Table of Contents

Preface to the Fourth Edition
1. Representations, Multiculturalism, and Mass Media
2. Visual Attraction, Body Display, and Advertising
3. Gay and Lesbian Advertising
4. Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Gender: Sexism in Advertising
5. Aggression and Violence in Mass Media
6. Symbolic Racism in Advertising
7. Ethnic Marketing
8. Speed and Visual Fragments: Toward Postmodern Consciousness
Appendix: Advertising Evaluation
Glossary
References
Index

About the Author

Anthony J. Cortese is professor of sociology at Southern Methodist University.

Reviews

A fascinating examination of an underexplored aspect of advertising and its impact on all of our lives.
*Jean Kilbourne*

Cortese’s analysis should motivate readers to pay more careful attention to the multitude of images that daily bombard us through advertising. Cortese teaches readers how to deconstruct and critically respond to the sexism, racism, and heterosexism embedded in many advertisements, making Provocateur as much a call to action as it is a textbook.
*Claire M. Renzetti, professor and chair of sociology and Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair at the Center for Research on Violence against Women, University of Kentucky*

Cortese continues to offer timely and important insights into how women, members of ethnic and racial minorities, and members of LGBT communities are framed and imaged in advertising.
*Jim Snow, Loyola University Maryland*

Praise for Previous Editions

This volume is an excellent historical and up-to-date analysis of how advertising targets ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, as well as white heterosexuals. Academic readers will find eclectic scholarship representing feminist theory, sociology of advertising, ethnic studies, dramaturgy, postmodernism, and media literacy. In addition, Cortese provides practical advice on how readers can combat their own cultural conditioning, which may be racist. An outline for evaluating advertising is also included as an appendix. These guides, along with the excellent analysis throughout, make this an outstandingly useful volume. Excellent bibliography and index. Essential.
*Choice Reviews*

The author takes a close look behind the scenes of contemporary culture, examining the hidden messages and social meaning of advertising and its use of images of women and minorities.
*Business Horizons*

A well-researched, thoughtful examination of an aspect of advertising that is seldom discussed and would be an excellent textbook or supplemental reading for advertising, media in society, and women and minorities in media courses.
*Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly*

Cortese asks some very good questions, and he has a good eye for recent trends.
*Ideology and Cultural Production*