglas, "The Meaning of Myth," in The Structural Study of Myth and Totemism, ed. Edmund

Leach (London: Tavistock, 1967), pp. 62-63.


of Structural Analysis: Lévi-Strauss and the Three Bears." In this monograph,

Hammel has gathered dozens of variants of the "Goldilocks" fairytale, and submitted

them to a structural analysis. His findings are represented by the following diagram:52

Figure 1

Hammel traces the development of the fairytale from its earliest forms where an

old woman plays the part of Goldilocks, and the three bears are not described as a

family, just three undistinguished bears. He shows how different versions seem to

proceed by trial and error up to the version most familiar to American children.

Hammel describes the diagram reproduced above this way:

The major dimensions of contrast are those of (1) Nature versus Culture, (2)

object versus being, and (3) active/large versus inactive/small. The dimensions

of similarity, which bridge and mediate the oppositions just stated, are (1) color

52 Eugene A. Hammel, "The Myth of Structural Analysis: Lévi-Strauss and the Three Bears," An Addison-

Wesley Module in Anthropology #25 (Menlo Park, California: Cumming, 1972) , p. 12.


and sweetness which link Goldilocks and Honey, (2) utilization, which places

the bears and the honey in the same functional relationship as Goldilocks and

the bed and porridge, and (3) goodness to fit to an opposite which unites the

honey to the porridge and Goldilocks to Baby Bear.53

This analysis shows a tale tending more and more toward structural symmetry as

it is told over time, and it represents an interesting combination of historical and

structural analysis.

Other works which apply the technique of structural analysis to various types of

material include G.S. Kirk's Myth: Its Meaning and Function in Ancient and Other

Cultures,54 Will Wright's Six Guns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western,55

and Ellen Rhoads' "Little Orphan Annie and Lévi-Strauss: The Myth and the

Method."56 To date there has been no study which applies structural methodology to

the analysis of television advertising.

53 Ibid, pp. 13-14. 54 G.S. Kirk, Myth: Its Meaning and Function in Ancient and Other Cultures. (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1970). 55 Wi11 Wright, Six Guns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western. (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1975). 56 Ellen Rhoads, "Little Orphan Annie and Lévi-Strauss: The Myth and the Method," Journal of American

Folklore 86 (October-December, 1973): 345-357.


CHAPTER III: MAGIC, MYTH AND METHODOLOGY

In this section I will explore Lévi-Strauss's theories about the thought processes of

so-called primitive people, and how those processes are displayed in their systems of

magic and mythology. This will lead to a discussion of the techniques Lévi-Strauss

has developed for the analysis and interpretation of myths, and then to an explication

of how those techniques can be applied to the analysis of television advertisements.

Magic as a "Science of the Concrete"

The basis of Lévi-Strauss's theories concerning the nature of mythology resides in

his approach to the manner in which so-called primitive people think about

themselves and their environment. While it has been convenient in the past to label

primitive thought "magical," Lévi-Strauss believes that this terminology hides more

than it reveals. He sees primitive thought, not as inferior to modern science, but as

thought applied to differing purposes. He states that

I am not however commending a return to the popular belief (although it has

some validity in its own narrow context) according to which magic is a timid

and stuttering form of science. One deprives oneself of all means of

understanding magical thought if one tries to reduce it to a moment or stage in

technical and scientific evolution.57

In support of this assertion, Lévi-Strauss draws our attention to the vast scientific

gains in agriculture, animal husbandry and technology made during the Neolithic era.

...there is no doubt that all these achievements required a genuinely scientific

attitude, sustained and watchful interest and a desire for knowledge for its own

57 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966), p. 13.


sake. For only a small proportion of observations and experiments (which must

be assumed to have been primarily inspired by a desire for knowledge) could

have yielded practical and immediately useful results.58

Given the assumption that Neolithic people had command of a scientific

procedure similar to our awn, how does Lévi-Strauss explain the long gap between

the accomplishments of that era and the developments of the present?

There is only one solution to the paradox, namely that there are two distinct

modes of scientific thought. These are certainly not a function of different stages

of development of the human mind but rather of two strategic levels at which

nature is accessible to scientific inquiry: one roughly adapted to that of

perception and imagination; the other at a remove from it.59

Scientific method requires a systematic approach to Problem solving. But to a

certain degree, so does magic. The difference between science and magic lies not in

an alteration of approach, but rather in what constitutes proof of an assertion or

hypothesis. The scientist seeks proofs that are objectively certifiable and capable of

replication. The native thinker requires only a proof on an aesthetic level. Lévi-Strauss

calls this procedure a "science of the concrete."60

Their theoretical and practical results differ in value, for it is true that science

is more successful than magic from this point of view, although magic

foreshadows science in that it is sometimes also successful. Both science and

magic however require the same sort of mental operations and they differ not

so much in kind as in the different types of phenomena to which they are

58 Ibid, p. 14. 59 lbid, p. 15. 60 lbid, p. 11.


applied.61

A science of the concrete is one which "postulates a complete and all-embracing

determinism"3 between apparently similar though in fact quite disparate objects. An

example of this approach can be found in the voodoo belief that actions performed on

a doll said to represent a person can cause the same effects to happen to the person

represented. That, in reality, such correspondences do not exist makes no difference

to magical thought since its ultimate purpose is not to have an effect on the real world.

Its main function is as a system of classification.

It may be objected that science of this kind [magic] can scarcely be of much

practical effect. The answer to this is that its main purpose is not a practical one. It

meets intellectual requirements rather than or instead of satisfying needs.'

For example, beauty and truth were considered synonymous by astronomers of

the middle ages. Thus, Galileo's assertion that the earth revolves around the sun

seemed to be obviously wrong because it upset the harmony of the spheres. Pre-

Galilean conceptions of the solar system were based only on the observable behaviors

of the sun, planets and stars, all of which seemed to circle the earth to the sensible eye.

While this "aesthetic" astronomy was later found to be incorrect, it did provide the

raw data which Galileo was able to use in developing his own theories.

According to Lévi-Strauss, it is a search for similar harmonies which motivates

magical thinking. He gives as an example the eating prohibitions a Ndembu sorcerer

must obey in order to protect his power.

The Ndembu sorcerer, who is primarily a diviner, must not eat the flesh of bush-

buck because of its irregularly spotted hide, for if he did so his divination would

61 lbid, p. 13.


stray from the main point. There is a prohibition on the zebra for the same

reason, on animals with dark coats (which would cast a shadow over his

clairvoyance), on a species of fish with sharp bones because they might prick

the diviner's organ of divination, the liver, and on several sorts of spinach with

slippery leaves because they might cause his powers of divination to slip away

from him62

In each instance cited above, a concrete property of the tabooed food is treated as

if it were an abstract concept which would have a qualitative effect on the unwary

sorcerer. Another way of putting this is to say that the object is perceived as a sign of

its discerned characteristics, so that an irregularly spotted hide signals the presence of

irregularity in general, and ingestion would cause the sorcerer to stray from the main

point. This "signification" process can occur on not only the level of perceivable

characteristics, but also on the level of an object's function, or an animal's habits.

Relations may be established, in effect, on either the sensible level (the bodily

markings of the bee and the pythons)' or on the intelligible level (the function of

construction common to the bee and the carpenter): the same animal, the bee,

functions, as it were, a different levels of abstraction in two cultures.63

When considering the system of meanings developed by a given culture, it cannot

be determined a priori whether the "bee" symbol functions at the sensible or

intelligible level. The symbol itself is not charged with a meaning which forces itself

upon the mind of the native.

...when one takes account of the wealth and diversity of the raw material [all

elements of the environment] only a few of the innumerable possible elements

62 Ibid, p. 97. 63 Ibid, p. 63.


of which are made use of in the system, there can be no doubt that a considerable

number of other systems of the same type would have been equally coherent and

that no one of them is predestined to be chosen by all societies and all

civilizations. The terms never have any intrinsic significance. Their meaning is

one of 'position'-- a function of the history and cultural context on the one hand

and of the structural system in which they are called upon to appear on the

other.64

As an example of the way meanings change depending on the context, Lévi-

Strauss notes the different associations given to the same color in different cultures.

In our own culture, white is the color associated with marriage and black is the color

of mourning. In China, red is the color of marriage, white of mourning. And for the

Bard tribe of Australia, either black or red are used in mourning, depending on the

individual's relation to the deceased. Lévi-Strauss then states that

These observations seem to make it possible to dispose of theories making use

of the concepts of 'archetypes' or a 'collective unconscious.' I is only forms and

not contents which can be common.65

In the instances cited, what is common is the notion that only a certain color is

appropriate for a given event in the life cycle. Which particular color it is, red or black

or white or whatever, varies from culture to culture.

According to Lévi-Strauss, the ultimate purpose of magical thinking is

differentiation. By laying a sort of intellectual grid over the elements of nature, a arid

that is created by comparing and contrasting the properties and functions of Plants,

animals, and so on, man is able to create a corresponding order within his own society.

64 Ibid, p. 55. 65 Ibid, p. 65.


... man's relations with his natural environment remain objects of thought: man

never perceives them passively; having reduced them to concepts, he

compounds them in order to arrive at a system which is never determined in

advance: the same always be systematized in various ways.66

An illustration of this process is a card game. Two players (two cultures) dealt the

same hand (elements of nature) will play it differently, depending on each one's

understanding of the rules of the game, and his knowledge of strategy. The magic

enters into the play when a player is dealt three cards of a straight flush, and decides

to bet his money on the assumption that he will get the last two cards. Just as he is

gambling on an anticipated continuity in the deal, so in a similar manner a native

sorcerer "gambles" on an anticipated continuity of associations.

Lévi-Strauss developed this notion of magical thought as differentiation in his

consideration of totemism. In totemism, a species of animal or plant, or even a

manufactured object can become the focus of a great deal of attention and concern for

a particular clan. The clan adopts the species name and often avoids consuming

members of that species.

...the fact that some species are forbidden and others are permitted is not

attributable to the belief that the former have some intrinsic physical or mystic

property which makes them harmful but to the concern to introduce a distinction

between 'stressed' and 'unstressed' species (in the sense linguists give to the

terms). Prohibiting some species is just one of several ways of singling them out

as significant and the practical rules in question can thus be thought of as

operators employed by a logic which, being of a qualitative kind, can work in

66 Ibid, p. 95.


terms of modes of behavior as well as of images.67

If magical thinking is a process of laying a sort of intellectual grid over nature to

create classes and categories, then totemism, according to Lévi-Strauss, is one way to

create distinctions between the objects of those classes. What becomes 'stressed' or

'unstressed' is not as important as that something is distinguished from something else.

Ultimately, this creates categories of things that are 'good to think,' that is, associations

and contrasts are made on aesthetic bases, without regard to the other qualities of the

objects considered. It is important to note that though based on a foundation which

scientific thought would call impractical, the systems generated by magical thought

are as logical and internally consistent as any law of physics. Also, once such a system

is started, it will develop each logical argument to its most generalized conclusion.

This [system] connects the general with the particular, the abstract with the

concrete; but the classificatory intention can always reach its limits whichever

direction is in question. These are defined in terms of an implicit axiomatic

according to which all classification proceeds by pairs of contrasts:

classification only ceases when it is no longer possible to establish

oppositions....When classificatory intention ascends, as it were, towards the

greatest generality and most extreme abstraction, no diversity prevents it from

applying a scheme through the operation of which reality undergoes a series of

progressive purifications, whose final term will be provided, as intended, in the

form of a simple binary opposition (high and low, right and left, peace and war,

etc.), and beyond which it is, for intrinsic reasons, useless as well as impossible

to go.68

This is to say that associations are not made in isolation, or limited to a small

67 Ibid, p. 102. 68 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, p. 217.


series. In an ongoing culture, associations will be linked together, one to another, so

that a web of associations is created. Ultimately, all elements of the environment,

either stressed or unstressed, are brought into the web so that there is a relation

between any given element and all the other elements. The set of relations-- the

hyphens between elements--is what constitutes a structure. The process of structural

analysis is to build a model which reflects the relations between the elements of a

culture. Lévi-Strauss has outlined the requirements that must be fulfilled before a set

of elements can be said to have a unifying structure:

First, the structure...is made up of several elements, none of which can undergo

a change without effecting changes in all the other elements.

Second, for any given model there should be a possibility of ordering a series of

transformations resulting in a group of models of the same type.

Third, the above properties make it possible to predict how the model will react

if one or more of its elements are submitted to certain modifications.

Finally, the model should be constituted so as to make immediately intelligible

all the observed facts.69

Through structural analysis, Lévi-Strauss has developed models to explain the

elementary structures of kinship systems, culinary practices of both primitive and

modern cultures, principles of primitive art, as well as totemism and mythology. The

next section of this chapter will examine further his contributions to the understanding

of myth, and his approach to mythic interpretation.

69 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, translated by Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest

Schoept (New York: Basic Books, 1963), p. 279.


The Dialectics of Myth

What is a myth? We saw in the previous chapter how this question has been

answered by several different schools of thought. It is now time to explicate Lévi-

Strauss's own definition of myth, and then examine how he uses structural analysis to

interpret systems of mythology.

One crucial difference between Lévi-Strauss and most preceding interpreters of

myth is how they approach the meanings that may be hidden in the narrative of myths.

Lévi-Strauss objects to any attempt to treat an element of a myth as if it alone had a

significant meaning. He says that

The mistake of Mannhardt and the Naturalist School was to think that natural

phenomena are what myths seek to explain, when they are rather the medium

through which myths try to explain facts which are themselves not of a natural

but a logical order.70

The mistake of the Naturalist School, as well as the adherents of approaches such

as the psychoanalytic, the ritualist and the functionalist began by assigning a meaning

to a particular symbol, and then inserting it into the body of mythic literature. This

common error was the result of the paradoxical nature of the myths themselves.

Mythology confronts the student with a situation which at first sight appears

contradictory. On the one hand it would seem that in the course of a myth

anything is likely to happen. There is no logic, no continuity. Any characteristic

can be attributed to any subject; every conceivable relation can be found. But

on the other hand, the apparent contrariness is belied by the astounding

similarity between myths collected in widely different regions. Therefore the

70 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, p. 95


problem: If the content of a myth is contingent, how are we going to explain the

fact that myths throughout the world are so similar?71

Lévi-Strauss likens the attempts of the early schools of interpretation to those of

early linguists who attempted to connect a given meaning to a certain sound. The first

step toward a true interpretation of -myth is to remember that the type of intellectual

process that goes into creating a myth is the same as that which creates magic and

totemic systems. That is one reason for the universal similarities. However, in myth

these thought processes are freed from the need to have anything more than a minimal

contact with reality such as is necessary to some degree in magic and in totemism.

...mythic thought transcends itself and, going beyond images retaining some

relationship with concrete experience, operates in a world of concepts which

have been released from any such obligation, and combine with each other in

free association; by this I mean that they combine not with reference to any

external reality but according to the affinities or incompatibilities existing

between them in the architecture of the mind.72

This concept of myths as a sort of mental free association can be made clearer if

we examine more closely what Lévi-Strauss means by mythic thought. He has

determined that the logical process that goes into the creation of a myth can be divided

into two categories, "empirical deduction," and "transcendental deduction."

Empirical deduction occurs whenever a myth attributes a function value or

symbolic meaning to a natural being because of an empirical judgement

durably associating the being with the attribution. From a for-mal point of view

71 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, p. 95. 72 Claude Lévi-Strauss, From Honey to Ashes: Introduction to a Science of Mythology, Vol.2, translated by

John and Doreen Weightman (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), P. 473.


the correctness of the empirical judgement is irrelevant.73

Empirical deduction begins with some observation of reality. It then treats that

observation as if it were an abstract concept. This type of mental process can occur

using two different types of association. First, through the use of a metonymic

association, some observed characteristic or habit of an animal is treated as if it stood

for the entire animal. If this characteristic is found elsewhere in the environment, it

too is associated with that animal. In that case, the metonymic association has been

used as a metaphoric assertion. Lévi-Strauss's term for such use of metaphor is an

"imaginary association."

An imaginary association, on the other hand, results in the attribution of

curative powers against snake bite and tooth decay to seeds shaped like fangs.74

The metonymic association (fangs of a snake) is used to make a metaphoric

assertion (rani-shaped seeds cure snake bite.)

Transcendental deduction operates at another step away from reality. The

characteristic attributed to an animal or an object is removed from any grounding in

empirical observation, and is determined by its relative position in the structure as a

whole. Lévi-Strauss states that,

It does not necessarily rest on a true or false, a direct or indirect empirical base;

rather, it stems from the awareness of a certain logical necessity, that of

attributing certain properties to a given being because empirical deduction has

previously connected this being with others on the basis of a set of correlative

73 Claude Lévi-Strauss, "The Deduction of the Crane," in The Structural Study of Myth and Totemism, ed.

Edmund Leach (London: Tavistock, 1967), p. 3. 74 Ibid, p. 3.


properties.75

The functioning of transcendental deduction can best be illustrated by using Lévi-

Strauss's own example.

According to the Tupi Indians of South America, the tree frog and the bee are

opposites. The frog is the master of water because it lives in water that collects in

hollow trees, and seems able to find such habitats even during the dry season.

However, the bee also lives in hollow trees, but in honey rather than water. Because

honey is not water and water is not honey, the two creatures are seen as opposites.

(This argument has been simplified for the sake of brevity, and thus leaves out other

determining factors, such as high/low, etc.) The Tupi also see the jaguar as an opposite

of the tree frog. While the frog is present master of water, the jaguar (for reasons

excluded here) was the former master of fire, which it gave to mankind. These

comparisons, which are based at least in part on some empirical observation, now lead

to a third comparison which transcends the objective reality:

If the frog is opposed to the bee, which has honey instead of water (while the

frog itself has water instead of honey), we may introduce transcendental

deduction to conclude that the jaguar (opposed to the frog by empirical

deduction) must be like the, bee and therefore, possess honey in some fashion)76

According to Lévi-Strauss, this line of reasoning explains why Tupi mythology

makes the jaguars the first owners of the honey festival. The association "Bee=Jaguar"

is forced upon the Tupi by the empirical associations they have given the frog, bee

and jaguar. Lévi-Strauss says that this type of intellectual process is typical of mythic

thought. Much that appears illogical and contingent in a myth can ultimately be

75 Ibid, p. 4. 76 Ibid, p. 5.


attributed to this combination of empirical (metonymic-metaphoric) deduction and

transcendental deduction. This is why Lévi-Strauss suggests that we ignore the

creators of a myth, and concentrate on the thought processes going on in the myths

themselves.

...it would perhaps be better to go still further and, disregarding the thinking

subject completely, proceed as if the thinking process were taking place in the

myths, in their reflection upon themselves and their interrelation.77

To summarize the argument so far, Lévi-Strauss asserts that it is through a special

combination of categories of deduction that the so-called primitive mentality creates

distinctions within the total set of elements that are present in the environment. The

ultimate goal of this process of intellection is not to discover a set of facts based on a

rational, scientific approach to reality, but rather to generate a system that conforms

solely to intellectual needs. Among these needs are the desire to create order out of

chaos, to avoid ambiguity, and in effect, to have "everything in its place, and a place

for everything."

Any classification is superior to chaos and even a classification at the level of

sensible properties is a step toward rational ordering.78

The character of a myth is a function of this classification at the level of sensible

properties. However, Lévi-Strauss does not believe that because of this, myths are

merely idle stories, or even passive reflections of a culture's system of classification.

Rather, myths are developed as an unavoidable by-product of any culture's attempts

to classify all elements in their environment into one logical, unified structure. Any

77 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology, Vol. 1., translated

by John and Doreen Weightman (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), n. 12. 78 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, p. 15.


structure will have some blind spots; there will always be exceptions to a rule,

anomalous situations, creatures and objects that defy all categories.

Nature is not in itself contradictory. It can become so only in terms of some

specific human activity which takes part in it; and the characteristics of the

environment take on a different meaning according to the particular historical

and technical for assumed in it by this or that type of activity.79

When a flaw becomes apparent in a culture's structure, a myth or series of myths

will be created in order to either explain it away, or to deny that that contradiction

exists. It is in this sense that Lévi-Strauss can claim that myths deal not with the

creation of things so much as with the degeneration of man's state from a time when

all categories were concise and well-defined, to a time when boundaries have become

blurred and monstrous anomalies have arisen.

All these [South American] myths, we said, deal not so much with origin as with

loss. Loss of honey first of all, which in earliest times was available in limitless

quantities, and which has now become difficult to find. Then loss of game, which

in older times was abundant but became scarce and widely scattered...Finally

came a loss more serious than all the other: the loss of those logical categories

without which man cannot conceptualize the contrast between nature and

culture, nor overcome the confusion of opposites.80

Because no system which must account for all the elements of the environment

can be totally consistent, myths imply that in the "good old days" things were without

contradictions.

Consequently, like a twilight of the gods, the myths describe this inevitable

79 Claude Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, n. 95. 80 Claude Lévi-Strauss, From Honey to Ashes, p. 259.


collapse: from a golden age when nature was submissive and generous to man,

by way of a sterner age when man was endowed with clear ideas and well-

defined contrasts by means of which he was still able to control his

surroundings, to a state of gloomy indistinctions in which nothing can be

indisputably possessed and still less preserve4, because all beings and things

are intermingled.81

Myths shore up the structure of a classificatory system, cover over rough spots,

and thereby make that system appear elegant and aesthetically whole.

How do myths accomplish this shoring-up function? According to Lévi-Strauss,

they start with an apparent contradiction--a set of opposing terms--and proceeding by

means of a mediating term, change that extreme opposition into a lesser pair (i.e., a

pair not so strongly contrasted). That pair in turn generates a second mediating term,

creating a closer pair of opposites, and so on. For example, in his explanation of why

so many North American myths concern either a raven or a coyote, Lévi-Strauss

asserts that it is because these two animals represent the unification of opposites:

Why is it that throughout North America [the role of the trickster] is assigned

practically everywhere to either coyote or raven? If we keep in mind that

mythical thought always progresses from the awareness of oppositions toward

their resolution, the reason for these choices becomes clearer. We need only

assume that two opposite terms with no intermediary always tend to be replaced

by two equivalent terms which admit of a third one as a mediator; then one of

the polar terms and the mediator become replaced by a new triad and so on.82

An example can be constructed starting with a basic condition of human existence,

81 Ibid, p. 259. 82 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, p. 224.


the fact that death awaits us all, and use it to construct a series of oppositions as

follows:

INITIAL PAIR FIRST TRIAD SECOND TRIAD

Life

Agriculture

Herbivorous animals

Carrion-eating animals

(raven; coyote)

Hunting

Beasts of Prey

Warfare

Death83

Figure 2

The explanation for this arrangement runs something like this: Life and Death are

ineluctable facts of existence. Life is generated by agriculture because it provides

food, while death is a product of warfare. Hunting is a lesser sort of warfare because

it involves killing animals instead of humans. Herbivorous animals form a mediating

term between agriculture and hunting in that they gather food as do farmers, but they

can also be used for food themselves. Set in opposition to herbivorous animals are

beasts of prey who kill their food and are generally considered inedible. Beasts of prey

also constitute a mediating term between hunting and warfare in that they sometimes

attack ("make war on, hunt") humans. So how do ravens and coyotes fit in?

83 'Adapted from an example in Structural Anthropology, p. 224.


...carrion-eating animals are like beasts of prey (they eat animal food), but they

are also like food-plant producers (they do not kill what they eat).84

Because ravens and coyotes are seen to have characteristics that have been

previously assigned to contradictory categories, they become the subject of many

myths, especially myths where they perform as a trickster, disrupting the activities of

man.

By generating a series of mediating terms which, depending on the richness of the

opposing terms under consideration, can generate many such transformations, myths

create a spiral of conceptualizations which starts with a problem, seems to swing away

from it, but then always returns to it, though at a different level of abstraction. The

transcendental nature of mythic deduction requires that every element be explored as

deeply as Possible, so that often the original problem is lost in the series of myths that

is generated. However, if the problem is truly a fundamental one, the mythic series

will come back to it at some point.

The multiplicity of levels appears then as the price that mythic thought has to

pay in order to move from the continuous to the discrete. It has to simplify and

organize the diversity of empirical experience in accordance with the principle

that no factor of diversity can be allowed to operate for its own purposes in the

collective undertaking of signification, but only as a habitual or occasional

substitute for the other elements included in the same set. Mythic thought only

accepts nature on condition that it is able to reproduce it. By so doing, it limits

itself to the choice of those formal properties by which nature can signify itself

and, which consequently are appropriate for metaphor.85

84 Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, p. 224. 85 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked. P. 341.


The obscurity of the last two sentences can be made clear by returning to the

notions of empirical deduction and transcendental deduction that were discussed

earlier. The perceived property of nature is never treated as only that. The concrete

aspect "transcends" its object, becomes a metaphor, and as such allows the creation

of systems of comparisons that can be represented as interconnected triads. The point

is that once the object becomes "locked" into the role of a concept, its function will

remain constant throughout the system of mythology of a given culture. This does not

mean that a system of mythology is a static thing that never chances. By definition,

the myths must reflect in some decree the situation in the culture, and if that situation

is changing, then the myths will change.

...a mythic system can only be grasped in the Process of becoming; not as

something inert and stable but in a process of perpetual transformation. This

would mean that there are always several kinds of myths simultaneously present

in the system, some of them primary (in respect of the moment at which the

observation is made) and some of them derivative. And while some kinds are

present in their entirety at certain points, elsewhere they can be detected only

in fragmentary form. Where evolution has gone furthest, the elements set free

by the decomposition of the old myths have already been incorporated into new

combinations.86

Given a body of mythic narratives, how is it determined whether there is in fact a

coherent structure present, or whether the process of perpetual transformation has

rendered any attempt to determine structure meaningless? First, according to Lévi-

Strauss, no interpretation of any element can be assumed a priori. Meaning must be

generated for each element in the course of the analysis.

86 Claude Lévi-Strauss, From Honey to Ashes. p. 354.


If there is a meaning to be found in mythology, it cannot reside in the isolated

elements which enter into the composition of a myth, but only in the way those

elements are combined.87

Consequently, the body of data must be sufficiently large to allow the functioning

of an element to be determined by contrast and comparison of many examples.

...it is impossible to inquire directly into the structure without being previously

acquainted with a sufficient number of relationships between the elements.

Consequently, whatever the starting-point chosen in practice, the nature of the

results will chancre as the inquiry progresses.88

Once a sufficient number of examples are collected, each one must be submitted

to what Lévi-Strauss calls a "formal analysis."

Formal analyses are indispensable, for they alone make it possible to reveal the

logical armature hidden beneath seemingly strange and incomprehensible

stories. Only after this armature has been disclosed can we afford the luxury of

returning to 'primary truths,' which then appear--but on that condition alone--

to merit the double meaning we give to the expression.89

When considering a narrative, the first question that must be posed is "What is

happening?" What sorts of individuals are involved; what problems confront them;

what means do they use to those problems? Once these questions have

been answered, the resulting information can he arranged according to logical

types which then generate the model for the structure of the mythological system. The

model is generated by following these steps:

87 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology. p. 210. 88 Claude Lévi-Strauss, From Honey to Ashes. p. 355. 89 Ibid, p. 157.


1) Define the phenomena under study as a relation between two or more terms,

real or supposed;

2) Construct a table of possible permutations between these terms;

3) Take this table as the general object of analysis which, at this level only, can

yield necessary connections, the empirical phenomenon considered at the

beginning being only one possible combination among others, the complete

system of which must be reconstructed beforehand.90

Why does Lévi-Strauss generally consider only two terms at a time? K.D.L.

Burridge has suggested that Lévi-Strauss has borrowed Hegel's notion of dialectic as

the source for this procedure:

Lévi-Strauss appears to lean heavily on Hegel who, it will be remembered,

sought to reconcile the events contained in the progress of history with God and

human activities or mind; and this largely through the formula 'thesis'—

'antithesis'—'synthesis,' the method of dialectic.91

Burridge goes on to discuss how the elements of dialectic are used in the

interpretation of myth:

Elements of the myth (thesis) are to be broken down into pairs of contraries

(antithesis), resolved through mediators (synthesis and thesis), and further

broken down into contraries (antithesis again) which are to be resolved again

in mediators (synthesis and thesis) only to be broken down again into

contraries.92

Indeed, Lévi-Strauss has stated that this process of mediating oppositions is a

90 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Totemism, translated by Rodney Needham. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), P. 16. 91 K.D.L. Burridge, "Lévi-Strauss and Myth," in The Structural Study of. Myth and Totemism, ed. Edmund.

Leach. (London: Tavistock, 1967), pp. 92-93. 92 lbid, p. 102.


central part of his method. However, to the three part system of dialectics he has added

the function of transformation. Thus, the logical process in mythology moves not in a

single thesis—antithesis—synthesis circle, but rather in a spiral.

Mythic deduction always has a dialectic character: it moves in spirals, not in

circles. When we think we are back at our starting point, we are never absolutely

and completely there, but only in a certain respect. It would be more accurate

to say that we are moving vertically over the place we set out from. But whether

we are moving at a higher or a lower level, there is an implied difference

representing the significant discrepancy between the initial myth and the

terminal myth (the adjectives being taken in a sense relating to distance

covered).93

The initial pair of opposites are in Lévi-Strauss’s technique used to generate a third

term which functions as a mediator. However, when looking at a large body of myths,

the process chances slightly. The mediator transforms the initial pair of opposites into

a final pair of opposites which represent the solution to the initial problem. Lévi-

Strauss has expressed this transformation as an algebraic equation:94

Fx (a) : Fy (b) : : Fx (b) : Fa-l (y)

Eleazar Meletinsky has interpreted this formula with regard to folktales, and

perhaps his analysis will help to make clear the meaning of these symbols.

Here (a) and (b) are two terms (actor, dramatis personae) of which the first (a)

is associated with the purely negative function (x), whereas (b) is associated

with the positive function (y); however (b) is also capable of assuming the

negative function (x) and thereby become a mediator between (x) and (y). The

93 Claude Lévi-Strauss, From Honey to Ashes, pp. 395-6. 94 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology. p. 228.


two sides of the equation represent two situations and between these situations

exists a certain relation of equivalence insofar as one term has been replaced

by its opposite in the second part of the formula (and correspondingly, in the

second half Of the mythological process or type); and hence an inversion is

made between the function value and the term value of the two elements. The

last part Fa-1(y) shows precisely that this is not only the cancellation of the

initial situation but an additional characteristic, a certain new situation as the

result of a spiral-like development, as it were.95

Lévi-Strauss's formula states algebraically his conception of the purpose of myth.

A contradiction in the classification system of a culture can be seen as a dual agent.

Capable of assuming contrary functions (x and y), (b) is seen not as outside the system,

but rather, by use of transformation, actually an integral part of the system.

And if we return to steps (2) and (3) of Lévi-Strauss's process, it can be seen that

the generation of permutations of two contradictory terms makes available for

consideration the different functional capabilities of the mediator. For example, using

Lévi-Strauss's raven--coyote mediator, it can be seen that a table of possible

permutation between the contrary terms life and death can be constructed by assigning

a positive or negative value to each term. Thus this table is created:

Life + + — —

Death + — + —

Each consequent term of the first and second triad can been seen as one

permutation of this series:

95 Fleazar Meletinsky, "Structural-Typological Study of Folktales," in Soviet Structural Folkloristics, ed.

Pierre Miranda (The Hague: Mouton, 1974), pp. 27.


Agriculture: Life + / Death —

Hunting: Life — / Death +

Warfare: Life — / Death +

Herbivorous animals Life + / Death —

Beasts of Prey Life — / Death +

Carrion eaters Life — / Death —

Figure 3

Thus it can be shown that though both life and death are unavoidable aspects of

existence (both coded "+") there exists an animal that represents the opposite coding

of this situation (raven and coyote do not create life nor do they take life). The table,

along with other tables that would be generated in the course of the analysis, would

provide clues as to the nature of the underlying structure that guides the progress of

the narrative. Ultimately, the model or models generated should fulfill the final

requirement of Lévi-Strauss's description of a structure: “...to make immediately

intelligible all the observed facts."96

The Constituent Units of Myth

The problem that remains to be considered is how does Lévi-Strauss actually go

about analyzing a myth? What procedure does he follow with a single narrative in

order to determine its underlying structure? For although the French anthropologist's

analyses of myth run into many volumes, there seems to be no place in his works

where he spells out in explicit detail how to do a structural analysis. Here and there

he may offer bits and pieces, or state what he must believe to be a clear explanation

of his method. But the reader is always left with the impression that he missed

something, or that something has been left out. The purpose of this section will be to

96 Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, b. 279.


spell out the procedures for the actual analysis of a narrative as they have been

suggested by the work of Lévi-Strauss.

The first step is to convert the myth into writing. This might seem like an obvious

starting point, but it must be pointed out that Lévi-Strauss's method will consist of

taking a myth and breaking it up into sentences. Often, in the area of ethnography, a

text of a culture's body of mythology already exists, and it remains for the

anthropologist merely to use what already exists. However, as I will demonstrate

shortly, the data for this study does not exist in written form, and so must be

transcribed.

Lévi-Strauss asserts that as long as the sequence of events of a myth remains intact,

any translation of the particular language used will be valid.

Myth is the part of language where the formula traduttore, tradittore reaches

its lowest truth value. From that point of view it should be place in the gamut of

linguistic expressions at the end opposite to that of poetry, in spite of all the

claims which have been made to prove the contrary. Poetry is a kind of speech

which cannot be translated except at the cost of serious distortions; whereas the

mythical value of the myth is preserved even through the worst translation.

Whatever our ignorance of the language and the culture of the People where it

originated, a myth is still felt as a myth by any reader anywhere in the world.

Its substance does not lie in its style, its original music, or its syntax, but in the

story which it tells.97

The reasoning behind this statement is that what is important in a myth is not the

particular language, although certainly in some myths some of the language is

important, but rather the sequence of events which the myth describes. Lévi-Strauss

97 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, p. 210.


compares myth to music where a limited number of notes can be used to create

extremely complex patterns:

Like a musical work, myth operates on the basis of a twofold continuum: one

part of it is external and is composed in the one instance of historical, or

supposedly historical events forming a theoretically infinite series from which

each society extracts a limited number of relevant incidents with which to create

its myths; and in the other instance, the equally infinite series of physically

producible sounds, from which each musical system selects its scale.98

In myth, the particular word used is not of paramount importance, as it is in poetry.

The patterns of relations is what is important, and so a myth can survive translation

with its essence intact.

Once a written version of the narrative is obtained, it must be broken down into

what Lévi-Strauss calls its "gross constituent units." Here lies a major problem which

has prompted a great deal of the criticism leveled against Lévi-Strauss's method.

How shall we proceed in order to identify and isolate these gross constituent

units or mythemes? We know that they cannot be found among phonemes,

morphemes, or sememes, but only on a higher level; otherwise myth would

become confused with any other kind of speech. Therefore, we should look for

them on the sentence level. The only method we can suggest at this stage is to

proceed tentatively, by trial and error, using as a check the principles which

serve as a basis for any kind of structural analysis: economy of explanation;

unity of solution; and ability to reconstruct the whole from a fragment, as well

as later stages from previous ones.99

98 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked, p. 16. 99 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, p. 211.


Mary Douglas takes issue with the use of sentences as the primary units of

meaning in myth.

What are sentences anyway? Linguists would be at a loss to identify these units

of language structure which Lévi-Strauss claims to be able to put on punched

cards and into a computing machine as surely and simply as if they were

phonemes and morphemes...Does he really mean that he can chop a myth into

semantic units, put them through a machine, and get out at the other end an

underlying pattern which is not precisely the one he used for selecting his

units?100

And David Maybury-Lewis raises a similar objection:

If I read a myth, select certain elements from it, and arrange them in a pattern,

that "structure" is bound to be in the material unless I have misread the text or

demonstrably misrendered it. The fact of its being there does not, however,

indicate that my arrangement is anything more than my personal whim...A myth

is therefore bound to have a number of possible "structures" that are both in the

material and in the eye of the beholder. The problem is to decide between them

and to determine the significance of any of them.101

Finally, William Tulio Divale expresses the opinion that Lévi-Strauss is too

arbitrary in his method:

If Lévi-Strauss' method for uncovering the alleged universal structures of myths

is correct, then a true test of the validity of his method would be for several

researchers, each working independently of each other, to arrive at similar

100 Mary Douglas, "The Meaning of Myth," in The Structural Study of Myth and Totemism, ed. Edmund.

Leach. (London: Tavistock, 1967), p. 50. 101 David Maybury-Lewis, "Science or Bricolage?" in Claude Lévi-Strauss: The Anthropologist as Hero,

eds. 2. Nelson Hayes and Tanya Haves (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1970), pp. 158-159.


interpretations of a myth...[Levi-Strauss'] method is too arbitrary for this to

occur.102

There are two ways of responding to these objections. The first is to point out that

Lévi-Strauss does not mean that the prerequisite of a unit is that it be a sentence with

subject, verb and object. Correctly formulated, the sentence is merely the manner of

isolating and recording a relation between elements.

Practically each [sentence] will thus show that a certain function is, at a given

time, linked to a given subject. Or, to put it otherwise, each gross constituent

unit will consist of a relation.103

This definition of a gross constituent unit limits the amount of personal bias that

can be imposed upon the analysis of a myth. Furthermore, it is useful in the Present

context to further limit personal whim by using a refinement of the definition of cross

constituent unit as developed by Michael P. Carroll:

1) If any set of actions (which are contiguous within the diachronic

sequence of the myth) can be attributed to the same causal agent,

operating under the same motivations, then those actions and that causal

agent constitute a single social perceptual unit (i.e., a single constituent

unit).

2) If two actions are attributable to different causal agents or to the same

causal agent operating upon different presumed motivations, then those

two actions belong to different social perceptual units (i.e., to different

constituent units).104

Ultimately, these rules will help to determine the function of an individual or an

object according to its actions, or to the effect it has on another individual or object.

102 William Tulio Divale, "The Cognitive-Affinal Paradox in the Egyptian myth of Osiris: A Critical

Application of the Structural Method," New York Folklore Quarterly 29 (December, 1973): 289. 103 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, p. 211. 104 Michael P. Carroll, "Putting Lévi-Strauss, Festinger, Heider and Noah into the Same Boat, or Some

Social Psychological Contributions to the Structural Study of Myth," in Sociological Inquiry 47 (January, 1977):

17.


The second reply to the critics of Lévi-Strauss is a reminder that structural analysis

is not intended to be the final or only method of interpreting cultural phenomena. It is

a way of constructing a model of a complex set of relations which is valid only insofar

as it offers explanations for social customs or artifacts. The two questions one must

always ask about the analysis of a system of mythology are 1) Does it accurately

represent the material in question?; and 2) Does it help to explain aspects of culture?

Once the narrative has been broken down into its constituent units, the next step

is to arrange each unit according to type. When Lévi-Strauss analyzes a myth, he

generally considers enough variants to allow for the creation of categories based on a

comparison of variants of the same myth.

Our method thus eliminates a problem which has, so far, been one of the main

obstacles to the progess of mythological studies, namely, the quest for the true

version, or the earlier one. On the contrary, we define the myth as consisting of

all its versions; or to put it otherwise, a myth remains the same as long as it is

felt as such.105

Thus, in interpreting the myth of Oedipus, Lévi-Strauss will use not only the play

by Sophocles, but also tales from other sources related to Oedipus. Even Freud's

interpretation is treated as a variant:

Although the Freudian problem has ceased to be that of autochthony versus

bisexual reproduction, [as Lévi-Strauss interprets the myth of Oedipus] it is still

the problem of understanding how one can be born from two ...106

Unfortunately for this study it was not possible to obtain all the variants of say, the

105 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, pp. 216-217. 106 Ibid, p. 217.


Tide advertisements. So in practice, the units analyzed in this study are compared, not

to other variants, but rather, to other advertisements. By arranging the series of

advertisements according to their narrative sequence, and then noting similarities and

differences in those sequences, it is possible to generate tables of oppositions as

discussed in the preceding section of this chapter. The ultimate goal of this study is

not to provide an all-inclusive analysis of television advertising, but rather to

determine whether there is present in television advertising a structure that conforms

to Lévi-Strauss's definition of structure, as outlined in this chapter, and whether the

elements of the advertisements are combined in a manner similar to the logical

processes that Lévi-Strauss asserts go into the creation of myth.


CHAPTER IV: THE STRUCTURE OF TELEVISION

ADVERTISEMENTS

The central focus of this chapter will be the application of Lévi-Strauss's structural

methodology to the sample of television advertisements. First, the techniques used to

gather the sample will be discussed. Then the advertisements will be presented in

summary and the various structural elements will be isolated. The characters

presented in the advertisements will be defined according to their function or

functions. Once the functions are identified, they will be arranged structurally within

the larger context of advertising to see whether the composition of the structures is

generally uniform throughout the sample. Finally, any significant exceptions to the

pattern of the structure will be noted and an attempt will be made to determine their

meanings.

Television Advertising as Myth

In order to obtain a representative sample of prime time network advertising in

sufficient quantity for the purposes of this analysis, it was decided that a single

network affiliate in New York (CBS-Channel 2, NBC-Channel 4 and ABC-Channel

7) would be monitored on one night for each of five weeks. All advertisements

broadcast between the hours of eight and eleven on that night would be videotaped

using standard half-inch video recording equipment. This procedure yielded a total

sample of 186 different advertisements, once those messages not included in the scope

of this study, such as political messages and movie promotions, had been

eliminated.107 The breakdown of advertisements according to channel for each night

107 A complete list of the advertisements can be found in Appendix C.


was as follows:

Date Network Number of Ads

Monday, October 18, 1976 NBC 49

Tuesday October 26, 1976 ABC 37

Wednesday, November 3, 1976 ABC 35

Thursday, November 11, 1976 CBS 35

Friday, November 19, 1976 NBC 30

Total: 186

Figure 4

Of the total number of advertisements, forty-one were actually used to develop the

analysis. This is not to say that the remaining ads were not considered. The

advertisements were arranged according to subject matter and each one was analyzed.

Then, those ads which most clearly presented the material were used to demonstrate

the underlying structure. Some advertisements presented so little in the way of

narrative structure that they could not be used in this analysis. Typically, these were

straight forward "hard" sell advertisements in which an announcer spoke of a sale

going on at Sears on bed linen, or, as in the example included at the end of this chapter,

automotive products were shown on sale. The relative numbers of these types of

advertisements and their relation to the main body of advertisements analyzed will be

discussed at the end of the analysis.108

All 186 advertisements were transcribed by using a Panasonic 3130 video

playback deck. This deck has the capability of varying the speed at which the tape is

played, or even stopping the picture at any point. The audio and video portions of each

108 For a demonstration of how an advertisement was chosen to be included in this study, see Appendix B.


advertisement were transcribed in parallel columns so that the resulting transcript

resembled the shooting script of a movie. A transcript of every advertisement used in

this study can be found in Appendix A. To facilitate the analysis, each advertisement

will be presented in summary and assigned a number. Thus, the first advertisement

will be referred to as "Al Alpo," the next as "A2 Purina Beef & Egg Dog Chow #1"

and so on.

Al Alpo

In the initial sequence, two sheepdogs are shown herding a flock of sheep. The

next shot shows Lorne Green, dressed as a cowboy, sitting astride a horse. He

says, "Those are sheepdogs working." The dogs are shown chasing various stray

sheep. "Instinct. You just can't breed it out of an animal." Lorne climbs down

from his horse and continues, "That's why dogs go for Alpo. Instinct tells them

that meat is their natural food." The dogs are shown eating from bowls marked

"Alpo." Lorne is kneeling beside them and concludes, "And Alpo Beef Chunks

Dinner is meat by-products and beef, minerals and vitamins. Real hardy protein

packed beef that every dog craves. There's no better dog food in the world."

There is no narrative to speak of in this advertisement, only a portrayal of animals

fulfilling their function. The two types of animals shown in this ad, sheep and

sheepdogs, create an interesting opposition of categories within the animal kingdom.

Sheep are animals which are raised for two main purposes: food and wool. Dogs, on

the other hand, fall into the category of nets who are raised either as companions, or

as in this instance, work animals. The first opposition we arrive at is: food animals/pet

animals. If we go a bit further, we can see that sheepdogs are a highly specialized,

trained breed of dogs, and they are shown herding stray sheen (untrained animals)

back to the flock. Another opposition could be: untrained/trained.

However, a third element in this advertisement is the presence of the cowboy who

tells us that you can't breed instinct out of an animal. He then proceeds to feed the

dogs Alpo because "instinct tells them that meat is their natural food." This suggests


that although there is a distinction made between dogs and sheep, there is a larger

distinction created between animals and humans. In fact, a sort of continuum is set up

ranging from the most "natural" animals, sheep, through animals that are less natural

in that they have been trained, sheepdogs, on to the most highly trained animals of all,

humans. If we go beyond the confines of this particular advertisement to compare

some of the general characteristics of each category, we start with the most

diametrically opposed .entities, humans and sheep, and we find that dogs occupy a

middle position:

humans dogs sheep

instinct ─ ( ─ ) +

training + (+) ─

edibility ─ ( ─ ) +

Figure 5

The use of parentheses indicates that although the trait is marked for the function

of that category, there is some ambiguity involved. The category of "edibility" is

included in this table because, as we shall see shortly, this provides a balance in terms

of conceptual relations between the sheep and humans on the one hand, and dogfood

and dogs on the other. Accordingly, humans are designated as not Prey to their

instincts, highly trainable and inedible. Sheep are portrayed as completely instinctual,

untrainable and edible. Dogs occupy a middle ground in that their instincts are subject

to modification, they are trainable to a certain extent, and they could be eaten, though

they are highly undesirable in our culture.

Another point to consider is that although the dogs are shown serving humans as

food-herders, the cowboy is shown serving the dogs dinner. An implicit opposition


set up by this portrayal is: human food/dog food, and it is further developed in this

advertisement for a brand of dog food.

A2 Purina Beef & Egg Dog Chow #1

In the initial sequence a man is preparing a breakfast tray. On the tray are a

hard-boiled egg, a cup of coffee and a flower. He lifts up the tray and the

announcer says that the "one thing man has always enjoyed was the delicious

taste of eggs." As the man passes by the refrigerator, he turns to get a napkin

from the table, and a dog that is on top of the refrig¬erator steals the egg from

the tray. The man walks on, not noticing that the egg is missing.

In the second sequence, a woman stands at a kit¬chen table. The table is set

for a meal with a fried egg on a plate. The woman turns her back to the table to

get something from the refrigerator, and a dog jumps up on the chair and steals

the egg. The announcer says that "that's why Purina made a delicious dog food

your dog will enjoy." A shot of the package, then of an egg being broken open,

and then of dog food pouring into a dish. The announcer continues, "Beef and

eaa flavored dog chow. We call it the taste tempter. We put the taste of eggs into

yellow nuggets and a delicious beef flavor into the red nuggets."

Now the dog from the second seauence is shown eating the dog food while

the woman eats an egg. The announcer concludes, "Together it's a taste-

tempting meal your dog should love. Now that your dog enjoys the taste of eggs,

so can you."

In this advertisement, the dog performs a different function It is shown to be a

competitor of man for food. The solution to this problem is the creation of a special

food reserved just for dogs. In fact, dog food can be placed in the chart from page 73

as a fourth element:

humans dogs sheep dogfood

edible/inedible ─ ( ─ ) + (+)

desirable/undesirable ─ ( ─ ) + (+)

Figure 6

In this chart, the " ─ " sign shows that the category is marked for the second


element in the opposition, while the “+” sign show that it is marked for the first

element. The relations shown read as follows: Humans are inedible and undesirable;

dogs are inedible and desirable, and; dog food is desirable and edible, again with

ambiguity. This last category requires some explanation. It is a paradox of

advertisements for dog food that they must make a product which is not meant for

general human consumption appealing. Dog foods are created which mimic the traits

of desirable human foods, but which are clearly intended not to be eaten by humans.

And, as we have seen in A1, a cycle is portrayed in which the humans provide the dog

food, and the dogs provide the human food. In A2 we saw the consequences of a

failure on the part of humans to hold up their end of the bargain: the dogs take away

their food. However, beyond this function of securing that food designated as for

humans, there is another advantage portrayed in feeding dogs, as shown in this next

ad:

A3 Ken'l Ration Burger

In the initial scene a large dog runs across a field, pulling a small boy who is

holding his leash. A chorus sings, "Burger time, burger time, Ken'l Ration

burger time. Hungry time, hungry time, Ken’l Ration burger time." In several

sequences the dog is shown pulling the boy, intercut with images of Ken’l

Ration being poured into a bowl. Finally, there is a shot of a woman holding a

bowl of dog food. She places it on the floor as the dog runs in, followed by the

boy. As the chorus sings "Always an easy time" the dog eats. Then two puppys

come up to the bowl from either side and push the dog away from the bowl.

What is going on in this ad? Presumably, at feeding time, a large dog runs home,

pulling his master, a small boy, with him. The boy's mother has a bowl of Ken'l Ration

waiting for the dog as it enters the kitchen. But in the end, two puppies appear and

have an easy time pushing the dog away from the food. In the beginning of the ad we

saw the dog in control of the situation. In the end, the dog has been pushed aside by

two Puppies. If we assume that the puppies' appearance in this advertisement


represents a transformation of the overwhelming animal into a compliant pair of

immature animals, then it seems this change has been brought about by the feeding.

If we compare these three ads we see that the relations of people to animals is

always positively mediated through feeding. The implication is that through feeding

dogs become compliant and therefore trainable. As long as the proper relationship is

maintained, the relationship is an amicable one. And, if we turn from dogs to cats, we

will see that the situation is similar.

A4 Special Dinners Cat Food

In the initial situation a man is about to feed his cat. He says, "Special Dinners

is an everyday dry cat food. I wonder why they call it Special Dinners?" Then

three cats sing, "Oh, they call it Special Dinners, 'cause this is what we've found.

There's dinner on the inside, and special all around..." The man then says that

he understands why its called "Special Dinners" because it's "Delicious and

crunchy inside. That's the dinner. Plus a tasty coating of milk flavor all around.

That's the special." Then the cats reneat their song.

A5 Purina Cat Chow

In this advertisement there are several shots of cats illustrating the months of

the year. All the pictures start out as still, but come to life as a man sings, "I love,

I love my calendar cat. Free with my Purina Cat Chow." As he continues, the

cats do a cha-cha-cha step. A chorus sings "January,"and the man sings "Chow

chow, chow chow chow." "February," "Chow-chow, chow chow chow." And

so on.

In each of these commercials we see cats behaving in cultural ways, singing and

dancing. What seems to motivate then to do these unusual things is the respective cat

food offered to them. In contrast to the dog food commercials, where the dogs were

made amenable to training through the use of food, in these advertisements, the cats

perform as if they were human: they behave in untrainable cultural ways. The

implication is that if the cats weren't fed they would simply behave naturally, that is,

they would be cat-like rather than human-like. This could be considered undesirable

if we consider that cats are kept as pets solely for companionship, as opposed to dogs


who may provide companionship, but also are used as work-pets. In either case, the

use of food becomes symbolic of the maintaining of proper relationships with each

type of animal. The pattern is the same:

(natural animal) + (proper food) = (cultural animal)

The danger of failing to maintain a proper relationship with animals is shown in

this next advertisement:

A6 Purina Reef & Egg Dog Chow #2

In the initial situation an older man, a grocery clerk, is working at a display of

Packages. A younger clerk comes in carrying_ a large bag of dog food. The

young clerk says, "Mr. Pearson, where should I stack the Beef and..." Pearson

rushes over and puts his hand over the young clerk's mouth. He says, "Fogerty,

whisper it." And he continues in a whisper, "Beef and Egg. This flavor dog chow

is gonna drive dogs wild."

Fogerty puts down the package near a shelf that is filled with neatly stacked

bags of dog food. Pearson continues, "It contains the delicious taste of eggs, like

you get from these beauties." He breaks an egg into Fogerty's cupped hands.

Fogerty looks at the raw egg he holds and says, "Reef and Egg?" Suddenly there

is the sound of barking and a large number of dogs come running down the aisle.

The announcer says, "Purina Dog Chow's put the taste of eggs into a delicious

beef and egg flavored dog chow. The taste tempter. Just the name'll drive dogs

wild.." At this Point, the two clerks are overrun by the pack of dogs. The shelves

are in disarray. Dogs are everywhere.

In the next sequence some time has elapsed for the two men are standing by

the shelf with neatly arranged packages of dog food. Fogerty has tape over his

mouth. Pearson says to him, "Remember Fogerty, You don't yell 'Beef and

egg.'" Again there is the sound of barking. Both men look fearfully to their left.

The announcer concludes, "Beef and egg. A taste tempter that'll drive dogs

wild."

It appears that this advertisement is making a claim that is the opposite of the

previous ads. This is a dog food that will drive dogs wild. But if we look closely at

the narrative it is clear that it is not the food which drives dogs wild, but rather the

speaking aloud of the name of the dog food. The two men seem not to have maintained


a proper relationship with the animals. In fact, by whispering, they have attempted to

keep the dog food to themselves. But, through carelessness, they speak aloud the name

and the dogs come running to claim what is rightfully theirs. And if we-look closely

at what the dogs do, it appears that their main effect is the total disruption of the order

the men have been working -'on. An opposition appears: chaos/order which is

synonymous with unfed dogs/fed dogs. Finally, the opposition becomes:

nature/culture, and if we set up these two terms as the fundamental set of opposition,

we can see how a mediating term replaces each opposition and then generates another

set of terms:

nature

instinct

sheep

cats (unfed)

dogs (unfed)

proper food

dogs (fed)

cats (fed)

humans

training

culture

Figure 7

At this point in the analysis, it is important to note how the material of the

advertisements aligns itself according to the categories of nature as opposed to culture.

While such an opposition would seem to be of necessity in a pet food commercial, we

will see how such terms tend to permeate all of the sample. For the time being I will


postpone further discussion of the function of food as a mediating device until we

have considered more of the data.

We move now from the realm of animals to a closely related area: that of children.

Typically, there are advertisements that help bridge the gap.79

A7 Little Friskies Cat Food

This advertisement shows a little girl and a cat playing together. In the first

half of the ad, the girl imitates the behavior of the cat. The cat covers its eyes,

the girl covers her eves. The cat sticks out its tongue, the girl sticks out her

tongue. While they play, a chorus of children's voices sings, "Little Friskies,

Little Friskies, aint we got fun. By the bowlful, by the bag full, aint we got fun."

There is then a shot of cat food pouring from a large bag followed by a shot of

a cat trying to eat from a bowl that slides across the floor. The announcer says,

"Little Friskies is the dry cat food that's fun to eat. The more Little Friskies they

eat, the happier they get...When it comes to cats, the more fun the better."

Then the cat is shown imitating the behavior of the little girl. She

"impersonates" Groucho, and a cat is shown with markings that mimic the

moustache and eyebrows. The girl winks and a cat winks. The chorus repeats

the lyrics "aint we got fun."

Broken down into the simplest functional components, the action of this

advertisement would be:

Little girl imitates cat.

Cat eats cat food.

Cats imitate little girl.

Here again we see the cat being "humanized" by eating the cat food. But there is

something interesting going on during the first part of the advertisement. The little girl

imitates the behavior of the cat. This might suggest that there exists an affinity

between the girl and the cat, and between children and animals in general. If there is

a functional equivalence between the two, then there should be advertisements in

which the child functions according to the "nature" pole of the opposition.


This next advertisement does just that:

A8 Sears Kenmore Powermate Vacuum Cleaner

In the initial situation, a boy is hugging a dog. Next to them stands a woman

with a vacuum cleaner, She says "My son came home with a friend. So I came

home with a Kenmore Powermate from Sears." Furthermore, she tells us that it

is such a Power¬ful machine that it "even picks up dog hair." And it works on

four different types of carpeting, even shag.

In the end, the mother allows her son to keep the dog.

In this advertisement, the formula which might be written children = animals is

carried a step further so that it becomes children + animals = dirt. The order of the

household is disrupted by these elements. Fortunately, the mother is able to overcome

this disruption thanks to the power of her vacuum cleaner. The theme introduced here

is that the intrusion of nature can be overcome by the use of the proper cultural

product. Thus the final equation we arrive at is:

children + animals : order and control :: dirt : cleanliness

This reads "Children and animals are to order and control as dirt is to cleanliness.

This next advertisement carries the same theme:

A9 L'Eggs Panty Hose

The initial situation shows a family consisting of a mother, a father, a

grandmother and a boy. They are watching home movies. The grandmother and

the boy sit on a sofa in front. The mother and father sit on either side of the

movie projector in back. Via voice-over narration, the grandmother says "Our

home movie became a disaster movie when my grandson said..." The boy is

shown looking at the screen. He says, "That's you, grandma. I can tell by the

wrinkly panty hose." We see the home movie which shows a shot of a pair of

legs from the foot to mid-calf. A dog had been standing beside the legs, walks

off screen as the boy speaks. That "stopped the show" according to the

grandmother.

To solve the problem, the grandmother says, "Now I wear L'Eggs. L'Eggs

have memory yarn." She is shown with her leas stretched out along a window

sill. Greenery is visible through the window. "It stretches out and it stretches


back to fit beautifully."

Next we see the grandmother carrying the dog in her arms, walking through a

garden. A chorus sings, "She's got L'Eggs. Our L'Eggs fit your legs. They hug

you, they hold you, they never let you go." She is shown standing with the dog

in front of a small pool. She sits down on a chair and the camera focuses on her

legs. The boy is filming her.

In this advertisement we are shown a representation of a harmonious extended

family whose completeness is suggested by the fact that they are looking at

themselves (inward focus). The child inadvertently breaks the harmony by pointing

out that the grandmother has "wrinkly panty hose." This turns the "home movies into

a disaster movie." As if to emphasize that the grandmother is thrown out of harmony,

not only with the family, but also with nature, we see a dog walk away from her as

the boy points out her flaw. When she wears L'Eggs, she is seen walking through a

garden, carrying the dog in her arms.

If we assume that the grandmother represents the opposite of the small boy, and

as we have seen, the boy is close to nature, then we can set up another axis whereby

our culture/ nature opposition is transformed into age/youth. The boy, who is similar

to animals, disrupts the family harmony by showing that the grandmother is not in a

harmonious relationship with nature. In this case, as in the advertisement for the S

ears vacuum cleaner, this situation is rectified by the use of the proper cultural product.

The message would seem to be that harmonious cultural relations cannot be

maintained unless one has the proper relationship to nature. As in A6 Purina Beef and

Egg Dog Chow #2, if someone tries to conduct business without that positive

relationship, nature will burst in on the scene and disrupt the occasion. And though it

might seem that the fault of the grandmother lies on the cultural level, in that she is

improperly dressed, it must be remembered that the person who points out her flaw is

not a representative of culture, but rather someone whose functional position has been

shown to be that of nature. Referring to our age/youth axis, it might be said that the


wrinkly panty hose are metaphors for the wrinkles of old age. In that case, the product,

a cultural item is used as a remedy for a natural process, aging. We shall see later how

elderly people are used as cultural authorities when we analyze food functions in

advertising. For the time being I will tentatively state that what this ad shows is a

person who should represent the far side of the cultural spectrum, but who has

inadvertently let her true "nature" show.109

Returning to the function of children in advertising, let us examine the association

of children and dirt more closely:

A10 Tide

In the initial situation, a young woman presents us with a riddle. She tells us

that seven months previously, she was a nurse, living in an apartment, and

single. Now she has three children. The puzzle is quickly solved by the

explanation that she married a widower. There is a shot of her in the back yard

of a house with her new family.

The announcer tells us that Mrs. Susan Bowden's life "changed a whole lot

and that included laundry." Mrs. Bowden explains that as a single woman she

only did one load a week and "the dirt I saw most wasn't much of a problem."

Suddenly, upon acquiring_ her new family she had to do three loads a day, and

she encountered such tough dirt as ice cream, chocolate pudding, and ground in

black garden dirt.

Fortunately, Tide could handle all that dirt, even the garden dirt which "went

through the clothes, down to the skin." Mrs. Bowden says that she "decided to

give Tide a try."

Finally, we see Mrs. Bowden being embraced by her step-children as her

husband looks on4 smiling. She says, "I guess you'd say I depend on Tide for

everything I wash. And can I also say I have just a super family."

In this instance, it is clear that the extra burden of dirt Mrs. Bowden must put up

with is directly a result of the children. In order to demonstrate how the metonymic

associations of children and dirt are used in advertising as metaphoric assertions, I

109 See discussion below of advertisements A24 to A41


would like to compare A10 with a similar ad for Cheer detergent:

A11 Cheer

In the initial situation we see a mother and daughter in a kitchen-laundry room.

The mother is seated at a table on which is visible a basket full of dirty laun¬dry.

The daughter stands next to the table. The mother says, "Saturday night and

you're visiting your mother. You should have a date. You're attractive, single..."

And the daughter adds, "With a lot of dirty laundry." The mother chuckles at

this.

Then she sees: that her daughter intends to use Cheer. "Hey, what's this?" She

asks. Off-camera, the daughter replies, "My Cheer." The mother responds, "My

detergent's good enough for your married sisters." The daughter explains that

she uses Cheer " 'cause it cleans in all temperatures, hot, warm and cold." The

mother is surprised that her daughter tries to wash things in cold, but the

daughter explains that she wants to keep her good blouse from fading. she

repeats, "Three temperatures, one detergent." The mother tells her to wear the

good blouse that evening.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"Me? Oh ho, ahem..."

Next there is a scene where the mother examines the clean laundry. The

daughter is dressed in the good blouse, and everything is clean and beautiful.

The doorbell rings and before going to answer it, the mother says, "Why, it's

Mrs. Petrino's nephew, Frank...the accountant? The two young people are

pleasantly surprised to meet each other.

"Are you Jenny?"

"Are you Frank?"

Though the narrative of A10 and A11 appear to be quite different, a comparison

of the structure reveals their similarities:

A10 A single woman, with little laundry, no serious stains,

A11 with a lot of dirty laundry

doesn't use the product in question

does use the product in question.


She marries a widower with three children

She spends Saturday night at her mother's

and suddenly has three loads a day with tough stains

and is scolded by her mother.

She decides to use the product to clean three kinds of dirt.

She justifies use of the product to her mother because it cleans in three

temperatures.

The clothes come clean.

The woman is convinced.

The mother

And has a “super” family.

and arranges a desirable date for the daughter.

Figure 8

If we compare the similarities and differences between these two advertisements,

the implied message should be made apparent. Both ads deal with single women who

enter into a type of family relationship, endure difficulties either by using the product

(A10), or by means of faith in the product (A11), and change a negative situation into

a positive one In the end, after their clothes come clean, the women find themselves

either with a husband (A10) or with a prospective husband (A11). As for the

differences, it is clear that though both women are single initially, their situations are

exactly opposite. The "Tide" woman doesn't have a laundry problem.

She didn't need to "get clean" in order to get married. The "Cheer" woman does.


She spends Saturday night at her mother's because she has a lot of dirty laundry. In

fact, she says as much when her mother asks her why she doesn't have a date. If we

go through the first few sequences of the two advertisements, we arrive at this

comparison:

initial laundry situation / subsequent situation

A10 + ─

A11 ─ +

Figure 9

That has happened between the initial and subsequent situation is that both women

have entered into a type of family group. In A10 the woman's situation changes

because she marries. In A11 the woman goes to visit her mother. The implication of

the narrative of A10 is that if the new wife and mother could not clean her step-

children's clothing, a negative family relationship would ensue. The woman in A11

has dirty clothes and does experience that negativity. Thus we arrive at the equation:

single

woman

with

no laundry

problem

:

marriage

: :

single

woman

with

laundry

problem

:

parent(s)

Figure 10

The impact of marriage on a single woman with no laundry problem is the same

as the impact of a parent on a single woman with a laundry problem.

It is interesting to note that the mother in A11 questions the use of Cheer because

"My detergent's good enough for your married sisters." Evidently, "that detergent"

won't solve the problems of a single woman, so the daughter is not swayed from her

determination to use Cheer. Here then is another distinction between the two ads.


When the woman in A10 encounters her difficulty, she succeeds in overcoming it

because she decides to change products. When the woman in A11 has a similar

problem, she succeeds because she refuses to change her product.

If we change the focus a bit, the implications of these two advertisements become

clear. Let us assume that the woman in A11 represents the true nature of a single

woman as depicted by advertising. The message clearly is that to succeed in finding

a suitable husband, a single woman must overcome her dirt problem. Why? Because,

as is clearly depicted in A10, she will soon encounter another, larger dirt problem,

brought on by children. Thus the woman in A10 merely represents an example of a

single woman who has already cleaned up her problem, and is therefore eligible for

marriage. The change to Tide is the acknowledgement that the woman faces a

different order of dirty clothes than that of her previous experience.

In the course of the analysis, I have described these transformations of the basic

category "Nature":

Al Animals A7_8 Children A10 Dirt.

Figure 11

This next advertisement suggests another transformation:

A12 Children's Hold

In the initial situation a young boy sits at the foot of a staircase. Fe coughs. In

the background, a door opens and a woman comes out saving, "Billy, you woke

the baby." Billy replies, "I'm sorry, Mom, but this cough..." The mother walks

over to him and says, "It's O.K. Children's Hold can help."

The announcer tells us that "Hold" is "widely recommended by doctors to

hello calm a kid's cough. Helps open stuffy noses too."

The next scene shows the boy in pajamas sitting on his mother's lap. We hear

the baby crying again. The boy asks, "Mom, why is he crying? I 'hardly coughed

in four hours." The mother replies, "He hasn't eaten in four hours."


The first question we must ask is why does the mother blame the boy for waking

up the baby? Surely his coughing is involuntary, and he should not be made to feel

guilty for his illness. But the boy then apologizes which leads the mother to forgive

him and offer a remedy. Since the association is made between the baby and the boy,

let us assume that the baby's crying merely reflects the condition of the boy in his

illness. And if, in advertising, a baby represents a human being in its most helpless

condition, then what the advertisement suggests is that when one is sick the baby in

all of us "wakes up."

In other words, illness renders a person helpless. And in this case, the helplessness

is shown by the child's inability to control his coughing. The remedy for this

condition is the product, Children's Fold. It is able to restore control where illness has

taken it away. At the end of the advertisement, there is a confusing tagline which

seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the narrative. The baby cries again, but

this time the boy's coughing is not responsible. The mother explains that the baby

hasn't eaten in four hours. We have already been informed that illness "wakes up the

baby." Now it seems that hunger also has the same effect. The reasoning behind this

connection will appear if we consider these two following advertisements:

A13 Heinz Ketchup

In the initial situation a young boy is shown lying in bed. He is wearing an

Indian headdress. He says, "Boy, am I hungry." His mother sets a tray down in

front of him and says "At last." On the tray there are a hamburger, a glass of

milk, and a bottle of Heinz ketchup. The ketchup is slow pouring out of the

bottle. The boy says, "Come on Heinz, hurry up." The mother replies, "Billy, if

it came out any faster, it wouldn't be Heinz.

The boy is shown eagerly awaiting the ketchup, and a woman's voice sings

"Anticipation, anticipation is making me wait." Finally the ketchup comes out

and the boy is delighted. As he takes a bite out of the ham¬burger, he looks over

at his mother. She smiles at him The announcer says, "Thick, rich and delicious

Heinz ketchup. Nothing else is quite the same."


It is clear that this advertisement depicts a boy who is just recovering from an

illness. The signal for this is his statement "Boy, am I hungry." His mother has a

hamburger and a glass of milk ready for him, but he must wait for the ketchup to pour

out of the bottle. If, as we saw in Al2, illness means loss of control, this advertisement

shows us that the recovery of health necessitates the recovery of control as well. The

boy must control his hunger until the food is properly garnished. The equation is:

Illness : health :: lack of control : control

Illness is to health as lack of control is to control. And, as we saw in A8 children

and animals have also been set in opposition to control. There seems to be an equality

of function between these disparate figures so that in general animals = children = dirt

= illness, and we should find advertisements whose structures interchange these

elements as causative agents. Before comparing these structures, I would like to

introduce one more advertisement that deals with illness.

A14 Ben-Gay

In the initial situation, an older woman is rolling dough. She winces as if she's

feeling pain, and puts her right hand on her left arm. The announcer says,

"Millions of Americans suffer in the grip of minor arthritis pain."

In the next sequence, an older man dressed as a barber lifts a boy into a barber's

chair. This causes him to feel pain in his left shoulder. The announcer then says,

"The kind of pain that can make doing simple things difficult.”

Next a middle aged woman takes a tube of Ben-Gay from a medicine cabinet.

There is a shot of the ointment being squeezed out of the tube, and the announcer

says, "Millions turn to Ben-Gay for relief. Tests prove Ben-Gay's temporary

relief reaches deep down to break up nagging pain and its stiffness where it

lives...in your muscles and joints." The woman rubs the cream on her hands.

Finally, a woman is shown tying a scarf around her neck and the announcer

concludes, "Relief like that has made Ben-Gay America's arthritis rub. So when

the pain of arthritis has you in its grip, break the grip of arthritis pain with Ben-

Gay.

What we see in this advertisement are people engaged in day to day activities who


suddenly are "gripped" by arthritis pain and so find it difficult to do even "simple

things."

In contrast to the children in A12 and A13, who are shown as already afflicted

with illness, in this ad the ailment attacks unexpectedly, disrupting a cultural activity.

Finally the pain is broken up by the product, Ben-Gay.

Now, if we compare the structure of the narrative of this advertisement for Ben-

Gay with A6 Purina Beef & Egg Chow #2, and A9 L'Eggs Panty Hose, we discover

some interesting parallels:

A6 Two men arranging packages of dog food

A9 A grandmother watching family movies

A14 A woman

A man

rolling dough

preparing to cut a boy's hair

say aloud the name of the dog food bringing on a disruption

suffers embarrassment that "stops the show”

feel pain in a key

that makes doing simple things

difficult

caused by a pack of dogs that attacks from outside and scatters

the packages

caused by her grandson who points out her wrinkly panty

hose

caused by arthritis that "grips" a muscle or joint

and can be avoided by giving the

dogs their food

(as is shown in Al Alpo, and A2 Beef

& Egg #1.)


and is satisfied by changing to

L'Eggs

as shown by the grand-mother in

garden.

and is broken up by Ben-Gay

as shown by the woman tying her

scarf.

Figure 12

If we combine the characteristics of each vertical column we arrive at this

structural pattern:

An adult engaged in a cultural activity

is afflicted or behaves in a manner

that

threatens to disrupt, or does disrupt

the activity.

This is caused by (dogs / a child /

illness)

attacking a weakness in adult

and the situation is rectified by proper use of the product.

Figure 13

Thus the analysis has shown so far that the seemingly disparate elements

represented by animals, children and illness operate in the identical manner in similar

contexts. Further, if we compare this structural function with that of dirt in ads A10

and A11, we see that it is also an equivalent category. The women's happy family

situation is threatened with disruption, but by use of the product everything comes

clean. Set in opposition to a cultural activity, each element becomes representative of

an aspect of nature, and nature is portrayed (in these instances at least) as threatening

to mankind.

We saw in Al-A6 that the remedy for a natural animal is to feed it. It is time now

to show how the use of food is not tied just to the taming of animals, but rather is used

generally in advertisement as a positive remedy.


A15 Kentucky Fried Chicken #1

In the initial situation we see a family at a dinner table. A young. boy and girl

are just arriving. Their father is already seated at the table. The boy shows his

hands to his father and is allowed to sit down. The announcer says, "It's the

human side of anything that matters most. Isn't that right?" There is a shot of the

mother carrying a plate of chicken. As the announcer continues, there is a close-

up shot of a plate of rolls, a dish of gravy and the chicken. The family members

take pieces of chicken. "Like when a family gets together for a meal and the kids

are enjoying it so much it almost makes you laugh just to watch 'em." There is

a shot of another girl who pours gravy over her mashed potatoes. The younger

airl smiles, closing her eyes, and the parents laugh. "People used to drive for

miles to enjoy my Kentucky Fried Chicken. They were the kind of meals that

you were proud to put on your table." There are various shots: The food on the

table; the older girl eating a chicken lea; the mother taking more chicken out of

the barrel; the older girl licking her fingers. The announcer concludes, "And you

know what? They still are." A shot of the boy standing on his chair to reach for

a roll. The younger girl reaches under him and takes a piece of chicken off his

plate. The camera zooms in to a close-up of the little girl as she takes a bite from

the chicken. A chorus sings, "Real goodness from Kentucky Fried Chicken."

In this advertisement we are told directly that getting together for a meal is the

"human side of things." We see children make their parents laugh because of their

slightly unsocial behavior. At the start of the meal the boy shows the father that his

hands are clean, and he is fit to join the meal. But shortly thereafter we see him

standing on his chair to reach for more. As he does this, his younger sister steals a

piece of chicken from his plate. The only infraction of etiquette that the older girl

exhibits is licking her fingers which is almost excusable considering she is eating

Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In terms of the behavior exhibited, a continuum is set up from the parents who

behave properly through the eldest daughter who commits a minor infraction, to the

boy who shows bad manners and finally to the youngest child who steals a piece of

chicken when there is clearly plenty to be had. If we assign positive or negative values

to each person in terms of his behavior, it would seem that the younger a person is,


the more negative his behavior. While the food in A15 is not used as a teaching device,

there are examples which are directed toward this function.

A16 Tang

In the initial situation, we see a teacher leading a group of children up to a

skeleton of a tyrannosaurus rex in a museum. She asks, "Children, what is that?"

and a girl replies, "A brontosaurus." On voice-over Jim Lovell, "What makes

some kids more eager to learn?"

Then, with the children and teacher in the background, Lovell walks onto the

screen center. A sub-title appears that reads "Astronaut Jim Lovell." Lovell says,

"Part of the answer could be a good breakfast. The Iowa breakfast studies show

children who eat a good breakfast have a better attitude towards schoolwork."

As he continues on voice-over, there is a shot of a breakfast layout with cereal,

toast, milk and a glass of Tang. "And most children love to start breakfast with

Tang instant breakfast drink."

Then there is a shot of Lovell drinking a glass of Tang as the children watch

him. He says, "Tang has a full day's supply of vitamin C, and it's delicious."

The children look at a huge fossilized dinosaur egg, and Lovell concludes,

"Get your child off to a good start with a nutritious breakfast, and Tang." Then

a boy who is looking at the egg says, "How'd you like to have that for breakfast?"

Everyone laughs.

I would like to suggest that beyond the overt message that breakfast is good for

children, this advertisement compares two sets of correlated oppositions:

Ancient : ─ food value :: modern : + food value.

If we substitute "natural" for "ancient" and "cultural" for "modern" we arrive at

the true message of this advertisement. The skeleton of the dinosaur seen at the

beginning of the ad is incorrectly identified by the girl, and her teacher fails to correct

her. There seems to be an association created between being incorrect and being

ancient and natural. At the end of the piece, after the astronaut has used a research

study to tout the wholly artificial drink, the boy makes a joke about having the

dinosaur egg for breakfast, and everybody laughs. What we see is an incorrect history


lesson transformed into a correct nutrition lesson with the astronaut as the mediating

agent. We can even chart the narrative according to the sets of oppositions, letting (1)

stand for "Ancient-Natural," (2) stand for "─ function," (3) stand for "Modern-

Cultural," and (4) stand for "+ function."

(1)

Ancient-Natural

(2)

"─ function

(3)

Modern-Cultural

(4)

"+ function

A T-Rex skeleton

is identified as

brontosaurus by a

girl student.

An astronaut

quoting a research

study

advises having a

good breakfast

including Tang

A dinosaur egg

is correctly

identified as

inappropriate for

breakfast by a

young boy. Figure 14

What we see in this arrangement is that in terms of the narrative structure, the

appearance of the astronaut occurs at the point when the "influence" of the natural

object has caused an error to be committed. In effect, the portrayal of the composition

of a good breakfast transforms the children, makes them "more eager to learn," and

thus enables the boy at the end to correctly identify the inappropriateness of the

dinosaur egg. This function of food as a mediating device in the socialization of

children is used inversely by the portrayal of elderly people as culinary experts, as in

the next two advertisements.


A17 Wesson Oil

In the initial situation, an elderly black woman is in a kitchen. She sits behind

a table on which is a bottle of Wesson oil and a plate of fried chicken. She picks

up a drumstick and says, "I've always spoke my mind, and I'm too old to stop

now. So I'm telling the Wesson oil people to stop bragging about how nothing

leaves less oil in fried chicken than Wesson. Brag about the nice things that

Wesson does for chicken." There is a shot of the woman's hand reaching for a

knife and then scraping the crust off the chicken lea. "Why it's Wesson that

makes this delicious golden brown crispy part." A shot of the woman again. She

holds up the drumstick and then puts it to the side. "Without Wesson, you might

as well boil it." She takes a bite from another drumstick. "Mmm-mm! That's

what Wesson should brag about."

A18 Jello Americana Desserts

In four different sequences, elderly women are shown judging desserts.

In the first sequence, an elderly woman is seated at a dining table with what

appears to be her family. Toward the end of the sequence, the camera tracks to

the right to reveal an elderly man standing in the background. The announcer

says, "Introducing Jello Americana Rice Pudding. What would your

grandmother think of its good old-fashioned taste?" The woman says, "Tastes

like rice pudding ought to taste."

In the second sequence, an elderly woman is serving dessert at an outdoor

picnic table. She says, "O.K. Come on" She hands a cup to a young girl as others

visible in the background come towards the table. She continues, "Real creamy.

Lots of milk in this."

In the third sequence, another family is shown at a dinner table. Visible in the

foreground are a young woman, an elderly woman and a girl. The young woman

says, "We always love Jello tapioca and golden egg custard." The older woman

adds, "And this new rice pudding tastes great too.

The final sequence shows another outdoor meal. An elderly woman gives cups

of dessert to a young boy and girl. Next to her stands a young woman. As the

announcer tells us that the desserts have "the rich good taste of long ago" she

taste one and says "Mmmm. Reminds me of yours, Mom." The other woman

agrees.

In each of these advertisements, an elderly woman functions as the expert on

cooking. In A18 the quality of the desserts is determined by how they compare with

the women's cooking. According to Lévi-Strauss, "cooking is a technical activity


ensuring a transition between nature and culture,"110 and thus we can see in the series

A15 Tang - A18 Jello Desserts that an opposition is set up along an age axis between

children and adults that corresponds to a transition between nature and culture, and

uses food as the mediating device, That food is used in this manner is shown by its

use in this next advertisement.

A19 Kentucky Fried Chicken #2 In the initial situation, a father is playing

basketball with his young daughter. He tells her that if she makes the shot, she

can have anything she wants for dinner. She makes the shot and asks her mother

for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Her mother replies, "You got it, superstar."

As the family eats, the announcer tells us that "Kids love Kentucky Fried

Chicken, just like other folks." The girl is shown eating chicken with her two

brothers. They all say, "It's finger-licking good."

Then they are shown playing basketball again. This time the girl makes a

tricky shot over her shoulder. As her father lifts her up, the chorus sings, "Real

goodness from Kentucky Fried Chicken."

In this advertisement we see food used as a reward for mastery of a skill. But not

only is the food a reward, it also functions as a method of improving skill. The small

girl is not just making baskets, she is also making trick shots. Implicit in the structure

of this ad is the message that food improves the performance of cultural activities. In

this regard it echoes the message of A16 Tang. If we now backtrack a bit to compare

food advertisements we arrive at this arrangement:

A1 Alpo – A7 Little Friskies:

Transformation: Natural animal to trained animal.

Opposition: Human : Animal :: Culture : Nature

Mediating Device: Dog/Cat food.

110 Claude Lévi-Strauss, From Honey to Ashes: Introduction to a Science of Mythology, Vol. 2, translated

by John and Doreen Weightman (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), p. 28


A12 Children's Hold, A13 Heinz Ketchup:

Transformation: Sick child to healthy child.

Opposition: Health : Illness :: Control : Lack of Control

Mediating Device: (Al2) Oral medicine

A16 Tang, A19 Kentucky Fried Chicken #2:

Transformation: "Untutored" child to skilled or knowledgeable

child.

Opposition: + function : ─ function :: fed : unfed

Mediating Device: Food.

Figure 15

In fact, if we note the transformation of the mediating devices in this series, we

see that food meant solely for animals is transformed into differing types of

consumable non-foods and then into food meant for humans. It is important to note

that in its final form food is not used as a remedy for a disruption so much as either a

reward for an achievement, or as part of what could be taken to be an ongoing

educational process. While the structure of A16 Tang is similar to A6 Beef and Egg,

A9 L'Eggs, and A14 Ben-Gay in that a negative situation is corrected by the cultural

product, the crucial difference is that the "victim" in A16 Tang is a child, while in the

others adults fill this function. There is no initial situation in which an adult attempting

to perform a cultural activity is interrupted. In fact, the sequence of narrative events

forms an opposite to advertisements in which the child is the direct source of the

problem. For example, if we compare A16 to A9 this becomes apparent.

A9 A grandmother watching family movies


A16 A young girl touring a museum with her class

suffers embarrassment That "stops the show"

gives an incorrect answer (no apparent disruption)

caused by her grandson who points out her wrinkly pantyhose

causing (?) an astronaut to

intervene

who points out that a good breakfast

makes children more eager to learn

and is satisfied by changing to

L'Eggs.

as shown by the grandmother in the

garden.

"and most children love to

start breakfast with Tang.”

as shown by the boy joking about the

dinosaur egg.

Figure 16

Children, it would seem, do not suffer from some sort of disruption because their

initial situation represents an affinity with nature. At least, this affinity to nature is

how they are presented in television advertising. It is then the function of adults to

indoctrinate them in the ways of culture, and a most effective method for doing this

is the use of food, either as a mediating device, or as a reward for demonstrated skill

in some cultural area.

If we keep the functions of food in mind, we can understand the behavior of the

characters in this next advertisement:

A20 Golden Griddle Pancake Syrup

The opening scene shows a school bus filled with teenagers dressed in

uniforms. A middle-aged man wearing the same uniform stands at the entrance

to the bus with a boy and a girl. The boy says "Where's Jimmy?" The man

replies, "Well, go find out."

The next scene shows a woman leading the two teenagers into a kitchen. She


says, "I've never seen him eat so slowly." Jimmy, in uniform, is shown sitting at

a table in the kitchen eating a stack of pancakes. The announcer says, "Golden

Griddle Pancake Syrup tastes too good to rush. Has the flavor you savor,

slowly." The boy and girl sit down and reach for pan¬cakes. Jimmy passes them

the syrup. He says, "Golden Griddle." The girl opens the syrup without

removing her white gloves. She says, "Hey, it's not messy." There is a shot of

the syrup being poured over pancakes as the announcer continues, "The handy

no mess spout means you don't spill any."

Next the man enters the kitchen. He says, "Where's my band?" All three kids

are shown eating pancakes as Jimmy responds "Relax,coach. There's more to

life than a football game." The man says, "There is?" Finally, as a stack of

pancakes is shown with syrup dripping down its sides, the announcer concludes,

"Golden Griddle. A blend of four great syrups. The flavor you savor... slowly."

This advertisement seems to contradict the function of food that I have proposed

in previous examples in that it delays the children from participating in an important

cultural activity. But if we compare the reaction .of the two adults to that of the three

children, we can see that the pattern is the same. The children seem unable to resist

eating the pancakes and syrup, even though they have other obligations. The food

doesn't have that much impact on the adults. This could be because the adults are

already full and complete members of the culture, and therefore don't need the

mediating influence of the food. The children, on the other hand cannot resist it. In

the- terms of this advertisement, their need is shown by the exchange of Jimmy and

the coach:

Jimmy: Relax coach. There's more to life than a football game.

Coach: There is?

Jimmy is at a stage where he considers eating more important than football. The

coach knows better. This becomes clear if we remember that the use of food in

advertising is generally not an end in itself. It is usually a means to some other end.

By treating the means as the end, Jimmy demonstrates his cultural incompleteness.

The fact that the other children join him implies that all children are incomplete and,


given the opportunity, will choose the prime means toward becoming an adult: eating.

With regard to culture then, we arrive at the equation

Adults : Children :: Complete : Incomplete.

This could also be stated that with regard to social rules, children are novices while

adults are, or should be experts. One way to test this oppositional set is to examine the

function of food in situations where adults are present, such as this advertisement for

Kentucky Fried Chicken:

A21 Kentucky Fried Chicken #3

This advertisement opens with a long shot from the air of a football stadium.

As the announcer says, "Make a weekend of football and fun even greater. Invite

the Colonel and Kentucky Fried Chicken." The following scenes are shown: A

football player running: a man flipping in the air; a marching band carrying

flags; a crowd of people gathering around Colonel Sanders. Everyone has a

bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. There is a shot of a picnic table covered with

food. A chorus sings, "Look at this, this is cookin', it's a meal." To the sound of

a marching band, the following scenes are shown: A small girl takes a bite out

of a drumstick as a man looks on; another man eats a drumstick; four teenagers

gather around a bucket of chicken; two football players collide; the Colonel,

carrying a banner, walks past stadium bleachers; the air fills with confetti; a fan

behind the colonel carries a sign that reads "score"; tuba players march; football

players col¬lide; a man in a tiger costume lifts the head of the costume and bites

into a drumstick; a man selling balloons accepts a piece of chicken; the colonel

holds up a buc¬ket of chicken; fans in the bleachers hold up cards that spell out

"Thanks Colonel." In the final scene, the Colo¬nel is shown holding up a

drumstick as he is surrounded by a crowd. The chorus sings, "Real goodness

from Ken¬tucky Fried Chicken."

This ad shows the Kentucky Fried Chicken making a "weekend of football and

fun even greater." Once again, football and its related activities serves as a metaphor

for a quintessential cultural activity. In A20 We saw that food delayed the start of the

event because children were unable to resist it. In this case, the food enhances the

event because the adults are able to incorporate it into the action. This ability to use


food to make a cultural situation better is also shown in an advertisement for Ritz

Crackers and one for Lipton Cup-a-soup.

A22 Ritz Crackers

The sequence opens .showing Andy Griffith carrying a tray into a room where

three people sit watching television. He says, "Round here the favorite half-time

activity is snacking with genuine Ritz crackers." The three people are shown to

be a young woman and a middle aged man sitting on a sofa, and a young man

sitting on the floor in -front of them. Andy offers the food to the woman. "Help

yourself." She says, "Mmmm! Cheese on a Ritz cracker!" The middle aced man

takes a cracker and says, "And ham salad." Then the young man is shown

helping himself. He says, "I just gonna have me a slice of turkey and a piece of

cheese and maybe a pickle." Andy says, "There's a fifteen yard penalty for piling

up.' The young man replies, "Andy, you always say everything..." "Every¬thing

does taste great when it sits on a Ritz. Mmmm. Good Cracker."

A23 Lipton Cup-a-soup

A woman is shown carrying a tray into a living - room. She walks across to

where a man and a teenage boy are watching television. She says, "At half-time,

they're half-starved for something delicious. Lipton Cup-a-soup." The son is

shown sipping a cup of soup. He says, "Great tomato soup."

In the next sequence, a middle-aged man is shown in a kitchen. He opens a

cabinet and takes out a package of Cup-a-soup. He says, "When you don't like

cooking, but you sure love eating...Lipton Cup-a-soup."

In the final sequence a mother stands beside a refrigerator as two boys enter

the kitchen. She says, "Want a hot snack that cold kids love? Lipton Cup-a-

soup." A chorus sings, "Quick, a delicious cup of soup" and the mother is shown

with one of the boys. She says, "You'd be surprised how delicious."

If we just concentrate on the three sequences in A23 we can see the differences in

the functions of food based on age. In the first sequence the woman is providing her

husband and son with a half-time snack. They have waited until a break in the action

to eat, rather than letting the food take precedence. The second sequence shows a

middle aged man who likes the soup because he likes to eat, but not to cook. This

segment introduces briefly a major opposition in food advertisements between men


and women which I will examine shortly. In the last sequence a mother is shown

giving hot soup to her cold sons. The implication is that they have just come in from

playing outdoors, and have been chilled by the inclement weather. Here again, the

food is used to counteract the negative effects of nature, and improves the condition

of children. It would seem then that the function of food is age-determined and is

connected structurally to the general opposition of culture to nature as it is depicted in

television advertising.

Returning to sequence two of A23, we must determine the distinction made in

advertising between the function of food to men and the function of food to women.

This will lead us to an investigation of the way advertising in general differentiates

between men and women, the problems they are portrayed as experiencing, and the

ways they overcome their problems.

I suggested that the second sequence of A23 represents an opposition developed

between men and women. Actually we have had glimpses of this opposition in

previous advertisements. In A13 Heinz the mother is depicted as the one who has

cared for the boy while he was sick, and she is the one who feeds him when he

recovers. In A15 Kentucky Fried Chicken #1 it is the mother who serves the meals to

her waiting family. In A17 Wesson Oil and in A18 Jello Americana Desserts once

again we see women concerned with the preparation of the meal. In A19 Kentucky

Fried Chicken #2 although the father offers the dinner as a reward, the girl goes to the

mother to make known her preference. Again, in A20 Golden Griddle Pancake Syrup,

the woman has prepared the breakfast, leaving the man to worry about getting to the

game on time. Finally, returning to A23 Lipton Cup-a-soup, we can see that the man

prefers the soup because it requires little preparation, whereas the two women are

more concerned with using it to feed their families, especially its ability to counteract


hunger and cold. In each instance the woman seems to be the one who is actively

engaged in the situation, while the man is portrayed in a more passive function. If we

tentatively accept active/passive as the opposition, we arrive at the equation:

Woman : Activity :: Man : Passivity.

This next advertisement gives an example of the results of this differentiation of

functions:

A24 Stove Top Stuffing

In the initial situation a man standing in a grocery store says, "Stove Top

Stuffing mix or potatoes. We've been asking housewives which their husbands

would prefer with chicken." A woman is shown, and as she sneaks, a subtitle

appears "Mrs. Beverly Rochelle, So. San Francisco." She says, "Definitely

potatoes. He's a meat and potatoes man. Next the husband is shown. He says, "I

would prefer stuffing.” The woman looks at the man and says, "Stuffing?" and

the man replies, "I like it. I prefer it with poultry." Then the interviewer asks,

"Yeah, but how come she didn't know you would prefer it with chicken?" The

man replies, "She didn't ask."

The man and woman are shown in a two-shot, and she says, "I'll make it for

him if he wants it." The man says "Thank you." Finally, the interviewer speaks

on voice-over as a' shot of the woman looking at the box of stuffing mix is

shown in freeze-frame: "Ask your family. Stove Top Stuffing instead of

potatoes."

Like A12 Children's Hold, this advertisement seems to arbitrarily assign blame to

one person. Although the man makes it clear that he would prefer stuffing to potatoes,

his wife is certain that his preference is just the opposite. The interviewer asks why

she didn't know her husband's wishes and the man replies, "She didn't ask." Instead of

addressing the question as to why the man didn't volunteer the information himself,

the woman accepts the guilt, and promises to make stuffing for him. Out of context

the reasons for this sequence of events would be hard to discover. It could be argued

that this isolated advertisement represents the relationship solely of the couple that

happened to be chosen by the advertising agency. But set into a context where


characters in the narrative are assigned a function according to predetermined criteria,

the unfolding of the action in A24 becomes comprehensible. The man exhibits passive

behavior because it is his function to do so, at least with regard to food. Similarly, it

is the function of the woman to take the active role, or be held responsible if she does

not.

If we reconstruct the sequence of events of this advertisement, it is necessary to

infer that prior to the action, the husband and wife had a negative relationship in that

their communication was ineffective. Thus we arrive at this series:

(The husband and wife have a negative relationship.)

The interviewer discerns this by asking the wife about the husband's food

preferences.

The wife thinks that her husband will prefer potatoes. The husband indicates that he

would prefer stuffing.

The interviewer asks the husband how come his wife didn't know this and the

husband replies, "She didn't ask."

The wife agrees to fix stuffing, and the relationship becomes positive.

Figure 17

If we assume that the food functions in this instance as a means toward correcting

a negative relationship between a man and a woman, and if we compare this function

with the use of food in A16 Tang, it is clear that there is a significant change in the

purpose and function of food. In A16 Tang food is used to transform the nature of

children. It makes them "more eager to learn." In A food is used to transform the

nature of the relationship between the husband and wife. This difference in function


is also evident in two commercials for the same product:

A25 Amana Radarange #1

In the initial situation a teenage girl is shown in a kitchen. She answers the

telephone, and a woman's voice is heard to say, "Sandy, please cook dinner."

Sandy says, "Aw, Mom." The woman continues, "Take the ham out and. put it

in our Amana. Touchmatic Radarange microwave oven." The girl is shown

following the instructions. "Touch ten minutes defrost time, twenty-five minutes

cooking time, and start." Sandy says, "Simple." Then, as if the girl has remained

on the phone for thirty-five minutes, the mother continues and the girl follows

her instructions, "When it beeps and shows the time of day, slide the cookmatic

to warm. Start for ten minutes."

Next the girl is shown in the foreground holding the dish containing the

cooked ham. Her mother enters the kitchen. The girl says, "Today, a great cook."

And the woman says, "Tonight, your homework." "Aw, Mom."

What we see in the example is what might be called a "good" child. Though she

protests slightly, she follows her mother's instructions to the letter. Instead of praising

her the mother informs her that there is more work for her to do after dinner. Again

the girl only makes a weak protest. The fact that the girl is told of more work for her

to do seems to echo the message of A16 and A20 Golden Griddle Pancake Syrup.

Children are incomplete and even if they perform their tasks well, their training must

not cease until they become adults. It is also clear that the relationship between the

woman and the girl is not the issue here. Though the girl cooks the dinner, her mother

maintains a domineering attitude.

Let us now compare A25 with another advertisement, where the same product is

considered, however, using different characters:

A26 Amana Radarange #2

In the initial situation a man is shown talking over a pay telephone. He stands

next to a bicycle, and behind him a park is visible. He says, "Hi honey, I'll be

home in an hour. At this the man is shown on the left side of the screen, and a

woman is shown on the right. She is in a kitchen and says, "Wanna race? I'll put

a frozen roast in our Amana Radarange." "You're on."


At this point the woman takes up the whole screen, and as she prepares the

roast, a woman announcer on voice-over says, "The Amana Touchmatic

Radarange is the first microwave oven with a memory." The woman places the

roast in the oven and touches several buttons. The image wipes left to right to

show the man on the left half of the screen riding his bicycle. The announcer

continues, "It remembers how long to defrost." On the left half of the screen

there is a close-up of the man's feet on the pedals. On the right half, the woman's

finger as she presses a button labeled "Defrost." "Then cooks with split second

accuracy. Even remembers the time of day." The L.E.D. timer of the oven is

shown on the top half of the screen. On the bottom half, the man passes another

man on a bicycle. "And the Amana cookmatic powershift..." The woman - opens

the door of the oven, looks in and smiles. "...lets you select the cooking speed

you want." On the top half of the screen, the man is shown bicycling across a

bridge, through a park. The bottom half shows the display of the oven. "For

gourmet favorites, for simmering, or to keep food warm." Finally, the man is

shown dashing into the kitchen. His wife meets him holding up the cooked roast.

The announcer concludes, "When someone's late for dinner." The woman then

says, "Amana's first again." Then man Puts his hands on his hips and smiles.

The relationship depicted here is quite different from the mother +/ daughter -

relationship of A25. What we see is a competition between the man and the woman,

each performing his own particular function, with time as the crucial element. The

man is engaged in a leisure activity, bicycling. When he calls to say that he will be

home in an hour, the woman says, in effect, "I can work faster than you can play."

Thus, even though the woman seems to have gained the upper hand at the end of the

advertisement, the man hasn't really been defeated. The false competition hides the

fact that the woman has cooked dinner for the man, and as we saw in the ad for

Stovetop Stuffing, this ensures a positive relationship.

As we saw in A10 Tide, cleaning is another way that a positive relationship can

be maintained. In that particular instance, the woman was charged with cleaning dirt

caused by children. We will now look at an advertisement that deals with the general

cleaning a woman is expected to do, and her reward for doing it.

A27 Aviance Perfume


In the initial situation a woman is shown wearing a scarf on her head, an apron,

and rubber gloves. She is holding a sponge. As a woman on voice-over sings,

the woman begins to remove these things in the manner of a strip-tease. The

lyrics of the song are, "I've been sweet and I've been good. I've had a whole full

day of motherhood, but I'm gonna have an Aviance night."

As the woman pulls off the gloves, the announcer says, "Prince Matchabelli

brings you Aviance, a radiant new perfume that lasts through the night." The

woman is shown putting on lipstick. She primps in front of a mirror, unbuttons

the top button of her blouse, sprays on perfume. "And what a way to start it,"

the announ¬cer concludes. The woman singer continues on voice-over "We're

gonna have an Aviance night." The woman opens the front door of the house to

reveal a man. A man sings on voice-over, "Oh yeah, we're gonna have an

Aviance night."

Though A27 shows quite clearly that the reward a woman can expect for being

"good" is a night of romance with her man, it raises a number of corollary questions.

What is the function of perfume?

What is the function of makeup? What is the function of fashion? For it is evident

that cleaning is only a preliminary condition for the positive relationship. The woman

must also prepare herself. I will attempt to show the answer that television advertising

gives to these questions, and then return to the problem of the function of food in

mediating adult relationships.

A28 Masumi Perfume

In the opening sequence a woman is shown sitting on a mat in an otherwise

unfurnished room. She is wearing a yoga-type outfit, and she is sitting in the

lotus position. A large window is visible behind her. A bottle of perfume is on

the floor in front of her, and as a woman announcer speaks, she applies Perfume

to her left wrist, her right ear. "You begin. You breathe Masumi. You touch

Masumi. Masumi touches you. Tranquil, serene. As Masumi lingers, your inner

beauty emerges." As the woman remains seated, the room fades away to be

replaced by a seashore. She sits on a rock, looking out to sea. The sun is visible

in the distance. "You feel renewed. Experience Masumi Perfume. By Coty."

Compared to the advertisements presented heretofore, this ad seems to be saving

just the opposite. It suggests that by using the product, a woman will renew her contact


with nature, which is her "inner beauty." Furthermore, it creates a mood which is

tranquil and serene. Before exploring this seeming reversal of the culture/nature

opposition further, I would like to compare this calming function of perfume with

other examples.

A29 Soft & Dri

The sequence opens in a hair-cutting salon. A young woman is having her hair

cut by a young man. He is holding out a lock of her hair. She giggles nervously

and says, "I didn't think cutting my hair would make me so nervous." Then we

hear her thoughts on voice-over as a shot of a dressing table is shown. On the

dressing table are a bottle of Soft & Dri, a bottle of perfume and hair clips. "It's

good I used my super Soft & Dri, the anti-nervous anti-perspirant."

Next the woman is shown about half-wav through her haircut. The man says,

"It's going to be so nice." She replies, "I think it's too short." The man says, "It's

gonna to be great." Again, we hear her thoughts on voice-over: "Soft & Dri helps

keep me dry when I'm nervous." The man continues to cut her hair. She says, "I

think it's too short." The man replies, "It's going to be beautiful." A shot of a

bottle of Soft & Dri on the dressing table is shown as her thoughts continue,

"Soft & Dri is so gentle it never stings, even after I shave."

Finally, the woman is shown with her new short hair style. The man says,

"Beautiful." She smiles, touches her hair and says, "I think I like it." As a bottle

and a can of Soft & Dri are shown, an announcer says, "Super dry Soft & Dri.

Roll on or spray. The anti-nervous anti-perspirant that's gentle."

The function of the product in this example echoes that of the perfume in A28

Masumi. By fighting perspiration, it negates nervousness. But it can be seen that the

purpose in using Soft & Dri is not to bring out the natural side of the woman, but

rather to suppress the perspiration which is a natural adjunct of being nervous. It

would seem that the behavior that accompanies nervousness is not what the woman

wants to hide since she repeatedly voices her anxiety. Rather, it is only the physical

aspect of nervousness that worries her. We can assume that without the use of her

anti-perspirant, the woman would be unable to go through with the haircut, and so

would be out of fashion. So the oppositions that it is possible to relate to this


advertisement are: wet/dry, nervous/calm, and also unfashionable/fashionable.

Incidentally, based on the behavior of the young man who cuts her hair, it is possible

to suggest that the equation

man : woman :: confident : anxious

is also a function of this advertisement. Basically, the woman worries about

whether her psychological response to a situation will reveal a natural, physiological

reaction. The anti-perspirant takes care of this problem, and so she can focus all of her

concern on how her haircut will turn out. In other words, with nature suppressed, she

can pay attention to an aspect of culture. If we turn now from the question of

nervousness to the function of scent in relationships, we will be in a position to return

to the situation presented in the ad for Masumi perfume.

A30 Safeguard Soap

In the initial situation, an older woman pulls open a shower curtain and

confronts her daughter. The woman says, "Ah ha! Now I know why my

Safeguard's always the smallest soap in the house. Everybody uses it." The

daughter replies, "Aw Ma. Tonight I want all that Safeguard protection." The

mother says, "What's wrong with your deodorant soap?" "Your Safeguard

lather's different, Ma. So rich and smooth." The woman concedes, "All right."

The announcer then says, "For lather and protection, people love Safeguard

so much its always the smallest soap in the house."

The girl is shown, still in the shower. She says, "For lather and protection, I

guess Mother knows best."

I have included this advertisement to provide a link between the use of perfume to

provide a particular scent, as shown in A27 Aviance and A28 Masumi, and the use of

an anti-perspirant to suppress sweat as in A29 Soft & Dri. In A30, when the girl tells

the mother that she needs her soap for protection, presumably she is referring to

protection against body odor. The description of Safeguard's lather as "rich and

smooth" might suggest that these words also describe the condition in which the soap


will leave the girl's skin. And, as usual, "Mother knows best." The question of

suppressing physiological functions as presented in A29 Soft & Dri relates solely to

wetness. But it is generally the case that perspiration wetness is linked with body odor,

and by suppressing the former, one also gains protection against the latter. What is the

purpose of this suppression? This next advertisement helps to answer this question.

A31 Downy Fabric Softener

In the initial situation, a young boy is shown playing a tuba in a bedroom. A

young woman enters the room to tell him, "Parade starts in an hour, Billy." He

replies, "Sure hope I can play that note right." "You will." Then the woman turns

and speaks to the viewer, "He's so wrapped up in that tuba, bet he won't notice

his shirt. How soft I got it with Downy." As she speaks, the boy is shown looking

at his shirt, feeling the sleeve. The woman continues, "Or how Downy helps

rinse out that static cling. Still, Downy's April fresh smell." The boy is shown

smelling his sleeve. "You'd think he'd notice that." The woman is shown

smelling a towel as Billy walks in, carrying his tuba. He says, "Mom, this smells

good." "You noticed?" "Smells terrific." The woman turns to the viewer and

says "He sure played that right."

In this advertisement, the typical adult-child situation is mediated by a different

device. The boy is practicing his tuba, but he is insecure about his mastery of it. His

mother tells him that he'll play it right. But the fact that he can play 'well isn't enough.

He must also notice how well his mother has cleaned his uniform. She indicates that

she doesn't expect him to notice how soft and static-free it is, however, "Downy's

April fresh smell. You think he'd notice that." The boy does notice the scent, and gains

approval by complimenting her on it. In this case, he is shown to be a "good" boy, and

the relationship between him and his mother is a positive one. In general, the function

of smelling good is to create or reaffirm positive relationships, whether it is between

a man and a woman, as in A27 Aviance, the girl and her date in A30 Safeguard soap,

or the boy and his mother in A31 Downy Fabric Softener.

With this in mind, let us return to A28 Masumi Perfume. The woman in this


advertisement uses Masumi Perfume in order to re-establish contact with nature, and

so feel renewed. We see quite clearly that her inner beauty is the beauty of an ocean

wave washing up on a shore--very much a part of nature. The imagery of the woman

sitting in a lotus position, wearing a yoga-type outfit seems to imply that the

application of perfume is a personal regimen, somewhat like yoga or meditation that

a woman undertakes in order to attain inner peace. But we have seen that the

suppression of natural odors, to be replaced by manufactured odors, is something a

person does to enhance social situations. By reversing the function of perfume in this

advertisement, the advertiser seems to be making a philosophical statement about

women in general. Let us compare the narrative sequence of A28 Masumi with A27

Aviance:

A27 A young woman

Alone

who has just finished

cleaning house

A28 A young woman no mention of previous

activity)

takes off her work clothes in a playful and dresses up, putting on

make-up and perfume

sits in a lotus posture, assumes a

meditative attitude

and puts on perfume

in order to have an "Aviance Night" with a man who arrives at her

house

in order to allow her inner beauty to

emerge

as depicted when room fades

away she is shown at seashore.

Figure 18

The question that this comparison poses is which of these two sequences

accurately depicts the proper function of perfume? While the examples that I have

presented previously suggest that A27 Aviance is the more typical sequence, and that

perfume is used for social, rather than solitary purposes, I must admit that the evidence


available in my sample is not sufficient to state this with a certainty. And if my study

consisted solely of A27 through A31 it would remain only a tentative analysis.

However, if we compare the general structure of these advertisements with the total

body of data considered to date, then it seems to fit into a more general pattern. We

have seen nature represented by animals, by children and by disease. In each case, the

pattern has been "affliction by or affinity to nature" which is confronted and altered

by the application of a relevant cultural activity or object. In contrasting children with

adults, I suggested that the influence of nature was strong with regard to children,

whereas adults had adapted to the realm of culture. How then can this Preoccupation

with the suppression of natural body functions be reconciled to the fact that adults

should be totally within culture, and perhaps only subject to assaults such as we saw

in A6 Purina Beef & Egg Dog Chow #2, A14 Ben-Gay, and A9 L'Eggs Panty Hose?

For while the individuals affected by natural physiological processes have all been

women in the several advertisements we have just considered, there are also instances

where men react in the same manner:

A32 Lilt Home Permanent

In the initial situation a young woman with wet hair puts an apron on her

husband. He says, "This is crazy." She replies, "You're just helping me with my

permanent." "Honey, I could mess it up." "Oh, come on. If you roll it up right,

that's half the battle. So I got you Lilt." "Thanks, but..."

A close up of a strand of hair is shown being curled as the wife continues,

"Lilt's the only one with gripper sponges. They grip better than tissues. See?

Even you can roll it up right with Lilt." The man sets his wife's hair.

Then the woman is shown with her hair set. The man says, "Hey, you're right.

Your hair looks great.' She smiles and says, "My talented husband."

This advertisement presents a parallel situation to that of A29 Soft & Dri. In each

case, a woman is having her hair done. However, the attitudes of the characters are

exactly opposite. In A the woman is nervous and the man is calm. In A32 the


physiological reactions to his anxiety, the commercial revolves around the problem

of properly setting the woman's hair. She is confident because they are using Lilt, and

the resulting permanent is just what she expected. When her husband compliments

her by saying "Your hair looks great," she gives him all the credit when she says, "My

talented husband." The underlying issue in both cases, A29 and A32 is the woman's

appearance. And in both instances, it is the man who makes her look great. If we

assume that hair styling is a cultural activity, as opposed to just letting hair grow in

naturally, then hair styling becomes a metaphor for transforming nature into culture.

This aspect is emphasized in this next commercial:

A33 Tame Conditioner

The initial situation shows a waterfall in a wooded area. On voice-over, a

woman says, "Looking for conditioning that doesn't leave your hair feeling

oily?" Then the woman is shown, standing naked under the waterfall. She

smoothes her hair back with both hands.

"Get the conditioner that rinses clean." Tame is shown being poured into the

palm of a hand. Then the woman is shown rinsing her hair in the waterfall. "New

Ph balanced Tame in the clean white bottle. It restores hair's natural Ph balance."

The Tame bottle is shown on a rock, the fall visible in the background. "And

this non-alkaline Tame still rinses clean..."

Against a dark background, a bowl of water is shown. A glass plate with a

small amount of Tame is swished through the water, rinsing off the Tame.

"..because it conditions without oil, yet leaves conditioners that untangle.

Leaves hair soft and manageable." The woman is shown, her hair now dry and

combed, with the waterfall visible behind her. "Get the conditioner that rinses

clean." She passes her hand through her hair. "New Ph balanced Tame clean

rinses. Tame clean conditioner." The bottle of Tame on the rock in front of the

waterfall is shown again.

This advertisement shows a woman using a waterfall in order to wash her hair.

She uses Tame because it conditions, "restores hair's natural Ph balance," and "leaves

hair soft and manageable." At the same time, she is pictured in a natural setting, and

it could be inferred that because Tame restores the hair's "natural Ph balance" that the


transition the advertisement depicts is negative culture transformed into positive

nature. There are two arguments against this interpretation. First, the way the word

"natural" is used in this context does not coincide with the way this analysis has used

the term. We have seen that the term is synonymous with wild, uncontrolled,

disorderly and dirty. Here it refers to the chemical condition of "normal" hair.

However, it is arrived at by using a cultural product, and so even if the Ph balance is

the same as in "normal" hair, it is artificially produced.

The second argument is that the natural setting depicted in this advertisement has

no functional value in terms of the narrative of the advertisement. It is used merely as

window dressing, and the same situation could be place in a cultural setting without

changing the narrative sequence. In any case, the "natural" setting is under control,

and is used by the woman as a shower.

The key point to keep in mind is that by using the conditioner, the woman's hair is

made manageable. An opposition could thus be set up which would also correspond

to the situation in A29 Soft & Dri and in A Lilt . Unmanageable hair is tamed, either

by cutting it, by giving it a permanent, or by washing it with a conditioner. This

opposition manageable/unmanageable corresponds to tame/untamed and

controlled/uncontrolled, and ultimately to culture/nature. With regard to the different

treatment of men and women in advertising it might be stated that in general men are

depicted as totally cultural while women are representatives of controlled nature.

The equation is thus

men : culture :: women : controlled nature

What is the difference between culture and controlled nature? For we have seen

the process of dealing with children is one of bringing children under control. Perhaps

if we think of the culture/nature opposition as presented in advertising as a continuum


rather than an either/or situation, the difference will become clear. If we start with

animals as being the most natural, then move to children, and instead of just a third

stage being allotted to "adults" we divide that section into women and men, we could

plot the continuum as a series of overlapping circles like this:

Figure 19

The overlapping areas represent individuals who are tending toward one end or

the other of the nature/culture continuum. For example, if we return to the question of

the function of make-up, we may shed some light on the situation of women in this

system.

A34 Cover Girl Make-up

In the initial situation, a woman is shown in a car. She rolls down the window

and sees if it is raining. She then gets out of the car as the announcer says, "If

you're over twenty-five, terrific."

Next, the woman is shown walking along a wet city street, carrying an

umbrella under her shoulder. The announcer says, "Here comes a new make-up

that helps skin over twenty-five look younger. Introducing Cover Girl moisture

wear." The woman looks up, smiles and opens her umbrella just as it begins to

rain. "Make-up so dewy you need no moisturizer underneath." A shot of various

bottles and jars of make-up with rain falling on them. "Make-up with a balanced

blend of special moisturizers and fresh color." The woman is shown rubbing

make-up on her face. "To imstantly improve the look of skin over twenty-five."

The woman is shown walking under the umbrella, coming toward the screen

Animals Children Women Men

“+”

Age

“─”

Nature Culture


in a series of freeze-frames. She says, "I look better today than I have in years."

In this example, it is clear that the function of the make-up is to counteract the

effects of aging. The question of aging that is out of control was also the subject of

A9 L'Eggs panty hose, and it disrupted the showing of the family movies. Here, a

much younger woman uses the make-up to provide moisture that the aging process

has taken away.

One obvious question is why doesn't this apply to men as well? Men age the same

as women. Why is it important for women to have the right "look", but, at least until

recently, has it not been important to men? I t may be due to their relative position in

the nature--culture continuum. As advertising's personification of culture, men may

not need the constant influence of cultural products. This may become clearer if we

compare the use of make-up in modern American culture with the use of facial

decoration in other cultures. According to Lévi-Strauss, facial tattooing and painting

was considered much more than mere facial decoration by members of different South

American tribes. He relates the incident of a missionary, Sanchez Labrador, who

scolded the Caduveo Indians of central Brazil for spending so much of their time

painting elaborate designs on their faces and bodies.

He condemned Indian men who, forgetful of hunting, fishing and their families,

wasted whole days in having themselves painted. But they would ask the

missionaries, "Why are you so stupid?" "In what way are we stupid?" the latter

would reply. "Because you do not paint yourselves like the Eyiguayeguis." To

be a man it was necessary to be painted; to remain in the natural state was to

be no different from the beasts.111

111 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, translated by John and Doreen Weightman (New York:

Atheneum, 1975), p. 188.


And with regard to the Maori of New Zealand:

The purpose of Maori tatooings is not only to imprint a drawing onto the flesh

but also to stamp onto the mind all the traditions and philosophy of the group.112

We saw in A34 Cover Girl Make-up how the make-up was used to compensate

for the drying effects of aging. This function is also present in the following

advertisement:

A35 Almay

A woman in a white flowing gown is shown in a garden. She stops beside a

fountain. The announcer says, "Women have searched the world over in quest

of a fountain of beauty to keep their skin from becoming dry, drained of the

moisture it needs." The woman is shown running down steps, past another

fountain. Then she stops and smiles. "Your search is over. Almay pure beauty

moisturizing make-up is what skin thirsts for." A bottle of Almay is shown on

top of a fountain. "With more moisturizers than you've ever known." The

woman rubs some make-up on her cheek. "Pure beauty smooths on to a lasting

fresh finish. It's the fountain of pure beauty by Almay. The world's purest form

of flattery." A man joins the woman at the fountain. They kiss and walk off arm

in arm.

Here the woman is shown searching frantically for the make-up which is a

"fountain of beauty." She applies the make-up, and a man joins her. The structure of

this advertisement is similar to the sequence I have already shown in my comparison

of A10 Tide and A11 Cheer. In those examples, it was shown that a single woman

must "clean up her dirt problem" in order to attract a potential husband, and she must

be prepared to overcome the new problems she will encounter after marriage. Also, I

showed how in the sequence A7 Little Friskies to A9 Sears Vacuum Cleaner, the

representative of nature was transformed from animals to children. If women, in

112 ________________ , Structural Anthropology, Vol. 1, translated by Claire Jacobson and Brooke

Grundfest Schoepf (New York: Basic Books, 1963), p. 257.


certain aspects, can also stand for the influence of nature, then it should be possible to

discover an example where a woman disrupts a cultural situation. This next

advertisement does just that:

A36 Anacin

In the initial situation, a man is supervising as his son sands the fender of a

car. Then a woman appears at a door in the back of the garage and yells, "Billy!

Sand the car later." The boy replies, "Aw, Mom." The man removes his goggles

as the woman touches her fore-head, winces and says, "Headache."

The next shot shows the husband and wife together. He says, "Take something

strong. Adult strength Anacin." She asks, "Aren't they all for adults?"

Then the announcer says, "Yes, but while ordinary aspirin, buffered aspirin,

and Anacin start with the same amount of pain reliever, adult strenath Anacin

adds twenty-three Per cent more." Three tablets are shown in close-up, with the

Anacin tablet labeled "23% more." The announcer continues, "The Anacin adds

an extra inaredient not found in the others.

The next scene shows the mother sitting with her husband at a kitchen table.

Billy is standing next to her. He leans over and says, "Headache,aone Mom?"

She replies, "Mm-hmmm. And fast. And Anacin didn't upset my stomach." The

two adults smile at each other.

We saw in A14 Ben-Gay how nature in the form of illness acted to disrupt cultural

activities. Here, the woman is afflicted by a headache, and she acts as the disrupting

agent. She tells her son to work on his car later, without explanation. Then, to her

husband she explains that she suffers from a headache. He suggests a remedy, "adult

strength Anacin," and sits with her while she recovers. Finally, her headache cone,

she can respond positively to her son when he asks how she feels. The positive family

bond is restored.

If women are portrayed in television advertising as "controlled nature," and if this

control is depicted as a function of using make-un and other beauty products, then we

must question the nature of the woman's affliction in A36 Anacin. Evidently, being in

fashion isn't enough. A headache or other ailment could bring out the disruptive


tendency of women, even though their hair is styled and their faces are made up. It

would seem that women are portrayed as natural beings protected by only a thin

veneer of culture. A "good" woman participates in cultural activities, which include

cleaning, cooking and raising children. A "bad" woman has not yet 'cleaned, • as in

A24 Cheer, doesn't cook her husband preferred food, as in A Stove Top Stuffing, and

when afflicted by illness, disrupts the work of a child, as in A36 Anacin. This

good/bad distinction is not based on any moral considerations, but rather on the way

the woman of a particular advertisement functions. And it appears that a woman’s

proper function is determined by the relative position she holds in the nature--culture

continuum. Woman, as depicted in Figure 17 on page 99, lies between children on the

"natural" side and men on the "cultural" side. She thus represents a mediating agent

between the two sides with aspects of both. That is why she is generally the active

agent in a man/woman interchange, and why she is charged with carrying out the

duties of a "good" woman. Further verification of this interpretation of the function of

women can be found by examining more closely the function of men in television

advertisements.

A37 Volkswagen Rabbit

In the initial situation, a young woman stands by the side of a road with a very

large package. A car pulls up and a heavy-set older man gets out, smoothing his

hair back as he approaches the woman. He tries to fit the package into the trunk

of his car, but fails.

Next, another man is shown trying to fit the Package into his trunk, but without

success.

Finally, a young man pulls up driving a Volkswagen Rabbit. He easily fits the

Package into the back of the car. The young woman looks at him over the roof

of the car and says, "I'm sure glad you have this car." The young man replies,

"I'm sure glad you had that package." As the car drives off, the announcer says,

"More Volkswagen from Volkswagen."

This advertisement seems to be saying that the man with the right automobile will


be able to carry a woman's burden. We have seen a possible explanation of what that

burden might be. However, what meanings are given to cars in the sample? These

next two advertisements may help discover those meanings.

A38 Mercury Monarch

In the initial sequence, Catherine Deneuve is shown sitting on the front hood

of a Monarch. In the next several scenes, the car is shown from different angles

with Deneuve standing beside it, leaning over the hood, lying on the hood. A

male chorus sings, "So much flair, so debonair. With a touch of class." Then

Deneuve is shown sitting in the driver's seat, looking out the side window. She

says, "Sometimes I think driving a Mercury Monarch is like wearing beautiful

clothes. And this is Monarch's label: Ride engineered by Lincoln-

Mercury." A plaque with those words is shown on the dashboard. "I feel

confident in Monarch, even practical, with the quick, easy-shifting of its four

speed overdrive. Yet very, elegant. The precision size Mercury Monarch." The

car is shown driving on a country road toward the camera. The chorus sings,

"With a touch of class." A cougar is shown sitting on top of a Mercury sign. The

cat roars. The next shot is of Catherine Deneuve in close-up. She says, "Meow!"

A39 Plymouth Fury

A car is shown in an open field; mountains are visible in the background. A

man walks beside the car, stopping at the door to the driver's seat. He says, "New

Plymouth Fury. A fury of motion. A fury of responsive handling. Of wide

stance. Of room like the wide open spaces. Room for six. Come on." He gets

into the car, and as the car is shown going along a - road, the man sings on voice-

over, "Fury, the Fury. Come ride the wind, the Fury." The sound of wind is

heard. as the car drives past a row of trees, and then off into the distance.

These two advertisements seem to suggest contradictory associations given to

automobiles. In A38 Catherine Deneuve says that driving a car is like "wearing

beautiful clothes." Cars are elegant, debonair, "with a touch of class." In A39 driving

a car is associated with "riding the wind." In other words, the first example suggests

that cars are the height of culture, while the second tells us that they are akin to nature.

But if we look more closely at the two advertisements, a striking similarity appears.

Catherine Deneuve tells us "I feel confident in Monarch, even practical, with the


quick, easy-shifting of its four speed overdrive." And the man in A39 says, "A fury

of responsive handling." In both instances, the fact that the car is easy to handle is

emphasized. Why then is there the discrepancy in associations between the two

advertisements? The answer lies in the difference in the attitude of a man towards a

car as compared to the attitude of a woman. At the end of A38, the cougar, which is

the trademark of Mercury cars is sham roaring. Then Catherine Deneuve is shown

mimicking the roar with a meow. It would seem that to women, who, I have

suggested, represent "controlled nature," a car is a symbol of culture. "Driving a car

is like wearing beautiful clothes," which is to say it is a way of representing nature

transformed into culture. The woman's affinity with nature is shown when she imitates

the cougar, but it is a playful gesture, not a roar, but a meow. The man in A39

appreciates the association with nature that the car represents, because, as the

embodiment of culture, man controls nature when he drives a car. This might explain

the popularity of naming automobiles after animals, or in the case of Mercury, of

creating an animal trademark. The paradox built into representations of driving is that

by operating an entirely artificial, man-made device someone can demonstrate his

mastery of nature. Another way to put this is to say that a precondition to driving a

car is control over natural forces.

We saw in A37 Volkswagen Rabbit that the man with the proper car was able to

carry the woman's burden. This next advertisement explores the automobile mediated

man-woman relationship from a different angle:

A40 Ford LTD II

In a car showroom. A young man walks over to a car and looks inside. A

chorus sings, "Could it be you in an LTD II? You'll never know 'til you try."

The man gets into the car, runs a hand along the seat, and then holds onto the

steering wheel as if he were driving. A shot of a grove of trees is superimposed

over the man's face, and then the car is shown driving along a country road. The

announcer says, "Introducing Ford LTD II. A trimmer, sportier LTD. At a


trimmer Price. Expect something different when you drive it." The man is

driving the car. He looks out the window to see a woman wearing a flowing

white gown standing on a hill beside the road. He turns and the woman is sitting

beside him in the car. She smiles. As if waking from a dream, the man is shown

back in the car showroom, sitting in the car. He finds the woman's white scarf

wrapped around the rear-view mirror, removes it and gets out of the car. The

chorus sings, "Isn't it you in an LTD II? You'll never know 'til you try." Then

the announcer says, "When American needs a better idea, Ford puts it on

wheels."

In contrast to examples such as A27 Aviance, where the woman must finish her

work in order to establish a positive relationship with a man, here all the man has to

do is sit in a car in a showroom, and he makes contact with a woman. It seems that

the woman he contacts has supernatural capabilities, since she can transport herself

instantly from the roadside to the passenger seat of the car. In her manner and

appearance, she seems like the woodland nymphs of Greek mythology, and in that

fashion this advertisement associates women with nature, and shows furthermore that

you can catch them by driving a car. At the end of the ad, as if to emphasize that what

happened wasn't totally fantasy, the man finds the nymph's scarf wrapped around the

rear-view mirror.

The car as culture also appears in this next ad:

A41 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme

The initial situation shows a car parked in a space with the meter clearly

showing that the time has expired. A woman dressed in a meter maid uniform

is looking at the meter. She has her hair pinned back in a bun and wears classes.

As she begins to open her book to write a ticket, a women's chorus sings, "If a

midsize car has been your dream, try the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme." A

young man rushes over to the car, looking apologetic. The meter maid looks

stern, then smiles and closes her book. The man gets into the car and the woman

looks the car over as if impressed.

Next, the woman is shown entering a car showroom. She is shown sitting in

the driver's seat as the chorus sings, "When it comes to makin' driving fun,

Supreme's the nation's number one. Style and practicality..." The woman

removes her cap, lets her hair down, takes off her glasses, and says, "Mm-hmm,


they built one for me."

In the next scene, the woman drives her new car up to a house, and the man from

the first part of the advertisement gets into the passenger's seat. They drive off along

a highway, cross a river, and continue on as the chorus sings, "The feeling's fine, the

look is too. Cutlass Supreme. Can we build one for you?"

We can see that in this advertisement, an initial negative situation between the

woman and the man is converted into a Positive relationship through the mediation of

the car. When the meter maid buys the car, she is able to "let her hair down," as if the

degree of control over herself she had to exert was lessened by the car itself. If we

compare the narrative sequence of this advertisement with A11 Cheer, some

interesting parallels appear:

A11 A single woman

with a lot of dirty laundry

A41 A single man with an Oldsmobile Cutlass

Supreme

spends Saturday night at her mother's and is scolded by her mother.

lets the meter expire and a meter maid begins to

write out a ticket

The mother relents when the clothes come

clean

and arranges a date her

daughter,

The maid relents when the man rushes up.

She admires the car and buys one for

herself

and ends man for up taking the

man for a ride.

Figure 20

In A11 the woman's problem, and the apparent reason that she had no date on


Saturday night was her dirty laundry. In A41 the man initially possesses the exact

opposite of dirty laundry: a new car. That is to say that a - positive cultural object is

the opposite of a negative natural situation. The woman's situation leads her to spend

Saturday night at her mother's where she receives a scolding. The man commits an

error by being away from the car for too long, and the agent of his "punishment" is a

woman who could be said to be too far toward the cultural end of the continuum in

that she is a highly controlled authority figure. The mother in A chances her attitude

toward her daughter when the detergent does clean the clothes. Now that the negative

natural condition of the young woman has been rectified, the mother responds

positively toward her and arranges a suitable date. The meter maid in A41 relents as

soon as the man rushes up, as if he rectifies his own error just by rejoining his car. I

combined the meter maid's appreciation and purchase of the Cutlass Supreme

because functionally, the meaning is the same. This could be expressed in this manner:

The meter maid "appreciates" the man = acquiring the automobile.

This equation is completed in the final sequence of the ad where the meter maid

is shown taking the man for a drive. Whereas the scolding mother of A11 is

transformed via the detergent into the appreciating date, the threatening, over-

controlled woman of A41 is transformed via the automobile into an appreciative

chauffeur. The crucial distinction between men and women that these advertisements

present is that women encounter a negative situation because of what they are. Men

encounter negative situations because of what they do. Like the grocery clerks in A6

who forget to whisper the name "Beef and Eggs," the man in A41 errs in leaving his

car for too long. The negativity is corrected, not by applying a spray or using a

detergent, but just by making his presence known.

In the previous chapter I discussed the formula for the structure of myths as


proposed by Lévi-Strauss. This formula can be represented algebraically as

Fx(a) : Fy(b) : : Fx(b) : Fa-1(y)

I interpreted this formula to signify an initial situation, possibly negative, which

through the function of a mediating agent, is flipped into an opposite, often positive

state of being. If we now survey the body of data that I have considered in this chapter,

we will see that the sequence of associations follows a similar pattern.

I began this investigation by comparing the various transformations of aspects of

nature. Thus animals were shown to function in a manner analogous to children and

disease, and if uncontrolled, that function was the disruption of cultural situations.

Thus the first part of the equation, Fx (a) could be read as "The disrupting function of

nature." We then saw how the job of cleaning dirt, alleviating the suffering of illness

and raising children was given to women. Thus the second part of the equation Fy(b)

could be read as "The controlling function of women." But then we saw that women

themselves are an aspect of controlled nature, and that the negative influences could

seep through the thin veneer of culture to have a negative influence on the woman's

life. This transformation of controlling woman to woman as barely controlled nature

corresponds to the representation of ambiguous hero-figures in myths and folktales

who counteract a negative influence by taking on the aspect of that influence

themselves. Thus the third part of the equation Fx(b) could be read as "The underlying

natural function of women." Finally, we saw that men occupied the space to the far

side of the nature—culture continuum, and that as aspects of culture they often acted

as authorities on cultural remedies. If (a) represented animals / children / disease as

nature untrained / uneducated / uncontrolled, then a-1 would be the opposite, i.e., men

who are trained / educated / in control. The final part of the equation Fa-1(y) could be

read as "The function of men as the epitome of culture." The completed equation


would read, "The disrupting function of nature is to the controlling function of women

as the underlying natural function of women is to the function of men as the epitome

of culture." The structure of the sample of advertisements considered in this analysis

parallels the structural characteristics of mythology as it has been interpreted by Lévi-

Strauss, and to a certain extent it is consistent in the assignment of a particular

meaning to a given symbol and in the interaction of the sets of symbols that it creates.

Exceptions to the Pattern

While the majority of advertisements in the sample conformed to the patterns

outlined in this chapter, there were a few that didn't seem to fit, although some of them

could be interpreted as tending toward a similarity of structure. For example, this

advertisement for Sominex seems to use nature in a positive way:

A42 Sominex

The initial sequence of this advertisement shows a young woman kneeling

beside a river. She says, "I guess I'm just like you. Like anyone I have trouble

falling asleep once in a while. There are times when the soothing sound of the

river won't even help me. So you know what I do? I take Sominex. I take it as

directed and Sominex is safe and effective." The woman is then shown leaning

on a porch railing in front of a house. "Sominex makes me drowsy. Before you

know it I just drift off to sleep." Then, as a bottle of Sominex is shown, the

announcer says, "Sominex. America's number one sleeping aid. If you

sometimes have trouble falling asleep, let Sominex work for you." The woman

is shown again, and she says, "Sominex sure works for me."

While the woman in this advertisement speaks highly of the "soothing sound of

the river," it is clear that only the artificial sleeping aid is effective when she has

trouble falling asleep. There doesn't seem to be a clear cut opposition between nature

and culture in terms of effectiveness, or negative/positive influence, only a matter of

degree. Still it could be said that this advertisement is tending toward the general

pattern developed in this analysis. Culture is at least more effective than nature.


This next advertisement suggests that a man is also vulnerable to the natural

frailties of his own body:

A43 Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion

In the initial situation a woman carrying a bag of groceries enters a kitchen.

She turns, looks surprised, and walks over to where a man stands at a table

rubbing lotion on his hands. Visible on the table are cans of paint and brushes.

She says, "Ah ha! My Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion? I thought it was going a

little fast." He replies, "Now listen honey. A guy's hands need help too. And this

stuff really works" He holds up his hands for her to see. The woman says, "I

know. You can feel Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion heal rough -dry hands." She

pumps some lotion into her palm and rubs her hands. The man says, "Right, and

I don't smell like a flower. You know, I could use my own bo..." She says, "Own

bottle of Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion?" She pulls two bottles of lotion out of

the grocery bag. He looks surprised and then smiles. Then the announcer says,

"Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion. You can feel it heal rough dry skin." The two

bottles are placed on the table and the man takes the woman's hands in his.

Here the man is clearly shown to be suffering from dry skin. But the presence of

cans of paint and brushes on the table indicate that his problem has been caused by

the work he has been doing. It is not brought about by aging or by the weather, but by

a cultural activity. Ultimately, a cultural product does rectify the situation, and the

woman's foresight insures the Positive relationship will be maintained.

The next advertisement for Miller Lite Beer doesn't seem to fit into any of the

established patterns, and suggests that a larger sample of advertisements might reveal

other relations:

A44 Miller Lite Beer

A discotheque. In the foreground a black man and woman are dancing. Wilt

Chamberlain is visible behind them. As he speaks a sub-title appears, "Wilt

Chamberlain, Famous Tall Person." Wilt says, "When you're my size there's one

thing you don't have to worry about and that's getting filled up." Wilt walks in

between the dancing couple. They both look UP at him and the woman follows

him as he crosses over to the bar. He continues, "So a lot of people are really

surprised when they find out I drink Lite Beer from Miller. It has one third less

calories than their regular beer, and it's less filling. But that's not why I drink it.


I drink Lite because I love that taste. Hey Mac, another Lite." The bartender says

"Comin' up..." and Wilt notices the woman standing in front of him. She is

smiling at him. He says "Hey babe, what's goin' on." The bartender finishes his

reply by calling Wilt "Shorty." Wilt says "Shorty?" Then he sees that the white

bartender is taller than he is. He looks at the camera and says "Oh!" The

announcer says "Lite Beer from Miller. Everything you always wanted in a beer.

And less." Lite beer is shown being poured into a glass.

Though this advertisement is for Miller beer, the relations of the people involved

seem to deal with competition between men with height as a determining factor. Wilt

walks right through the couple dancing, and the woman follows him. He seem self-

confident until he is confronted with a bartender who is taller than he is. The patterns

of this ad don't seem to correspond to those of other ads in this analysis, though they

may be an indication of other patterns that would be revealed in a larger sample.

This last advertisement reveals another type of advertisement that doesn't seem to

conform to the structural patterns. It represents those ads which don't have much in

the way of narrative, but only are concerned with "hard" sell of a product or products:

A45 Two Guys Automotive Products

A man is shown getting out of a car. He closes the car door and says, "Your

automobile is a big investment. Give it the best, and pay less." He walks to the

front of the car where a can of motor oil rests on the hood. "For top performance,

get the reliable one. Kendall Multi-duty motor oil. Twit Guys super low price,

just forty-nine cents a quart for Kendall 10W-30."

Then the man holds up a container of anti-freeze. "For top protection get the

one you can trust. Preston Anti¬freeze. At Two Guys Prestone is now a terrific

low thee forty seven a gallon. Remember, for the best automotive buys, you can

depend on Two Guys, naturally."

While these four advertisements indicate the kinds of exceptions to the general

structural pattern developed in this analysis, the large part of the ads contained in the

sample do reflect the delimitations of that structure. The significance of this

patterning, and a possible interpretation of its meaning are the subjects of the next

chapter.


CHAPTER V - CONCLUSION: MYTH AS ADVERTISING

There are several questions remaining that must be considered before concluding

this study. These are: 1) What is the underlying contradiction expressed in television

advertising?; 2) Does the structure revealed in Chapter 4 conform to the characteristics

of a structure as outlined by Lévi-Strauss?; and 3) What does this study reveal about

the relationship between the thought processes of modern man and those of so-called

primitive man? Finally I will note some of the problems involved with the use of

structural techniques of analysis, and I will suggest possible areas of future research.

An Underlying Contradiction in Television Advertising

The analysis of the sample of television advertisements conducted in Chapter 4

demonstrated a similarity in the general configuration of the elements of the ads, and

the general structure of mythology as identified by Claude Lévi-Strauss. The tendency

of television ads to use similar methods of mediation between opposites to formulate

relationships allows the tentative conclusion that advertising is our culture's form of

expressing and then overcoming the contradictions inherent in our particular system

of symbols and meanings. That is to say, television advertising is one of our forms of

mythology, and it operates in our culture in the same way that myths and folktales

operate in less technologically advanced cultures. The question still remains, what is

the contradiction that advertisements seek to overcome?

In the course of the analysis of the sample of advertisements, several peculiar

associations revealed within the ads were pointed out. Nature was seen as a disrupting

agent that could be represented by animals, dirt, illness and children. Women were

seen occupying a middle ground between nature and culture. On the one hand they

could be agents of enculturation; on the other they were shown to be in need of


enculturation themselves. Men were set apart as the epitome of culture, and thus they

were the ones most affected by the disruption of nature. While several underlying

contradictions might be contained within the portrayal of these relationships, I would

like to suggest one which I believe to be a central concern of television advertising.

In the life of "primitive" people, there is a clear-cut distinction between the realm

of culture and the realm of nature. Put roughly, the human domain is contained

within the circle of the village or campsite, and beyond those borders lie the realms of

nature and also of the supernatural. Lévi-Strauss notes how this conception of the

cultural versus the non-cultural domain seems to extend almost universally across

primitive cultures, With regard to the Winnebago village he notes:

Here the built-up village area is opposed to the peripheral ring, or cleared

ground, which is in turn opposed to the encircling fores.t. We note with great

interest that P.E. de Josselin de Jong finds the same type of structure among the

Negri-Sembilan of the Malay Peninsula. He describes the opposition between

Coast (upper) and Inland (lower) reinforced by an opposition...between

cultivated and uncultivated land. This type of division is also found in

Indochina.113

Most of the world is outside of human control or know ledge (on medieval maps

the cartographer wrote at the borders "Beyond here there be monsters") and so man

concentrates on that tiny area he can control.

However, with the advent of modern technology, and the application of mass

communications, the circle of the village has grown to encompass the entire planet,

and what used to be the unknown, the domain of nature, seems threatened with

113 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, p. 139.


extinction just as the numbers of many species of plants and animals have begun to

shrink and disappear. This is what Marshall McLuhan is referring to when he calls

Earth a "global village."

Postliterate man's electronic media contract the world to a village or tribe

where everything happens to everyone at the same time: everyone knows about,

and therefore participates in, everything that is happening the minute it

happens. Television gives this quality of simultaneity to events in the global

village. 114

McLuhan asserts that the network of satellites that have been put in orbit have

ended nature in the old sense of the term:

Unlike animals, man has no nature but his own history--his total history.

Electronically, this total history is now potentially present in a kind of

simultaneous transparency that carries us into a world of what Joyce called a

"heliotropic noughttime." We have been rapt (sic) "the artifice of eternity" by

the placing of our own nervous system around the entire globe. The first satellite

ended "nature" in the old sense. "Nature" became the content of a manmade

environment. From that moment, all terrestrial phenomena were to become

increasingly programmed artifacts and every facet of human life now comes

within the scope of this artistic vision.115

When the unknown becomes the known, and more under the control of man, it

would seem that we experience a "flip" in our conception of "nature." What was

outward and threatening is turned inward. The human body becomes the last

114 Edmund Carpenter and Marshall McLuhan, Explorations in Communication (Boston: Beacon Press,

1960), p. xi. 115 Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, War and Peace in the Global Village (New York: Bantam, 1968),

pp. 177- 178.


stronghold of nature. In this context, Mary Douglas defines dirt as "matter out of

place,"116 and she goes on to note how the body can be used to symbolize all of

society:

The body is a model which can stand for any bounded system. Its boundaries

can represent any boundaries which are threatened or precarious. The body is

a complex structure. The functions of its different parts and their relation afford

a source of symbols for other complex structures. We cannot possibly interpret

rituals concerning excreta, breast milk, saliva and the rest unless we are

prepared to see in the body a symbol of society, and to see the powers and

dangers credited to social structure in small on the human body.117

Certainly, the advertisements considered in this study portray the human body as

being unreliable and fragile. It is subject to disease; it is vulnerable to the effects of

weather; it ages, often ungracefully. And as if that were not bad enough, the body is

continually giving away its true "nature" by giving off odors, and by failing to function

properly at crucial moments.

This, then, would seem to be the paradox that advertising addresses: How can a

person be both a cultural and a natural being? How is it that a man can overcome the

harshest climates, tame the fiercest beasts, and yet still 'remain at the mercy of his own

body? Advertising also offers the solution to this enigma: Man is born an animal, but

becomes a cultural being through the use of the sponsor's product. Cultural products

offer remedies to the shortcomings of the flesh, and thus allow a person to gain control

of himself. Often, this is accomplished through the mediation of a woman who is

herself a personification of the paradox, as well as its solution.

116 Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, (New York: Praeger, 1966), o. 2. 117 Ibid, p. 115.


It must be noted that while advertising offers the solution to a complex and deep-

seated problem which, evidently, mankind has faced throughout its existence, it does

so almost in spite of itself, and at the cost of portraying men, women and children in

stereotypic ways. While the heroes of traditional myths acted as role models for such

characteristics as bravery, reverence and skill, the attractive actors and actresses of

advertising represent role models that have become trivialized into such

characteristics as conformity, vanity and compulsive cleanliness. People are portrayed

as having a limited intelligence, generally hedonistic tendencies and mundane

preoccupations. As a general purveyor of role models, advertising may function as

content in a complementary fashion to the impact of television as a medium in

accomplishing what McLuhan has called the "Retribalization" of society:

This simultaneous sharing of experiences as in a village or tribe creates a

village or tribal outlook, and puts a premium on togetherness. In this new tribal

juxtaposition of people, nobody strives for individual excellence, which would

be socially suicidal and is therefore taboo. Teenagers deliberately seek

mediocrity as a means of achieving togetherness. They are strengthened in this

tendency by the goading of the adult world, which is essentially individualistic.

Teen-agers want to be artists, but they cannot stay "together" if they are

exceptional; therefore they boycott the exceptional.118

On another level, since advertising uses a mythological type of logic, that is a logic

based on "aesthetic" proofs rather than on scientific proofs, it educates the viewer to

think in those terms as well. That the manner of reasoning of modern man may be

undergoing a change is a possible suggestion of the impact of the electronic media on

our culture, and is more significant than the mere presence in advertising of figures

118 Edmund Carpenter and Marshall McLuhan, Explorations in Communication, p. xi.


labeled "elves," "heroes" and "gods." As I discussed in Chapter 3, "aesthetic" logic

proceeds by making associations that then seem to become "self-evident." It is not

concerned with delineating reality so much as with determining an order of the things

that make up the environment. Lévi-Strauss notes that this manner of thought, as

evident in myths, tends to blur the distinction between inter perceptions and outer

reality:

Myths are constructed on the basis of a certain logicality of tangible qualities

which makes no clear-cut distinction between subjective states and properties

of the cosmos.119

It is in this respect that the use of a structural analysis on the content of the mass

media, and of advertising in particular, may help to illuminate the otherwise invisible

impact of a technology on our culture. Ultimately, the findings of structural analysis

must be interpreted in light of the analysis of other aspects of our culture in order to

determine how much of the hidden message is actually put into practice.

...each version [of a myth] provides a particular image of reality: social and

economic relations, technical activities, relation to the world, etc.; and

ethnographic observation must decide whether this image corresponds to the

facts.120

While such a comparison is beyond the scope of this study, some suggestions will

be presented in the section of this chapter concerning further research.

The Characteristics of the Structure of Advertising

It is time to consider the model for the structure of television advertising in terms

119 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked, p. 240. 120 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked, pp. 333-334.


of Lévi-Strauss's own definition of the requirements of a structure. As noted in

Chapter 3, Lévi-Strauss lists these characteristics of a structure:

First, the structure...is made UP of several elements, none of which can undergo

a change without effecting changes in all the other elements.121

It would seem that the structure of advertising conforms to this first requirement.

To chance the value of nature to totally positive, for example, would change the entire

nature of advertising. On the other hand, the pressures placed on advertisers by

proponents of the women's movement may force them to portray women in a more

positive (“cultural") way. If women were to lose their function in advertising as the

mediating agent, then perhaps this role would be taken up by children.

Second, for any given model there should be a possibility of ordering a series of

transformations resulting in a group of models of the same type.122

The types of transformations that Lévi-Strauss refers to are clearly portrayed in

the substitutions of various elements in different advertisements. Nature is represented

by dirt in one instance, by illness in another, and by children in a third. The individual

disrupted can be a man or a woman, a young person or an older person. In each case,

as demonstrated in Chapter 4, the general structural configurations remain the same.

Third, the above properties make it possible to predict how the model will react

if one or more of its elements are submitted to certain modifications.123

Again, this third characteristic would be the subject of further research. However,

as noted in the discussion of the second characteristic of a structure, it is possible to

121 Claude Lévi-Strauss,, Structural Anthropology, p. 279 122 Ibid. 123 Ibid.


speculate on possible changes that would occur should one of the elements undergo a

change.

Finally, the model should be constituted so as to make immediately intelligible

all the observed facts.124

The structure developed in this study does allow many seemingly incongruous

situations that are depicted in television advertisements to be interpreted. Given a

larger body of data, it might be possible to develop more detailed explanations of the

functions of such things as make-up, fashion, the automobile, and, given the

interpretation of the use of food, it may explain something of the causes of the obesity

problem in our society. This leads to a consideration of areas of future research.

Suggestions for Further Research

On a recent visit to the United States, Claude Lévi-Strauss commented on the

changes which traditional anthropology must undergo as primitive people disappear

from the face of the Earth:

At the time I started, anthropology was a very simple matter. There were so-

called 'primitive people' in the world, even in the United States, and the task of

the anthropologist was just to pick a tribe and spend his life studying this tribe.

Our problem now... yours rather than mine, because for me, it is over...your

problem is that the traditional subject matter of anthropology is vanishing. You

have to re-invent anthropology.125

It is my belief that the findings of this study of American television advertising

show one direction in which a re-invented anthropology could go. It is time that the

124 Ibid. 125 Quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 March 1978, p. 7.


findings and methodologies of traditional anthropology are brought to the study of

modern cultures, especially with reference to the impact of the media on the

individual, the family and the society.

With specific regard to the findings of this study, it would be useful to expand the

scope of the analysis beyond just those advertisements broadcast during prime time

hours. Are advertisements shown during the daytime different because they are

directed toward a different demographic group? What about the advertising on

Saturday morning children's programming and weekend sports programming?

Further, how does the underlying structure of television advertising fit into the larger

patterns of the various television shows? It might also prove useful to examine

whether sales of products are in any way related to the degree in which a commercial

campaign adheres to the dictates of the underlying structure. Answers to these

questions may provide the data with which to engage in rational discussions about the

impact of television on our society. Ethnographic tools could be brought into use to

see whether there is a correlation between the messages transmitted over television

and the behavior of individuals in the society.

Another area for further study concerns the sets of oppositions that have been

discussed in the course of this analysis. For example, is the Nature/Culture opposition

a universal consideration? The advertising and other popular forms of other cultures

may provide answers to this question. It might also answer the question as to whether

there can be cultural integrity within sub-groups of the population in face of the

onslaught of the mass media, or whether television, radio, computers and the like are

transforming the peoples of the world into a vast mono-culture.

The ultimate goal of such a re-invented anthropology, whether it is called

"anthropology," or "futurology," or "media ecology," is to enable people to become


aware of the impact of technology on their lives, and perhaps to give them choices as

to what sort of society they will live in. Though the subject matter of traditional

anthropology may be disappearing, the work of this new anthropology has just begun.


SELECTED BILIOGRAPHY

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.

______________. S/Z. New York: Hill and Wang, 1974.

Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934.

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Articles

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Documents

1978 NYU Doctoral Dissertation - Robert K. Blechman