Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising

This book, Provocateur, does an amazing job at what author Cortese calls "deconstructing" advertising. He describes the dominance of men, the portrayal of women and many images promoting the continuing prevalence of prejudice in society of minorties. It evaluates the cause and effect of these portrayals and also addresses the "why". It calls to attention advertiser's drive to sell a product or idea. Sometimes, it does both. Cortese knows his stuff and lets you know it in this book. Great job at breaking it down and keeping the concepts separate. One of the previous reviews says it was confusing, ... might be the teacher, not the acclaimed book.

Provocateur is a good introduction into the world of cultural studies as they relate to media depictions of women and minorities, especially African-Americans. Cortese goes over all of the basics about visual analysis of an image and the psychology used to construct ads so that the untrained eye doesn't pick up on the discrimination, but the message still gets sent. This is a great book for an undergrad in cultural studies who needs a reference when talking about ideas in media analysis that seem almost common sense but still need to cite someone with a Ph.D.. It's also a great book for someone who's interested in media analysis, but not enough to take a class. I would also recommend Berger's "Ways of Seeing" which does a good job of explaining a concept known as "The Gaze" which is integral to the analysis of women in visual representations.

As we advance into the 21st century, women and consumers of color will collectively have enough economic clout to influence mainstream advertising. The question is when and how? Sounds like a great idea for a brand...

I just want you to know I have this book so you take it off your reccomendation lists and stop trying to sell it to me---and I don't know how/where else to do this!!