Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Selling the Norm

How the Media Shapes Perceptions of Disability through Advertising

  • Chapter
Through a Distorted Lens

Part of the book series: Constructing Knowledge: Curriculum Studies in Action ((CKCS))

Abstract

Advertising is prominent in every aspect of our highly commercialized society. As a conduit for capitalism, advertising acts as a public pedagogy, subtly teaching us what to think or believe, how to behave, and who or what has value within society. Without realizing the subconscious influence of advertising, people are led to make choices about what products to buy and what ideas to buy into.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Baglieri, S., & Shapiro, A. (2012). Disability studies and the inclusive classroom: Critical practices for creating least restrictive attitudes. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, C. (1992). Disabling imagery and the media: An exploration of the principles for media representations of disabled people. London: British Council of Organisations of Disabled People.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolt, D. (2014). An advertising aesthetic: Real beauty and visual impairment. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 32(1), 25–32. doi:10.1177/0264619613512619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, V., Carson, D., Burton, A. M., & Kelly, S. (1998). Prime time advertisements: Repetition priming from faces seen on subject recruitment posters. Memory & Cognition, 26(3), 502–515. doi:10.3758/bf03201159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chatland, S. S. (2013). Facing differences: An analysis of media representation of facial difference (Open Access Dissertations and Theses). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/opendissertations/8254

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen-Rottenberg, R. (2012). Caught inside a paradox: How cultural representations perpetuate disability stigma. Disability and Representation: Changing the Cultural Conversation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, L. J. (1997). Constructing normalcy: The Bell curve, the novel, and the invention of the disabled body in the nineteenth century. In L. J. Davis (Ed.), The disability studies reader (pp. 9–28). New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, P. G., Spencer, S. J., & Steele, C. M. (2005). Clearing the air: Identity safety moderates the effects of stereotype threat on women’s leadership aspirations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(2), 276–287. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.2.276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Disability Awareness Institute. (2007). Creased poster [billboard]. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/outdoor/disability-awareness-initiative-creased-poster-10268205/

  • Doddington, K., Jones, R. S. P., & Miller, B. Y. (1994). Are attitudes to people with learning disabilities negatively influenced by charity advertising? An experimental analysis. Disability and Society, 9(2), 207–222. doi:10.1080/09687599466780221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, R., & Elliott, C. (2005). Idealized images of the male body in advertising: A reader-response exploration. Journal of Marketing Communications, 11(1), 3–19. doi:10.1080/1352726042000263566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Englis, B. G., & Solomon, M. R. (1995). To be and not to be: Lifestyle imagery, reference groups, and the clustering of America. Journal of Advertising, 24(1), 13–28. doi:10.1080/00913367.1995.10673465

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (1983).The importance of the act of reading. Journal of Education, 165(1), 5–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganahl, D., & Arbuckle, M. (2001). The exclusion of persons with physical disabilities from prime time television advertising: A two year quantitative analysis. Disability Studies Quarterly, 21(2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gap. (2014). In Facebook [Timeline photos]. Retrieved October, 20, 2014, from https://www.facebook.com/Gap/photos/a.76769489724.73955.14856729724/10152748178549725/?type=1

  • Garland-Thomson, R. (2002a). Integrating disability, transforming feminist theory. NWSA Journal, 14(3), 1–32. doi:10.1353/nwsa.2003.0005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garland-Thomson, R. (2002b). The politics of staring: Visual rhetorics of disability in popular photography. In S. L. Snyder, B. J. Brueggemann, & R. Garland-Thomson (Eds.), Disability studies: Enabling the humanities (pp. 189–205). New York, NY: Modern Language Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goggin, G., & Newell, C. (2003). Digital disability: The social construction of disability in new media. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, H. (1987). Advertising the acceptably employable image, disability, and capitalism. Policy Studies Journal, 15(3), 551–570. doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.1987.tb00729.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, H. (1997). Advertising the acceptably employable image: Disability, and capitalism. In L. J. Davis (Ed.), The disability studies reader (pp. 172–186). New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haller, B. (2010). Representing disability in an ableist world: Essays on mass media. Louisville, KY: The Avocado Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haller, B., & Ralph, S. (2001). Profitability, diversity, and disability images in advertising in the United States and Great Britain. Disability Studies Quarterly, 21(2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Haller, B. A., & Ralph, S. (2006). Are disability images in advertising becoming bold and daring? An analysis of prominent themes in US and UK campaigns. Disability Studies Quarterly, 26(3).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, M. (2003). Marketing the acceptably athletic image: Wheelchair athletes, sport-related advertising and capitalist hegemony. Disability Studies Quarterly, 23(1).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartley, J. (1982). Understanding news: Studies in culture and communication. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hazell, V., & Clarke, J. (2007). Race and gender in the media: A content analysis of advertisements in two mainstream Black magazines. Journal of Black Studies, 39(1), 5–21. doi:10.1177/0021934706291402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heeren, D. A. (2002). Children and teacher’s perceptions of disability within print ads (Doctoral dissertation). California State University, Fullerton, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilton, J. L., & Von Hippel, W. (1996). Stereotypes. Annual Review of Psychology, 47(1), 237–271. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, B., Russell, R., & Paterson, K. (2005). Nothing to be had ‘off the peg’: Consumption, identity and the immobilization of young disabled people. Disability & Society, 20(1), 3–17. doi:10.1080/0968759042000283601

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janks, H. (2010). Literacy and power. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kama, A. (2004). Supercrips versus the pitiful handicapped: Reception of disabling images by disabled audience members. Communications, 29(4), 447–466. doi:10.1515/comm.2004.29.4.447

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lafky, S., Duffy, M., Steinmaus, M., & Berkowitz, D. (1996). Looking through gendered lenses: Female stereotyping in advertisements and gender role expectations. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 73(2), 379–388. doi:10.1177/107769909607300209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leavitt, S. (2012). Disability, identity and media: Paralympians in advertising (Doctoral dissertation). University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macrae, C. N., Stangor, C., & Milne, A. B. (1994). Activating social stereotypes: A functional analysis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 30(4), 370–389. doi:10.1006/jesp.1994.1018

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • March of Dimes. (1952). This fight is yours [Poster]. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1527.htm

  • McDermott, R., & Varenne, H. (1995). Culture as disability. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 26(3), 324–348. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.1995.26.3.05x0936z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDougall, K. (2006). ‘Ag shame’ and superheroes: Stereotype and the signification of disability. In B. Watermeyer, L. Swartz, T. Lorenzo, M. Schneider, & M. Priestley (Eds.), Disability and social change: A South African agenda (pp. 387–400). Cape Town, South Africa: Human Sciences Research Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, P. (1993, August 22). Roll models. Philadelphia Inquirer, p. 31.

    Google Scholar 

  • MCYS. (n.d). Hopeless. Retrieved from http://www.ncss.gov.sg/documents/ad_hopeless.pdf

  • Mullins, A. (2014, December 3). I am Aimee Mullins. AMA. [Weblog comment]. Retrieved from http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1460hm/i_am_aimee_mullins_ama/

  • Nelson, J. A. (2000). The media role in building the disability community. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 15(3), 180–193. doi:10.1207/S15327728JMME1503-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nike. (2000, October). [Advertisement for Air Dri-Goat]. Backpacker Magazine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panol, Z. S., & McBride, M. (2001). Disability images in print advertising: Exploring attitudinal impact issues. Disability Studies Quarterly, 21(2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Parashar, D., & Devanathan, N. (2006). Still not in vogue: The portrayal of disability in magazine advertising. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling, 37(1), 13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, C. (2001). Re-imagining the (Dis)abled body. Journal of Medical Humanities, 22(3), 195–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prager, J. H. (1999, December 15). People with disabilities are next consumer niche – Companies see a market ripe for all-terrain wheelchairs, computers with `sticky keys.’ Wall Street Journal, p. B1, 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richins, M. L. (1991). Social comparison and the idealized images of advertising. Journal of Consumer Research, 18(1), 71. doi:10.1086/209242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Signorelli, N. (1989). Television and conceptions about sex role: Maintaining conventionality and the status quo. Sex Roles, 21, 341–360. doi:10.1007/bf00289596

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smart, J. F. (2001). Disability, society, and the individual. Austin, TX: Pro Ed.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stadler, J. (2006). Media and disability. In B. Watermeyer, L. Swartz, T. Lorenzo, M. Schneider, & M. Priestley (Eds.), Disability and social change: A South African agenda (pp. 373–386). Cape Town, South Africa: Human Sciences Research Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sui, S. (2005). Health and beauty portrayals in youth-targeted print magazine advertising: Where does the disabled body fit? (Thesis). Ryerson University & York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tan, Y., Shaw, P., Cheng, H., & Kim, K. (2013). The construction of masculinity: A cross-cultural analysis of men’s lifestyle magazine advertisements. Sex Roles, 69(5/6), 237–249. doi:10.1007/s11199-013-0300-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (Ed.). (2010). Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terry, I. (2013). Bodies of nature. In A. Kafer (Ed.), Feminist, queer, crip (pp. 129–149). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, C. J., & Hirschman, E. C. (1995). Understanding the socialized body: A poststructuralist analysis of consumers’ self-conceptions, body images, and self-care practices. Journal of Consumer Research , 22, 139–153. doi:10.1086/209441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • VW. (2013). Please don’t text and drive. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2013/07/04/texting-while-driving-volkswagen/

  • Wendell, S. (Ed.). (1996). The rejected body: Feminist philosophical reflections on disability. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Montclair State University, USA

    Sara J. Wasserman

  2. Montclair State University, USA

    Todd A. Bates

Authors
  1. Sara J. Wasserman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Todd A. Bates
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Montclair State University, USA

    Laura M. Nicosia

  2. Montclair State University, USA

    Rebecca A. Goldstein

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Sense Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Wasserman, S.J., Bates, T.A. (2017). Selling the Norm. In: Nicosia, L.M., Goldstein, R.A. (eds) Through a Distorted Lens. Constructing Knowledge: Curriculum Studies in Action. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6351-017-2_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6351-017-2_3

  • Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-6351-017-2

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation