Theorising sameness and difference in South African television advertisements

摘要

An overview of current televisionadvertisements suggests that the pre- andpost-1994 endeavour to engage directly andexplicitly with the differences that constitutethis rainbow nation seem to be declining. Ifind this unfortunate as we are, after all, stilla divided nation where pretending otherwisedoes not solve problems. Furthermore,advertisements that engage with differencesare, as argued, often artistically creative andexciting, whereas those that are predicatedon human sameness tend to be tired andpredictable. This article also argues thatadvertisements that exploit human samenessare generally speaking more morallydubious than those that engage with humandifferences. The first part of this article startsby outlining the Continental endeavour totheorise an aesthetic of sameness, drawingparallels with South African brandingstrategies that advertently or inadvertentlysubscribe to such an aesthetic. The secondpart explains the poststructural argument for‘difference’ and analyses how this argumentopens the way to understand advertisementsas being exceptionally well appointed forthe metaphoric creation of new meanings.