Marketing,media, and misogyny: interactive advertising critique in a Huffington Post forum

This paper examines 3,144 comments in a March 2012 Huffington Post forum about an online Belvedere vodka advertisement that was widely interpreted to depict sexualized violence. The study applies critical textual analysis, relating discourse to context to illuminate recurring themes and clues to the strategies and resources influencing how comments were constructed. Four major recurring themes emerge from within a wide range of topics: (1) speculations on advertising strategy; (2) contested perceptions of sexual assault; (3) links between gender politics and party politics; and (4) media literacy lessons. Cutting across themes is an apparent awareness of context, including the site’s reward system, its predominantly left-leaning politics, and the potential consequences of participant commentary being exploited by Belvedere to increase brand recognition. Comments often invoke personal or professional authority by articulating qualifications presumed relevant to the advertisement’s deconstruction. The study suggests that forum participants can be understood as members of productive communities, who construct responses structured by shared contextual constraints and/or relevant common experience. The study also suggests that online forum participation offers mixed prospects for lay critics of media misogyny in that their commentary vies for attention alongside missives calculated to be provocative.