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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Darren KelseyORCiD, Professor Natalia Yannopoulou, Professor Andrea Whittle, Dr Artyom Golossenko
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
This manuscript theorizes the use of heroism in marketing by analysing selected representations of the army hero in contemporary advertising. Adopting the discourse-mythological approach to analyse Jungian archetypes, we focus on three US advertising campaigns that depict the army hero. Our analysis reveals that representations of the army hero combine traits, symbols, and images of the Magician, Warrior and King archetypes. ‘Archetypal blending’ is theorised in order to understand the mythological complexities of modern heroism, which expands the individually-centred hero’s journey monomyth through references to a collective journey and collective responsibility. This study advances theoretical insights into how advertising blends narratives of heroism and other mythical archetypes to remain meaningful to multiple audiences and balance the reproduction of conventional views of military heroism with representations that reflect changing societal values.
Author(s): Kelsey D, Yannopoulou N, Whittle A, Heath T, Golossenko A, Soares AM
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Marketing Theory
Year: 2023
Volume: 23
Issue: 1
Pages: 141-162
Print publication date: 01/03/2023
Online publication date: 14/12/2022
Acceptance date: 01/11/2022
Date deposited: 15/11/2022
ISSN (print): 1470-5931
ISSN (electronic): 1741-301X
Publisher: Sage
URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931221141732
DOI: 10.1177/14705931221141732
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/nnnm-hs10
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